LOVE ssam jang. Used to scoop it out of the jar, smear it into a bowl of plain white rice, and just eat it like that - alone had enough flavor for the rice with any other condiments or bahnchan, even. Have seen it in new and different versions lately, and love them all - some that include crumbled tofu, some with, of all things, canned tuna.
Ssam Jang
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Photo: André Baranowski
I can't imagine life without
ssam jang, the spicy-sweet, dark red paste that's always served with the Korean leaf-wrapped foods called ssam. When I was a kid in Korea, we'd eat the condiment—made of soybean paste, red peppers, scallions, toasted sesame seeds, and sesame oil—with rice wrapped in a perilla or chrysanthemum leaf from our garden. Now, at my home in California, we use ssam jang for everything from serving with barbecued meat to flavoring soups. —So Yong Park, Los Altos, California
