Yay! Another new variety of the popular Buldak Bokkeummyun ‘Fire Noodle Challenge’ series. This one’s called Carbo. At first, I saw the name and the heart and thought low carbohydrate, but that’s definitely not the case here.
Carbo is short for carbonara, and they came out with this variety to celebrate their 1 billionth sale of Buldak bokkeummyun. Here’s a little about carbonara from Wikipedia –
Carbonara (Italian: [karboˈnaːra]) is an Italian pasta dish from Rome[1][2] made with egg, hard cheese, Italian bacon (Pancetta), and pepper.
The recipe is not fixed, with any sort of hard cheese and any kind of pasta being acceptable. Cooks often substitute Guanciale (pork jowl) for the bacon. Another common substitute outside Italy is lardons of smoked bacon. The cheese is usually Pecorino Romano.[1] Spaghetti is the usual pasta, however, fettuccine, rigatoni, linguine, or bucatini are also used.
The dish was created in the middle of the 20th century.[3]
I asked my contact at Samyang Foods three questions that I’m guessing are going to be the top three I get from readers – what’s the exact SHU, are these HALAL and do they contain pork. Here’s EXACTLY what they had to say:
1. SHU
– carbo Buldak Bokkeummyun packet: about 2,600
2. halal
– Yes, we are going to obtain the halal certificate. All the HOT Chicken flavor ramen meet the halal requirements.
3. Pork
– As anwser 2, all the HOT Chicken flavor ramen don’t contain any pork ingredients.
For a full rundown on the Buldak Bokkeummyun series, check out my Definitive Guide To The Buldak Bokeummyun Range. Let’s dig in and see what this one’s all about!
Samyang Foods Carbo Buldak Bokkeummyun – South Korea
Here’s the back of the package (click to enlarge). Unsure whether it contains meat, however I should note before you ask – I don’t see a HALAL mark on here. To prepare, add noodles to 600ml boiling water and cook for 5 minutes. Drain, saving 8 spoons (15ml * 8 = 120ml) water. Return noodles and 120ml water to pot and add in liquid and powder seasoning. Stirfry for an additional 30 seconds. Finally, stir and enjoy!
The noodle block.
A dry sachet.
Guessing this is the carbonara sauce element.
A liquid base sachet.
Dark with a spicy scent.
Finished (click to enlarge). We are first greeted with wide, thick noodles that have a nice heartiness to them. The flavor is a creamy carbonara which is highly influenced by the popular Buldak Bokkeummyun flavor that is very well-known. It’s a kind of sweet and spicy with a strong linger. The heat level is less than the original Buldak Bokkeummyun and far less than the 2x spicy, but don’t be lulled into a sense of complacency thinking that it won’t be spicy. It is indeed quite spicy – leaps and bounds over most things that say spicy on them. A creamy and tasty addition to the popular range. 4.25 out of 5.0 stars. EAN bar code 8801073142190.
