Over 5,000 Instant Ramen Noodle Reviews Since 2002
Here’s one that was sent by James from Lakeside, CA – thanks! I’ve been on a reviewing tear the last week – actually the past couple of weeks. I’m trying to empty bins of varieties I’ve not tried yet. This was in a box above the bins. Anyways, yeah – this is made in South Korea for the US market. Let’s check it out!
Here’s the second of the two varieties I’ve rushed out that arrived in the mail from MH from the Ramen Junkie group. So… Four cheese… This one’s interesting. First, this is made in South Korea, but packaged for sale in the United States. Second, Hochi looks like she’s dressed up for Halloween. During my research on this one, I found that it’s been in South Korea as well. I also found people trying this variety four months ago – kind of interesting. I wonder if they’ve just been test marketing these in a limited fashion prior to now. In the mukbang video below, I mention I thought I’d only 2 varieties not tried, however that’s not the case. In addition to the creamy carbo and the rose, there’s a jjamppong and a ‘lovely’ variety. Would like to add them to my reviews if anyone’s got some to donate! I did read that someone thought carnitas would go very well with this, and luckily my wife made some last night so I ended up with some nice garnish. Let’s cook these up – don’t forget to watch the mukbang at the bottom as well!
Well, I’m sure you’ve been curious (or didn’t know) about this one. This is another variety with Hochi wearing some ‘south of the border’ attire. I decided to rush this one out and I’ll be doing the other one tomorrow I think. So much interest in there varieties. This is something different – not the cooking instructions – I’m curious if this is going to be the standard for all of the buldak varieties going forward. Till will tell. I’d like to thank MH, a fellow mod from the Ramen Junkies group for sending this along! Note – this one is made in South Korea and packaged for sale in the United States. Don’t forget to check out the cooking show and the mukbang below! Rushing this one due to popular interest! Let’s give it a go!
I recently got an email from a company called BNB Global who is a big distributor for Paldo products here in the US. Paldo is a South Korean company that makes some great varieties – some of which I haven’t tried yet – here’s a special look at some of these new varieties! Enjoy and check ’em out!
Well, well, well. I think this one should warrant a mukbang, don’t you? I’m trying to remember the last time I did one, actually. I must say I’m sad to report that this is the first year a top ten list for South Korea has been skipped since I started doing them; I’ve reviewed so few new varieties. Really bummed about that – help! Glad to see a new one here, however this is for the US market and not the Korean version. Hopefully some new ones will cross my desk for 2023 soon. Either way, this is an extra spicy version of Chapaguri, made popular by the film Parasite I believe. Still haven’t seen the film… Being with poor vision, subtitles are a little rough. Definitely would like to see the ramdon scene. But anyhoo, let’s check this new ramdon out.
I found this yesterday while looking for Lunar New Year specials at a big Asian grocery store. I immediately knew what I was looking at when I saw the font. These are from eMart. They’re a really big hypermarket chain in South Korea which now is opening stores in the United States. Now, this is a private label product, so one of the big companies in South Korea is making it for them . Not sure which one, but in the past it’s been Samyang. Let’s check it out!
Thanks to Jessica K. for clueing me in about this stuff! She said it’s good stuff and I got a good deal on it on Amazon so figured what the heck. Anyways, this is a dry version of Paldo’s Teumsae and a mukbang sounds good – only 18 degrees Fahrenheit outside right now. Let’s give it a try!
Here’s one from James in Lakeside, CA – thanks again! Wow – this looks burly. I had to read around to verify cooking instructions and they aren’t hard to cook – just wanted to do it right. This will be my first mukbang I’ve done in ages – not only that, I’ve been hardcore on diet and exercise lately, so not only will it be spicy, it’s going to be a gut buster. Egad. Let’s give it a shot!
Here’s one that came by way of James of Lakeside Californica – thanks again! This brand has particularly good kimchi varieties – curious how this one will be. Let’s check it out!
Another one sent by The Fat Hipster – thanks again! So this is by the same folks as did the other Devil Of Fire Bulmawang variety, however this one is without broth. Very curious how this will go. Let’s find out – mukbang below!
