The Simple Late Night Snack Becomes A Meal
I LOVE noodles almost as much as I LOVE rice with kimchi, some soup, greens, and some kim. MMM, did I mention sushi and French cheesecake? I just love to eat really good food.
One really late night (early morning), a Korean program called THANK YOU was brought to my attention. The first time I watched it in Korean from beginning to end, understanding about eighty percent of it. I’m not fluent in Korean, yet I’m starting to really understand it more. The second time I watched it, there were subtitles which let me know that I had correctly interpreted eighty percent of the show.
During my late night viewing of THANK YOU, I became hungry and wanted a snack. Yet, I did not want to stop watching the show. One of the stars who goes by the stage name of G DRAGON, decided to prepare a meal for the other stars on the show. He was making a very popular dish in South Korea called CHAPAGURI. It is a cross between CHAPAGETTI and NEOGURI instant noodle dishes.
He began boiling noodles and chopping veggie seasonings like onions and chillies. I cringed as I watched him using the knife, I was afraid he’s cut himself. Once he drained most of the liquid, added the flavor packets, noodles, onions, and chillies; the dish looked quite appealing. Until the other stars mentioned that it was salty. Not his fault of course, instant anything tends to have lots of sodium for flavor and for preservation.
He also made a second dish called GYERANJJIM or steamed egg. The stars told him that it was not seasoned enough. Someone had the idea to mix the two together to basically create a new dish – CHAPADRAGON.
As I watched the stars eat, ideas on how to make the dish not be so salty, take great, and vegan! I stuck with making it as he did except I did not use the flavor packets and the steamed eggs became steamed tofu – DUBUJJIM. Which you can try the recipe for here.
Ingredients
- 1 med onion (1 cup), halved and thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup ice cubes
- 1/4 cup black soybean paste
- 2 heaping tablespoons minced garlic
- 2 heaping tablespoons minced ginger
- 1 tablespoon miyeok or wakame
- 1 1/4 cup water
- 1 red chile, diagonally thinly sliced (optional)
- 1 green chile, diagonally thinly sliced (optional)
- 1/2 teaspoon gochujang (optional)
- 8 ounce ramyun or ramen noodles
- 1 quarter piece cucumber, julienne
Instructions
- Prep all vegetables.
- Set aside.
- Boil noodles according to package instructions in a saucepan with a pasta insert.
- Lift cooked noodles from liquid.
- Pour out liquid.
- Set noodles aside.
- Using the same saucepan, add onions.
- Stir constantly to keep onions from burning until onions brown slightly.
- Slowly add ice and continue stirring. *Be careful of steam.
- Add black soybean paste, garlic, ginger, miyeok or wakame. Stir.
- Add chilies and/or gochujang.* Stir.
- Add water to create a sauce.
- Simmer for 5 minutes.
- Add noodles, stir, remove from heat.
- Place in bowls. Top with cucumbers and chillies.
- Serve.
Notes
Depending upon how much heat you like, you can add the gochujang and the chillies. Or you can leave out the gochujang and use the chillies as garnish.
Wow, this is one creative recipe! Even adding some ice cubes! I’m very curious to find out whether it has any similar taste to instant mix of chapaguri or not. 🙂 Regardless, great work making ChapaDragon!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! I used the ice cubes to help with making the caramelize onions in a really hot pann. I know that ice helps to clean hot surfaces so using that helps the caramelization process without using oil. I try my best not to cook with too much oil. I can’t wait to continue to exporle your site. Thanks for visiting 🙂
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