Vol. 10, Issue 03 March 2010 
Korean Easy Cook Recipe – 잡채(Japchae)
Recipes
In the happiest moments, Koreans have shared japchae. So japchae became the food that recalls a warm, good feeling to Koreans.
By Park Suji
There is one good word to describe Korean’s national emotion – Jeong(情). This word is one of the hardest words to explain to people from other cultures. It could be translated as ‘intimacy’ or having a ‘warm heart’ but the meaning is not exactly the same. In Korea, there are a lot of old proverbs related to Jeong like, ‘Jeong of hatred is also Jeong’, or ‘Give one more ddeok (ricecake) to the one you hate’. These proverbs are precisely describing the feeling of Jeong. One can say Koreans are the people of Jeong.
Traditionally, Koreans who have lots of Jeong, love to share foods with their neighbors especially when a good event is coming up. If there is a new baby boy born healthy or a child who got passed a difficult examination, Koreans throw a big party with a lot of delicious food and invite whoever passes their front door. Japchae is a food which is never missing from these events. In the happiest moments, Koreans have shared japchae. So japchae became the food that recalls a warm, good feeling to Koreans.
How to make Japchae (serves 2-3)
Things to Prepare: a boiling pan, a frying pan, 150g cellophane(glass) noodles, minced 150g beef, 200g spinach, half a carrot, one onion, three red and green peppers, a scallion, a shiitake mushroom, a tablespoon of sesame oil and soy sauce and sugar
Branch spinach in boiling water and then squeeze the water out of it.
Boil cellophane noodles until they get flexible. Then, wash with cool water. While the noodles are boiling, slice onion, carrot, scallion, mushroom, and the peppers
Oil the frying pan and stir-fry the beef and onion and carrot first.
Put boiled cellophane noodles, branched spinach, and sliced vegetables in the pan. And then, put soy sauce and sugar on it, and stir-fry them together (Keep pouring oil when the noodles absorbed it so the noodles don’t burn).
When the vegetables are done, add sesame oil.
Put it in a decent dish, and enjoy!
‘Jap’ in japchae means ‘miscellaneous’. It means it is a dish that is a combination of various ingredients. There is no right way or ratio in mixing ingredients when you make japchae. You can put more or less of certain ingredients according to your taste. This is the reason why there are many kinds of japchae in Korea. Japchae is relatively greasy compared to other Korean foods, so people often enjoy it with some kind of beverage like sikhye or sujeonggwa. Even though there are many kinds of japchae, once you taste any of them, you will probably find out why Koreans have celebrated their good events with this food.