A big thanks and shout out to The Fat Hipster for shooting this one over – been curious about it and thought today would be a good day to see how strong the burn is. The name translates to King Of Hell – let’s see how fiery this guy is.
Here’s one that came via Exotic Noods – check ’em out and use coupon code THERAMENRATER for a discount!
I’ve seen a lot of these Yopokki variants lately and this one definitely piqued my interest and my wife loves tteokbokki and cheese – and then there’s ramen in there too! It’s a win, win, win! Found this at Asian Family Market on Aurora and 130th in North Seattle – rad store – go check it out! Let’s crack this big pack open and see what dwells within!
Yesterday we found ourselves in Bellevue and about to go home, Kit asked me if there was anywhere we should go over there before we left. I looked to see if there were any Asian grocery stores I’d not been to and found a few, but one had a name that stood out. S-Mart. Yeah – if you’re familiar with the film ‘Army Of Darkness,’ you know why this piqued my curiosity. It seemed that Korean grocery stores usually have a letter followed by the word Mart. It was only a matter of time; we have an HMart nearby, and a GMart (formerly KS Mart), and there’s more of them. Well, we decided to shop smart and shop S-Mart. That’s where I found this one – something I’ve never seen before. It always floors me – I’ve been to tons of Asian grocery stores in this area and then whammo – one that has a variety I’ve never seen around here. In fact, I found a few of them. Let’s give it a try!
Here’s one that came via Exotic Noods – check ’em out and use coupon code THERAMENRATER for a discount!
Had this just over 7 years ago – it can take another shot. Well, this is one I’ve enjoyed very much in the past – a Top Ten list variety. I think revisiting this with a heap of cheese is the right thing to do.
Wow – it’s been forever since I had this one, so it’s getting a fresh and new review today. Namja mean’s it’s for men in Korean – sorry ladies! I dunno though, it could be an ingenious marketing ploy – tell women it’s not for them, they might just go and eat copious amounts of it to prove that they can handle the heat and garlic. What’s interesting is that I would say when it comes to gender specific ramen, I would say I’ve seen more that are purposefully geared towards women. Anyways, let’s check this one out!
I left it to the folks over at the Ramen Junkie Facebook group to pick which #ramenbread would be next for me. I really wanted to do something that incorporated a South Korean variety – last time I tried that though, it was a big fail as I tried to make flour with the noodles. I’ve learned that is definitely NOT the way to go, but using cooked noodles and bread flour in a good mix makes for a nice moist cake and crisp crust. Well, here it is! Best loaf yet and infused with chashu, cheese, and egg. Let’s see what happens when I try to put a ton of stuff in a little loaf of bread with a big block of ramen in it!
Found this one at Evergreen Asian Market up in Everett, Washington. I don’t often make my way that far north for instant noodles but I did find one or two things there (including Chocolatey Tree Stumps). This one is made in the Russian Federation for the US market – even says on the label which I find interesting. Anyways, let’s check this one out!
This one arrived in an Exotic Noods subscription box – check ’em out and use coupon code THERAMENRATER for a discount!
I hear it already – ‘but it’s from Korea!’ Look. Just humor me. Look. Lower left. Made in USA. Unless you visited South Korea and brought some back from Canada (they’re probably from their Chinese factory if so), then you’ve been eating Korean style instant noodles made in Rancho Cucamonga, California. Their factory is a really neat place – first one I ever had the fortune to visit and it was really neat.
This one came by way of Exotic Noods! Check ’em out and use coupon code THERAMENRATER for a nice discount! While made in South Korea, this one’s made for North America and distributed by Ottogi’s American arm. Sounds like fun – let’s give it a go!
Here’s one that came via Exotic Noods – check ’em out and use coupon code RAMENRATER15 for a discount!
Here’s a pho bowl that came by way of the folks at Exotic Noods – use coupon code RAMENRATER15 for a discount over there! South Korean pho – I’ve come across this before and it was good. Let’s give it a go!
