Comments on: Jjambbong Couple Makes Good

By: Bad Monkey

Bad Monkey — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 04:32:16 +0000

Dear natto (#27)

Thanks for your details on the origins of ‘Chanpon’ in Nagasaki. I never meant to suggest there was any relation between Jajjangmyeon and Chanpon… but somebody asked if either dish were available in Japan. I defer to your native familiarity with Nagasaki (and even envy you a little… one of the very best cities in Japan!) on the origins of Chanpon. However, I do beg (actually insist) to differ with you when you say:

“However, it never refers to mixed blood, half-white/half-Asian because Chanpon has far more than two ingredients.”

I agree the slang usage is not common now (and maybe never was in Nagasaki?) and maybe not understood by young people these days, but in the 1960’s and 1970’s it was commonly used in Tokyo and the Kansai for exactly that meaning. Honest Injun!

Incidentally, I like Nagasaki Chanpon a lot… but I wish they’d make it with 당면 and put a little 고추장 in it… but maybe that’s my ‘mixed blood’ taste.

Good onya, mate!

By: Sonagi

Sonagi — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 02:32:00 +0000

Yes, jiajiangmian is a mixture of refined carbs (noodles) and complex, low glycemic carbs (veggies). Other than eating lots of fresh veggies, I was not following any particular dietary restrictions while in China, but thanks for your concern, doc. I discovered after giving up refined carbs that pasta itself has little flavor; it is a textured vehicle for delivering the flavor of the sauce. Pasta is one forbidden food I have no craving for. I top sauces over shredded and sliced veggies like squash, cabbage, and spinach.

By: wjk, 검은 머리 외국인

wjk, 검은 머리 외국인 — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 01:11:51 +0000

thanks, Mr. K for the link about the dish.

Sonagi, you are a hypocrite.

Tell us how you managed to eat that in China.

Isn’t half the dish carbs?

Oh, No !!

By: hardyandtiny

hardyandtiny — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:40:49 +0000

Very good idea, but I don’t feel the website relates well to
potential buyers. I think they’d sell more if the site
emphasized the consumer’s health concerns.

By: natto

natto — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:40:17 +0000

#22 Bad Monkey

I was born and raised in Nagasaki until I was eighteen. Chanpon is quite different from Jajjangmyeon which was not well known in Japan until early 1970s. Chanpon was first started in 1900 by the owner and founder of a Chinese restraurant 四海桜 to serve poor Chinese students studing at Nagasaki Medical School. The Chinese restauranteur used leftovers of fresh vegetables and fish to make cheap but nutritious Chanpon. His daughter was a good friend of my mother and always laughed at my mother’s poor Chinese pronunciation.

Chanpon has the very similar connotation to English “hodgepodge”, mixture of everything and anything. However, it never refers to mixed blood, half-white/half-Asian because Chanpon has far more than two ingredients.

By: dogbert

dogbert — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 23:54:34 +0000

Break out the umbrellas.

By: Robert Koehler

Robert Koehler — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 23:51:01 +0000

It’s obvious you can’t read Korean. Why do you keep making up things that aren’t true?

Because he can’t read Korean or because he’s pissing on our back and telling us it’s raining (to borrow the IA phrase)?

By: dogbert

dogbert — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 23:48:55 +0000

What an ass.

Fitting comment from a guy named “colon”.

By: dogbert

dogbert — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 23:47:44 +0000

Maybe if you learned to read it was a general “fuck the americans” post.

It’s obvious you can’t read Korean. Why do you keep making up things that aren’t true?

By: Bad Monkey

Bad Monkey — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 23:41:52 +0000

No Jajjangmyeon in Japan to my knowledge (20 years residence) but as Robert K. notes, ‘Chanpon’ (Jjambbong) is a regional dish emanating from Nagasaki (but now known and available nation-wide). Nagasaki was for a number of century’s Japan’s window on the rest of Asia (and Europe as well). There was a large resident Chinese population, a Chinese temple, etc. There’s still a Chinatown but it is miniscule compared to those in Kobe or Yokohama (maybe a bit like the Chinatown in Incheon these days?). ‘Chanpon’ also has a similar slang connotation in Japanese- a derogatory term for half-white, half Asian (primarily Japanese) kids. A more polite colloquial term used in recent years is ‘haafu’ (meaning ‘half’), and the clinical or legal word is ‘konketsu’ (’mixed blood’).
Chanpon or Jjambbong is the NE Asian analog of ‘chop suey’ in America- not really a tradiitonal Chinese dish, but something thrown together in overseas ports with available ingredients and served to foreigners who wouldn’t know better. I’ve always believed the original prototype and the word started in Nagasaki, but I’d be happy to be presented with evidence (not opinion!) otherwise.