Om nom nom Korean food.

SwEEt[TearS]

Canada1575 Posts

September 28 2009 00:05 GMT

Sup guys, SwEEt[TearS] back with 3 instant ramen reviews today! I’ve been very busy (started learning mandarin and I’ve made new (Korean) friends so I haven’t had much time to write the reviews themselves when the pics were taken nearly 3 weeks ago. Sorry for the wait QQ

First of all I’d like to show you what I bought at a Korean store.

Mae Ploy sauce, per Peanuts’s and Disregard’s recommendation

Samyang ramen, per LosingID8’s recommendation
Andddddddddddddddddddddddd

Kimchi fuck yeah.

So I’ll start the reviews with Wellbeing’s Rice Noodles with Curry flavored soup.

I must say I love curry and while the best (imo) is from Japan, I put my trust in Koreans that day and figured there’s no way you can screw up curry, no matter how hard you try.

+ Show Spoiler [Nutrition Facts] +

Calories: 210
Fat: 5.8g = 8% of your daily value
Saturated Fat: 2.2g = 10% of your daily value + Trans fat: 0g
Cholesterol: 0mg
Sodium: 680mg =26% of your daily value
Carbs: 34g = 13% of your daily value
Fibers: 4.5g = 16% of your daily value
Sugars: 4.6g
Proteins: 5.5g
Vitamins-> A: 10% DV C: 0% Calcium: 9% DV Iron: 8% DV
Weight Watchers: 4 points

I have to say straight up, this is very dietetic. Very low sodium concentration, not a lot of calories, carbs and fat make it awesome enough to eat 2 as a meal (seeing how one portion is 90g, you might not have enough) or even make some rice and dump it in the remaining broth after you’re done with the noodles.

Rice noodles are awesome, really. They’re often underrated when it comes to instant noodles, but seriously I’ve never had bad instant rice noodles (but they can have a bad sauce/soup, no doubt). Cooking them, unlike ramen and udon, isn’t a science. You’ll rarely want your noodles to be slightly uncooked because it’s horrible. It’s also pretty impossible to overcook them. Unless you leave them like, 10 minutes over the time you’re supposed to cook them.

The contents of the pouch was kinda meh. I figured the suggested presentation was far from reality, but I really wanted to believe they would have put some nice chunks like you find in traditional curry. The curry smelled good though, so I didn’t complain too much.

Cooking instructions are simple. Just like Ippeichan Yakisoba, fill with boiling water until the marked line for a certain amount of time. Win.

Final Review:

Texture: Decent texture. Just about what you’d expect from rice noodles. I kinda wished the broth was a bit thicker but it was fine as it is. Remember to drink the broth a bit more often than you eat rice noodles, else you’ll be stuck with half a bowl of broth and nothing else. 8/10

Taste: Pretty good actually. The chunks in the soup base weren’t anything special and actually could have been left out (shiitake in curry? Wth) The broth was slightly spicy (sup curry) but nothing too over the top (somehow bland when you’re used to Shin Ramyun, maybe). 7.5/10

Nutritive Value: 10/10. You could eat 2 of those, back to back. Literally. Low calories, low sodium. Totally unexpected from instant noodles.

Overall Score: 8.5/10. Pretty good, somehow close to real curry. The portion is a bit small compared to other ramen but just prepare accordingly.

+ Show Spoiler [2nd review is fail, apparently] +

2nd review: Nong Shim’s Chapagetti (Chajang noodles)

I really looked forward to this one. I literally ate it like 2 days after I bought it, even if I had 20something other ramen packages waiting for me in the shelf. I mainly looked forward to it because I had eaten some at a Korean/Chinese/Japanese restaurant, and the chef was extremely friendly when he explained how it was made. Not only that but it was awesome and not so complicated, so I really expected the instant ramen to deliver hard. It didn’t.

+ Show Spoiler [Nutrition Facts] +

shitty quality, ugh gg
Calories: 540
Fat: 16g = 24% of your daily value
Saturated Fat: 8g = 40% of your daily value + Trans fat: 0g
Cholesterol: 0mg
Sodium: 1120mg =46% of your daily value
Carbs: 88g = 30% of your daily value
Fibers: 4g = 16% of your daily value
Sugars: 2g
Proteins: 10g
Vitamins-> A: 10% DV C: 0% Calcium: 4% DV Iron: 4% DV
Weight Watchers: 11 points

Quickly glancing at the nutritional values, you’ll find it’s about the same as other instant ramen. Nong Shim tends to be consistently bad at that, so it’s not a surprise.

The noodles look like the Shin Ramyun ones, but I doubt they’re exactly the same. The golden package contained the fried black beans grains, and they didn’t smell so good nor look good at all (hint: looks like soil). The oil was kinda random, and the “vegetables” package was so ridiculously small it didn’t even matter. Some spring onions and carrots (?) cut so small it barely mattered. Oh well. I have some leftover potatoes from 2-3 days ago; I’ll just dump it in. Oh, a carrot too. Yum.

