It’s the noodles in japchae that everyone talks about: their glassy, sepia-tinged translucency; their jaunty springiness; and their ability to soak up all the salty-sweet, toasty dressing yet still retain so much good chew.
But it’s the vegetables that started it all and that make japchae such a stunner. “‘Jap’ means ‘diverse, variety,’ and ‘chae’ means ‘vegetables,’” said Maangchi, the celebrated Korean-born cookbook author and chef. On a phone call from her home in New York City, she explained that in the 17th century, Yi Chung, a chef of King Gwanghaegun, impressed him by serving an eye-catching dish of dozens of colorful vegetables at a palace banquet.
“Japchae is kind of a perfect dish.”
—Maangchi, cookbook author and chef
His polychromatic display, an edible representation of the traditional Korean color palette called obangsaek, was reportedly the genesis of japchae. The noodles, a sweet potato starch kind called dangmyeon, and strips of marinated beef or pork didn’t enter the mix until the 20th century, but the three-component dish has become
