The Definitive Source For Instant Noodle Reviews Since 2002
Today we have Song Song Kimchi Ramen. Kimchi varieties out of South Korea are among my favorites. I really like the tangy as well as bright, spicy flavors. Kimchi is interesting; it’s cabbage as well as many other ingredients that is allowed to ferment for an amount of time.
Today we have Song Song Kimchi Ramen. Kimchi varieties out of South Korea are among my favorites. I really like the tangy as well as bright, spicy flavors. Kimchi is interesting; it’s cabbage as well as many other ingredients that is allowed to ferment for an amount of time.
Here’s a new one from Samyang Foods – Pagaejang. It is similar to Yukgaejang. I looked up Yukgaejang and found this on Wikipedia –
Here’s one Samyang Foods sent a little while back – thanks again! So this is a jjamppong bowl – a spicy seafood concoction from South Korea. Here’s some more info from Wikipedia about it –
It’s that time of year again! Actually, this is the first time the list is coming out in July although at the tail end of July. I usually have the lists come out on the Monday closest to the date it came out the prior year. So this list is a compilation of absolutely hottest and spiciest varieties I’ve had out of the 2,500+ varieties I’ve tried thus far. Something you think belongs on this spiciest of lists? Let me know – I’ll give it a try. Let’s get started!
Here’s a bowl version clad in the trapping of olde. Samyang Ramen was the very first instant ramyun to come out in South Korea – in 1963. Here’s a little about it from Wikipedia –
Thanks go to Amelia from Samyang Foods in South Korea for sending these along! The Buldak Bokkeummyun line from them is a fiery range which starts with their hot chicken flavor of Fire Noodle Challenge fame. Here’s what they have to say about this one –
So both the kids were interesting this box that came yesterday. Miri is just about to start crawling but Miles is running around like a beast these days! Let’s see what’s inside!
Recently, I did a Definitive Guide To Samyang Foods Buldak Bokkeummyun series. However, the cup was just mentioned and not one that I have tried. Indeed, there are two I’ve not reviewed of the series – the curry version and the 2x spicy bowl (although I scarf one down in the video).
Here’s one Samyang Foods sent me recently – thank you! It sounds good to me, but I know one person who would not like this. My son Andy really doesn’t like kimchi. Oh yeah – my friend Matt B. doesn’t like it either – in fact, I opened a big jar of it and tried to get him to taste it, but when he smelled it when opened. He recoiled and started yelling. I dunno why; I think its good! Here’s a little about it from Wikipedia –
Got an email from Samyang Foods asking to verify my address for a shipment of samples a week or so ago! Today the box arrived in all it’s glory! Wonder what’s inside? Let’s see!
This one was a surprise. Okay, so one question people ask me from time to time is ‘where can I get the noodles, but not the seasoning?’ Indeed, there actually are many many ways one can do trhis. Here’s yet another. So I’ve had sari ramen in the past as well, however it was with a different name. Sari ramen is (you guessed it) a single pack of instant noodles and no flavoring.
Well lookie here – another one from Colin – thanks again! This one’s a cheesy version of the ever popular Samyang Foods Buldak Bokkeummyun. This is what people use to do the famous ‘fire noodle challenge’ – although this is the cheesy version. This stuff is hot – real hot. The Ramen Rater’s top Ten Spiciest Instant Noodle Of All Time list kinda hot. Let’s take a look.
Wait a second – this looks familiar. So there are two versions of the Samyang Foods Buldak Bokkummyun cheese flavor bowls. Indeed there are two versions of the packs as well. Here’s the orange version I reviewed – #2291. What’s the difference? I’m going to guess that they came out with the black one first and people mistook it for the regular version and were annoyed. Kind of makes sense since the black one definitely looks like the standard Buldak Bokkummyun bowl. Well, except for the chicken with the cheese. Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about the original variety:
Well, today is my birthday and I’m up at 5am getting this post ready. Actually it’s 6am now – I’ve been getting all my ducks in a row (actually chickens har har) in order to post The Ramen Rater’s Definitive Guide To Samyang Foods’ Buldak Bokkeummyun. It’s a total of 9 posts including the guide itself that I’m putting up today. A lot of work, that’s for sure and I’m rushing to get it up.
Here’s the newest variety from Samyang Foods’ Buldak Bokkeummyun line. Curry! I make no illusion to the fact that I absolutely think that curry is the finest thing in the universe. I freaking love curry. Here’s a little about Korean c urry from Wikipedia –
Today it’s the cold variety. Indeed, cold noodles with spicy sauce have long been around in South Korean ramyun varieties. However I’m guessing while cold in temperature, these will probably surpass most other in their hot flavor. This particular one is the export version, sent by a reader named Colin from Massachusetts. I noticed that the liquid sachet didn’t say ‘ice’ but ‘cool.’ Was this to be the original name? Well, I asked!
