Pork Jjajangmyeon

Jjajangmyeon is Chinese by ancestry, Korean by upbringing. It evolved from Chinese zhajiangmian, brought by Chinese migrants to Korea, and eventually became so thoroughly Korean that it now has its own place in the country's comfort-food culture.

The star is chunjang, a nearly black fermented black bean paste with a salty, earthy and slightly bitter personality. Fry it in pork fat, though, and it mellows beautifully. Add pork belly, onions, cabbage, potato and zucchini, then thicken everything into that characteristic dark, glossy sauce.

It even has its own unofficial occasion: Black Day, when single people traditionally eat jjajangmyeon on April 14. Nothing says romantic independence quite like aggressively mixing a bowl of black noodles.