Da Chang Jin

[khiemtran]

We were in Hurstville today looking for an early lunch, so we stopped at one of my favourites, Da Chang Jin.



As you can probably see from the picture, it's a Korean restaurant, but the name is actually Chinese. What does it mean?


Da Chang Jin is the Chinese pronunciation of Dae Jang Geum or "The Great Jang Geum". Probably more significantly, it's also the Chinese title of an extremely popular Korean drama about a famous female doctor mentioned in the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty. Which means that all over East Asia, people will know who Da Chang Jin, thanks to the "Korean Wave" of popular culture that has swept across in the last decade.

Interestingly, there is also another restaurant in Chinatown which is actually called Dae Jang Geum, although I believe it has another English name.

So, anyway, the food was great and the lunch special (pictured) was huge. I got to try out my rapidly rusting Korean on the staff, and, while they still addressed me in English afterwards (ouch!) at least I didn't get any blank looks.

Comments

[zeborah]

How were the peas pictured? When I was in Korea, I rapidly learned not to eat peas, because no matter how fresh they looked, they uniformly had the taste and texture of half-baked clay. I never understood why

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I didn't notice anything different about them. Maybe I should pay more attention next time. I can't recall noticing anything different about the peas in Korea either. Perhaps they were dried and then rehydrated?

[zeborah]

Yes, could have been. I'm used to frozen-then-boiled so managed to take me by surprise every time for at least a year. :-)