Alright. Today’s the day. I heard about the double spicy Buldak Bokkeummyun a couple of months ago. After hoping to simply find it at the store with no luck, I received a few of these packs – first, I got one from Anders from South Korea which is a reader who’s sent varieties in the past – thank you! Since I wanted to try these as soon as possible, I (for the first time) ordered some from an eBay seller called 1theKorea – they’ve got all sorts of neat South Korean varieties, and lots of the spicy ones that aren’t the easiest to find or are unavailable in the USA. I also got a ton of varieties from Samyang Foods – including the bowl versions of this one and the Stew as well as a couple snack variants.
I’ve reviewed a lot of snack noodles in my day and still delight in the comments I get about them. I get people telling me about smashing domestic US varieties, sprinkling the seasoning on them and eating them raw; kind of like they’ve uncovered something fascinating, new and innovative. Unfortunately – I have to break it to y’all, but this isn’t anything new. Moreover, varieties designed and sold in South Korea to be smashed and sprinkled and enjoyed have been around for a long time.
This one came by way of eBay seller 1theKorea – they’ve got all sorts of neat South Korean varieties, and lots of the spicy ones that aren’t the easiest to find or are unavailable in the USA.
This one came by way of eBay seller 1theKorea – they’ve got all sorts of neat South Korean varieties, and lots of the spicy ones that aren’t the easiest to find or are unavailable in the USA. .
This one came by way of eBay seller 1theKorea – they’ve got all sorts of neat South Korean varieties, and lots of the spicy ones that aren’t the easiest to find or are unavailable in the USA. This is the variety that set off the Fire Noodle Challenge. In reality, Buldak Bokkeummyun is spicy fried chicken flavor. In South Korea as well as many places in Asia, fried chicken is extremely popular. Korean fried chicken is great; double coated and comes in violently spicy, regular and honey garlic to name a few.
You’re probably thinking ‘wow – he’s sure getting a lot of stuff from South Korea lately’ and you’re right! My birthday is on Tuesday and I’ll be rolling out something special – The Ramen Rater’s Definitive Guide To Buldak Bokkeummyun. The ‘Fire Noodle Challenge’ has been done over on YouTube plenty of times and I thought it would be good to give a little background on these noodles and what they’re all about. Let’s have a look in this box.
Buldak Bokkeummyun is the Korean name for what people all over the world have been enduring in the Fire Noodle Challenge. It’s a seriously spicy variety – #3 on my Top Ten Spiciest Instant Noodles Of All Time 2016 Edition. Well, they’ve come out with a spicier version that’s supposed to be just amazing. I contacted them and they sent me some along with other varieties – let’s check it out!
South Korean instant noodles are known around the world as being spicy and beefy for the most part. However, there are many different styles. In fact, seafood jjamppong, black bean jjajang, cold noodles, and creamy beef noodles exist in the scene. Today, I’ll do a rundown of my favorites – the best of the highest rated South Korean varieties from over 2,300 unique varieties I’ve reviewed from around the world. Finally, I would like to note that it’s tougher to find South Korean varieties. Therefore, any instant noodle companies from South Korea should contact me promptly to be considered for upcoming top ten lists. Let’s get started.
Okay so most of your should be familiar with the popular ‘fiore noodle’ challenge. That’s where you take a bowl of Samyang Foods Buldak Bokkummyun (spicy fried chicken flavor) instrant noodles and scarf ‘e,m down in one sitting really quick. If you don’t know about this, just go to YouTube and type in fire noodle challenge – you’ll get a ton of videos. Nobody’s ever challenged me to do this; kind of bummed. Anyways, this is a new variety – I think there will be three of these spin offs, but right now we have cheese. Let’s see is the cheese chills this fiery noodle out or if it still has the burn of burns.
I’ve liked jjamppong for a while now. For those of you not familiar with it, it’s kind of like a spicy Korean seafood hnoodle soup. Let’s check it out!
The first time I tried bibimmyun a long time ago I really didn’t get it. Spicy, sweet, and worst of all, it was cold. Yep – when I first started reviewing, the thought of cold noodles made me cringe. I found this one recently at HMart and honestly have been holding back on it since I just reviewed a bibimmyun a couple weeks ago – but no more. It’s getting colder outside – rainy too. Bibimmyun is really a dish for the hot summer months when something cool and refreshing really hits the spot. Well, maybe there will be a sun break today even though the forecast is for 10 days straight of rain… Let’s check this one out!
