Assi Plaza

After my recent education into Korean-Chinese food, and post-traumatic experience at the DMV, I was driving around in a rage trying to avoid traffic home (and failing miserably) when I realized how close I was to Assi Plaza.  I decided to soothe my fraught nerves (standing in line at the DMV for two hours trying to get this fixed was not pleasant, especially the very last line, when a woman gabbed loudly on her phone, breathing on my neck [I kept moving up and she’d move right back up my butt] while her son groped my butt… that little kid almost lost an arm) by popping in and grabbing some quicky Korean banchan munchies.  But when I got to the section they normally are, everything had changed!  I don’t recognize the packages anymore; they’re all wrapped and the names are different.  Sadface.  But then I remembered the little area they have where they serve you food from a counter – they make it fresh after you order it – and walked over to order jjajjungmyun. 

All of this for $5.50!  A giant bowl of noodles topped with black bean sauce, slices of takuan (pickled daikon) and a small dish of kimchi (fermented, pickled cabbage).  The cup of (cold) barley-tea was from a communal dispenser at the counter that you could help yourself; refreshing and light.  Yum! 

For $5.50, I thought this was a generous portion.  I remember when I first started eating jjajjungmyun in high school, we paid something around $5 at a sit-down restaurant.  The fact that this counter’s price with such a healthy serving was close in price to what I paid back in 1996-98 (yes, I’m that old), well, that made me happy. 

I mean, they even gave a lil bit of banchan here, which I don’t recall getting back in the day (not at that one place, anyway).  The kimchi was as expected: something I ate one bite and then had to give up because I just can’t handle the spiciness.  Stop laughing!

Takuan, on the other hand, is totally my speed.  I ate these eagerly; they were as expected, sweet, pickled, yummy. 

The messiness that is jjajjungmyun as you toss it together is just something you have to deal with.  Luckily, I was not wearing white, so I had no problem with this step.  I’d been worried that they’d just use Chapaghetti (an instant brand of jjajjungmyun), but I needn’t have worried.  The noodles were thick and chewy, perfect vehicles for the slippery sauce, which was speckled with lots of veggies but also bits of meat.  Not a huge amount of meat, but a fair amount for the price paid… I was a very happy girl as I chomped away. 

Funny eating alone in a supermarket, though…

Yvo says: For $5.50 and a huge bowl of noodles, I don’t think you can beat this deal.  Okay, it’s really cold in that supermarket (there are tons of refrigerated sections everywhere), and if you’re me, you feel slightly dorky sitting by yourself on a fake tree stump in a supermarket, eating the very food that supposedly, single people in Korea eat on April 14th every year to comfort themselves… or something.  It was very funny to me.  🙂  I definitely recommend the noodles though – I was surprised by how good they were, but maybe my misery added to the deliciousness…
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