Instructions for this one are slightly more lengthy, dump the noodles/vegetables to cook, then drain them and put in a bowl. In another separate bowl, mix the fried black beans, a little bit of water and the oil until it’s homogenous. Mix it all. Eat…?

Final Review:

Texture: Meh texture. As I had predicted the noodles weren’t the same as the Shin Ramyun ones, and the indicated time made them a bit soggy. The sauce has a hard time coating the noodles (which was a bad sign for the taste) and honestly, the time you spend trying to mix it all up overcooks the noodles even more (tasted them before and after mixing) 4/10

Taste: Dear lord. I don’t have extensive knowledge of fried black beans but the taste was pretty terrible. I ate about half of it and felt disgusted inside. I threw it away and boiled an egg to fix the rest of my hunger. Really Nong Shim?3/10

Nutritive Value: 6/10. Typical Nong Shim values.

Overall Score: 4/10. My first disappointment in the series of reviews. I thought that day wouldn’t come for a while T_T

3rd review: Nong Shim’s Doong Ji (Authentic Korean Cold Noodles in Chili sauce)

Yet again, Nong Shim features in my blog. I’ll be doing more Jap/Chinese stuff from now on (have about 3-4 other Nong Shim ramen, will wait a bit before reviewing them) so keep your eyes open for that.

A cute feature about these noodles is that there’s a small paragraph about how Nong Shim keeps their shit real:

+ Show Spoiler [Nutrition Facts] +

Calories: 440
Fat: 4g = 4% of your daily value
Saturated Fat: 0g = 0% of your daily value + Trans fat: 0g
Cholesterol: 0mg
Sodium: 1060mg =44% of your daily value
Carbs: 102g = 32% of your daily value
Fibers: 6g = 16% of your daily value
Sugars: 6g
Proteins: 12g
Vitamins-> A: 10% DV C: 0% Calcium: 4% DV Iron: 30% DV
Weight Watchers: 8 points

Oddly enough, Nong Shim keeps a respectable sodium level with this, but goes overboard on the carbs (which, you might say, is made up by the high protein and fiber value). Buckwheat noodles are pretty sexy, I must say.

It looks pretty reasonable. Pretty big portion (162g) and the sauce looks nice. The seasoning package, like most of the time, fails to bring something special to the dish, so whatever.

The cooking process was very weird. I actually followed it closely (because you don’t want to overcook your buckwheat noodles, really.) and they came out pretty freaking hard. I doubt that’s how you’re supposed to eat them so I just dumped that back for 2 minutes or so and they were fine. You have to boil the noodles/vegetables then strain them and copiously rinse them with cold water. A thing I find very hard to do with these noodles is remove all the water. I have to tell you any remaining water tends to ruin the dish, so take your time in straining them PERFECTLY (anyways, they aren’t cooking anymore, so it’s not like you don’t have time).

I had some leftover beef and some kimchi lying around and I was really hungry so I decided to make a super meal:

Final Review:

Texture: Decent texture. Was kinda sad to see the noodles didn’t cook thoroughly but I hadn’t thrown my boiling water yet so it was fixable. The sauce, as I had predicted, coated the noodles without difficulty and was very consistent. The vegetables, as always, brought nothing great 7/10

Taste: Pretty good actually. The sauce is very spicy and flavor and goes well with the buckwheat noodles. I must say it’s rather special to eat cold noodles (especially if you’re only used to hot soup) but once you’re used to it it’s very fresh and tasty.7/10

Nutritive Value: 6/10. Typical Nong Shim values, with some tradeoffs.

Overall Score: 7/10. It was a decent meal. I wouldn’t eat it every week but once in a while it’s refreshing and nice. Kinda annoying to perfectly strain the noodles after cooling them, but the effort is worth it.

That's it for now, I'll start reviewing ramen on the fly now instead of saving it all for a day haha. Hope you enjoyed ^^

Nitrogen

United States5345 Posts

September 28 2009 00:08 GMT

LOL Nong Shim’s Chapagetti looks so terrible

SanguineToss

Canada815 Posts

September 28 2009 00:10 GMT

you made the chapagetti wrong obviously no way it could be 4/10 -_-

Zelniq

United States7166 Posts

September 28 2009 00:12 GMT

not sure about that specific one but Chapagetti in general is really, really good
i like it way more than ramen

you gotta make it correctly

SwEEt[TearS]

Canada1575 Posts

September 28 2009 00:14 GMT

On September 28 2009 09:12 Zelniq wrote:
not sure about that specific one but Chapagetti in general is really, really good
i like it way more than ramen

you gotta make it correctly

Like I wrote I usually love fried black beans but idk, was expecting something else.