A little while back, Samyang Foods produced a variety called Buldak Mini. It was a smaller noodle block, however it clocked in at 12,000 SHU. Since people like to go big or go home, they came out with this – Challenge Buldak. This time it’s a full size noodle block, and it is served cold. Again, this one comes in at 12,000 SHU. They even have a hashtag mentioning this challenge attribute. I decided to give it a go and in the video below, you’ll see I conquered in in just over 3 minutes. Let’s give this one a look!
Here’s a variety that’s perfect for the summer month – this one’s served cold. Here’s a little something from Wikiward on this one –
I really like tteokbokki – fat finger tubes of chewy rice flour. Well, rabokki is what you get when you take the sauce for tteokbokki and mix it with noodles. Let’s check it out!
Well, here’s the first of a whole slew of new Buldak varieties. If you’ve never seen or heard about this range (you’ve probably been under a rock), just know these are probably the most popular spicy range of products around when it comes to noodles. They came out with a Christmas themes variety – meat spaghetti. I’m wondering if this one will be similar? Let’s find out.
Well, well, well. Here we are yet again. Just not hot enough for you, eh? Well, maybe this will do it for you. I mean look – Hochi (the Buldak mascot) is right there, tears streaming, breathing fire… 3x Spicy – so what it 1x spicy? Well, 4,400 SHU (scoville heat units). 3x would be 13,200 SHU – I guess we’ll have to see if that’s spicy. I know it will be. Time to burn!
A big thanks for this surprise from The Fat Hipster – look him up on YouTube! This one’s saying it’s the hottest in the world. I would wager it’s really trying to challenge as the hottest in South Korea. Let’s find out!
Okay, this one comes from the folks at www.ExoticNoods.com, purveyors of neat subscription boxes – check ’em out and use coupon code RAMENRATER15 for a discount!
Here’s something I’d not seen before – I know, that’s kind of a redundant statement; I try to review something new every day, so… But this is very different. Often, cold noodle varieties from South Korea pop up, but not usually ones that come with a cold broth – they’re usually broth-free. I think that may have been the longest sentence I’ve ever typed on this blog, so apologies for that.
Here’s one Daniel from Exotic Noods brought me back from Taiwan – thanks! This product is produced by Paldo Vina, a Vietnamese branch of Paldo Food of South Korea. It is for sale in Taiwan (formerly called Formosa), and has a South Korean parent company, so KORMOSA is a kind of play on the fusion of companies and distribution. Let’s check it out!
This one is the first I’m reviewing from a ship that Nongshim America was kind enough to send – thank you! I should mention that James from Lakeside California sent one of these – thanks everyone! So from the little word-cloud above the name Soo, I’m guessing perhaps that the word Soo means excellent? I looked it up and it can (as a family name) mean water or shore/riverbank. I’m going to guess water will be the logical one here since these are air-dried noodles and not fried. That has a nice little logic to it, at least in my head. Let’s give them a try.
Okay so it’s been a while since I’ve done a mukbang – well, here we go – this one was particularly brutal!
What do we have here? The second of two big bowls from Paldo! I’m in the mood for sampling spicy today- it’s cold outside. It’s snowing. Weatherman says we’re looking at 5 more inches of snow and gusty winds. It’s cold in here. Time to cook!
Thus far, I’ve been quite pleased with all the different Mr. Kimchi varieties – soups and dry noodles. This is the cup, so I’m guessing it should be about the same as the dry noodle pack and bowl. Let’s find out.
This is a longstanding favorite of mine and probably the first cold noodle I came in contact with. First time I had it I wasn’t so sure, but over time it definitely grew on me. This is usually enjoyed in the summer months, but seeing as the folks at Paldo sent it to me recently, I’d give it a go right now. Let’s cook it up!
Well, Merry Christmas! Hochi has her Santa hat on for this one. Meat spaghetti, huh? Sounds interesting. Christmas is over, but they must have had some leftovers – got these last week and thought hey – maybe some burning would do me good. Let’s give this new variety a try!
Special thanks go out to Normalgorl for shooting this over! Much obliged! So what the heck is this? Corn?! I’m thoroughly fascinated. Let’s check it out!
