Today, let's talk about another one of Korea’s favorite foods which is one of my favorites as well: Ramyeon. Korea’s love this frizzled noodled bowl of hot deliciousness and it can be eaten as a snack or as a meal. You’ll find it many snack bars, it can be added to soups and stews like kimchi stew or buddae chiggae which is a stew with sausages, beans, macaroni and lots of other stuff. Oh, you can add ramyeon to tteokbokki to make rabokki. Some people like to just break up the noodles inside of the bag, sprinkle the seasoning packet on it and eat the dry ramyeon like a snack. It’s pretty good actually.
According to the World Instant Noodles Association, Koreans eat more ramyeon per person than any other nation in the world. 3.6 Billion packs of Ramyeon are sold in Korea per year. If you do the math that works out to about 75 packets of ramen per person. Pretty impressive stuff.
The first locally produced ramyeon came to Korea in 1963. Since then it has grown to become a beloved snack and many different food brands in Korea have a ramyeon line up. Korea seems to be most famous for their spicy ramyeon. Some of these ramyeon are nicknamed fire ramen. It is popular these days for food bloggers to make videos while eating them. In the videos the attraction seems to be how crazy spicy they all are.
Don’t worry, not every ramyeon in Korea is spicy. The thing is though is that Koreans need to have variety and there are lots of different versions of Ramyeon. This is unlike where I grew up in the United States where I could only get Oriental flavor, Chicken, or Beef Flavored ramyeon.
There always seems to be a ramen trend. Last year there was “manly ramyeon” which was spicy as well, before that there was spicy chicken broth ramyeon, Japanese-style ramyeon, black noodle ramyeon, spaghetti ramyeon, rice noodle ramyeon, japchae ramyeon and much more. If you go to a store you can see the endless varieties of available ramen.
Now if you go to a bunsik or a snack eating place you can get a store made ramen. You might think it is silly to pay 3 to 4 times the price for a dish you can make yourself, but its different than what you can get at home. At the little snack places they usually use broth instead of water so it deepens the flavor of the snack. Plus, they usually add some egg and freshly sliced green onions. If you want to kick it up a notch you can add some sujebi or flour dumplings, rice cake; or my favorite, a slice of cheese. The cheese will melt on it and your ramen will become like an amazing noodle and cheese dish.
One last thing about ramen. You are probably wondering what the proper “Korean” way to eat it is. You need to have the proper equipment. The best thing to have is a ramen pot with a lid. How Koreans like to eat it is to take a chopstick full of hot, steaming noodles. You take the lid and hold it cover side up by the knob on the bottom (so you don’t burn yourself). Then you cool the noodles off and then eat. Delicious.