I have a "similar" Samyang foods one (Chinese Soybean Paste Noodle) that I might try, but honestly after the fail I feel somewhat reluctant to do that anytime soon

intoyourrainbOW

United States168 Posts

September 28 2009 00:17 GMT

i like my fair share of instant noodles, but not enough to post a review blog of various ramen products on TL.... get some real korean food next time.

SanguineToss

Canada815 Posts

September 28 2009 00:18 GMT

On September 28 2009 09:14 SwEEt[TearS] wrote:

Show nested quote +

no man, they all taste relatively the same. Coming from a korean, that chapaghetti that you made is the one that i eat all the time and it is always 10/10 but ONLY if you make it correctly. You probably added too much/too little water. Or you didnt take the sauce out correctly or whatever.

Horangi

Hong Kong226 Posts

September 28 2009 00:20 GMT

this thread is making me hungry >.<

SwEEt[TearS]

Canada1575 Posts

September 28 2009 00:23 GMT

On September 28 2009 09:17 intoyourrainbOW wrote:
i like my fair share of instant noodles, but not enough to post a review blog of various ramen products on TL.... get some real korean food next time.

I did, check here.

SanguineToss

Canada815 Posts

September 28 2009 00:28 GMT

#10

okay, based on the quantity of the sauce you did not squeeze enough sauce of out of that package. Remember, after you boil the noodles until they are done you add the 'cooked sauce'

l10f

United States3241 Posts

September 28 2009 00:30 GMT

#11

On September 28 2009 09:08 Nitrogen wrote:
LOL Nong Shim’s Chapagetti looks so terrible

LET ME MAKE THAT FOR YOU. I MAKE AWESOME CHAPAGETTI!

SwEEt[TearS]

Canada1575 Posts

September 28 2009 00:34 GMT

#12

On September 28 2009 09:28 SanguineToss wrote:
okay, based on the quantity of the sauce you did not squeeze enough sauce of out of that package. Remember, after you boil the noodles until they are done you add the 'cooked sauce'

uhhh? the "sauce" came as solid grains that I had to mix in with 1(2? don't remember) tablespoon of water and the oil then add and mix with the strained cooked noodles

Amnesia

United States3818 Posts

September 28 2009 00:36 GMT

#13

Aside from Chapagetti I hate everything else because...I can't eat them.

Korean mom ftw ^^

infinity21

Canada6683 Posts

September 28 2009 00:36 GMT

#14

fail attempt at chappagetti

Seriously, it's soo good but it looks like you screwed it up. You can't throw out all of the water. You have to leave a sufficient amount so that when you throw in the remaining stuff, it'll mix nicely.

I recommend you give it another go and leave plenty of water next time (but not too much because it'll become watery).

Syxygy

558 Posts

September 28 2009 00:38 GMT

#15

yeah you made the chapagetti totally wrong lol

For instant kind, it's probably better to just mix everything in the pot that you boiled the noodles in, after draining MOST but not ALL the water. From the looks of it you had way too little water, so there wasn't an even coating. It's not really the same as going to the chinese restaurant, but they have more vegetables/meat and don't use the powder sauce.

SwEEt[TearS]

Canada1575 Posts

September 28 2009 00:40 GMT

#16

hmyeah, seems like I screwed up (lol all the hate

). I'll just spoiler it and review it again another time, next time I go shopping I'll buy one and try again.

So basically I didn't keep enough water? Should I keep some water as to make it more like a soup (like 100ml or so) or should I use more water to mix with the fried beans package or hm?

NeverGG

United Kingdom5399 Posts

September 28 2009 00:42 GMT

#17

Haha the name Chapagetti makes me smile for no apparent reason. That super meal looks yummy

Syxygy

558 Posts

September 28 2009 00:52 GMT

#18

Basically, more water. It's not as watery as a soup: more like a thick sauce, but it should be enough to evenly coat the noodles. If it doesn't have enough water, it'll probably be too salty, and instant noodles are already salty enough.

What I do is boil the noodles and vegetables in water with just about enough water that it slightly covers the noodles, then after the noodles are cooked, drain enough water to bring the level down to the noodles. Then I just add the powder sauce and oil directly to the pot while still keeping the flame on and mix until it evenly covers the noodles: it can be a tiny bit soupy because the water will evaporate while cooking and most will stay in the pot anyways. You can also add some chopped cucumber, some cooked ground beef or sliced beef, or top it off with a fried egg.

SanguineToss

Canada815 Posts

September 28 2009 01:01 GMT

#19

Ok well the one i buy you squeeze the sauce out of a package. Anyways brb calling my umma to make some 'proper' chapaghetti =P

Nitrogen

United States5345 Posts

September 28 2009 01:06 GMT

#20

On September 28 2009 09:30 l10f wrote:

Show nested quote +

LET ME MAKE THAT FOR YOU. I MAKE AWESOME CHAPAGETTI!