I live in a Korean neighborhood, and it's one of the best and cheapest things around. Yellow noodles swimming in a black bean sauce, with shredded cucumbers on top and kimchi on the side. I went to Beijing too, and tried a bowl at Lao Beijing Zha Jiang Mian- it was pretty good, a little on the salty side, but I liked it because it had more good tasting vegetables.

I heard that in Japan, Morioka prefecture, there is also a version called jajamen. I've seen some pictures of it on the internet and it seems that they use way less sauce than the Chinese and Korean versions. It doesn't even seem like they have any meat in their sauce either. Has anyone tried the Japanese version before?

One more thing- does anyone know how to make this dish? I've tried at least a dozen times this summer, and it comes out different everytime. It's not TOTALLY bad tasting, but it's unlike any of the versions I tasted. I guess it's just different. Does anyone here have a recipe?

...and yes, I know this is a kung fu forum.