A few weeks back I was at an HMart – the one on 184th next to Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood, Washington state. I saw this perky orange pack practically jumping off the shelf at me saying ‘pick me, pick me!’ I’ve reviewed this one a couple times in the past, but it just screamed eat me. Today, I’ve got so much craziness going on – I’ll let you in on it. First, I want to say that if you take really long flights, you should get up and walk around every hour or so. Why? Well, when you don’t, you can end up with blood clots in your legs. Then those blood clots can get into your lungs. Then you can end up in the hospital like I did last weekend with my first IV in my arm and a very timid feeling for the universe. Luckily, I’ll be fine, but it could’ve been much worse (i.e., no more The Ramen Rater). I’ve been having to get my blood checked, get injections this week… Not much fun. On the up side, I should be fine – the only pain I’m in is from shots (fleeting little bits of pain when I’m jabbed) and the clots will go away naturally. The other crazy business is that in 9 days Kit and I expecting our second child together! We’re very excited and I’ll definitely post pictures of her when she’s born! Those are the bigguns – aside from those, I have a sore tooth (drove me bonkers in the last 24 hours but totally eased up now), it’s about to snow any minute now, and oh yeah – Christmas is just around the corner! A lot in a small period of time. New life and dodging a bullet. Wow. Today, I slept in a little and decided to skip reviewing. Well, couldn’t figure out what to have for lunch – I didn’t want anything that would anger the tooth again, and so again this orange pack of noodles was staring at me. Today is your day!
Okay so I guess karma will get you. I dunno. Let me explain… So I got this pack along with a couple others at HMart a week or two ago (great store, HMart by the way) and they had one of this series in single packs to buy, but the other two were in 5 packs that were around $9 each. Well, I went to the trouble of opening a couple of the 5 packs and taking out one each . Now, I’m unsure if this is truly a horrible thing to do; I’m sure they just put them on the shelf with the others that are sold in singles. Plus hey – I got them at HMart (there – the third time I mentioned HMart! Ooh a fourth!), so if you want to get these you can find them there. Well, as it turns out I reviewed this one in May and now I’m reviewing it again! Wasn’t my plan to do a re-review today but here we are. So perhaps the pulling of single packs from the multipack is why this happened. But probably not; I’m just getting old. Anyways, this is a jjajang/zha jiang (black bean sauce) noodle. Let’s hit it!
Here’s another one from Colin – thanks! Pojangmacha are street food stalls found in South Korea – I really hope to try this some day! This is a spicy seafood soup from South Korea. Let’s check it out!
There have been some jjajangmyun varieties sweeping sout Korea lately – very very popular. Here’s one of them! Jjajang is a black bean sauce and myun means noodle in Korean. Got it? Good! Let’s check it out!
Here’s one sent by Colin from back east – thanks again! I’ve seen this a couple times online and though it sounded fascinating. Honey and cheese? What an interesting combination… Let’s tear open the lid and see what we have here!
Here’s another of the many varieties sent recently by Colin from Michigan – thanks! Cheese curry? That sounds really good – you can get cheese curry at Indian restaurants – I’m wondering what a South Korean cheese curry might be like. Let’s find out!
Instant noodle… snacks? Yeah! Snacks of all kinds have come from instant noodles – candy, crunchy bits, you name it. They’re popular all over Asia and also the United States; have you ever taken a pack of instant noodles, crushed them and added in the seasoning and shaken the bag up and eaten them like potato chips or popcorn? Well, this is popular elsewhere as well! Let’s check out my favorite instant noodle snacks from over 1,900 reviews. Enjoy!
South Korea has the highest per person consumption of instant noodles in the world. It’s not a surprise that their instant noodle are quite good – usually the noodles (known as ramyun) are thicker and accompanied by a spicy broth. These are my very favorite varieties of South Korean instant noodles – hope you enjoy!
As many might know, I started The Ramen Rater (click to see the old site) in 2002 and did about 60 reviews. Then, I turned my attention to spicy hot sauces with The Sauce Rater. In 2010, I resumed my instant noodle reviewing. I’ve long been a fan of the spicy side of things – strong heat and good flavor are a couple of my favorite things. Let’s have a look at the absolutely hottest varieties I’ve found in my over 1,700 reviews of instant noodles from around the world in this year’s The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Spiciest Instant Noodles Of All Time 2015 Edition.
Here’s a seafood cup that screams seafood. I’ve mentioned before that certain colors seem to be universal when it comes to instant noodles – red for spicy or beef, green for pork (not sure why) and yellow for chicken. Well, blue is for seafood and this cup’s text is certainly blue enough. This is a Samyang Foods product for the Japanese market. Anyways, let’s crack it open and see what makes it tick.
As I’ve said before, some companies will make products for different markets. Shoyu isn’t really a variety you’d generally see in South Korea, however Samyang Foods is making this one for the Japanese market. Shoyu is a very common variety of ramen in Japan – here’s a little about it from wikipedia:
