An extremely messy and enjoyable package of instant noodles, Nongshim does it again with their Jjawang Geonmyeon Instant Ramen. These inky treats are bursting with an explosive chunjang sauce and dried noodles that offer a unique mix of delicious flavor and potential calorie savings for the health conscious ramen connoisseur. I’m actually not sure if they’ve saved my waistline from expanding, but at least they taste amazing. Who’s keeping track anyways, if you’re putting back daily packages of ramen like myself? Anyways, let’s get on with the ramen review for these delights.
Flavor:
These bad boys have an intense jjajangmyeon flavor. The layers of chunjang sauce really do come through in each and every bite. This might be because these sauce is doubled up with a powdered chunjang sauce and the liquid fried jjajangmyeon flavoring. The boost in flavor was fantastic.
These noodles also have generous amounts of meat and vegetables. They aren’t too salty or sweet, which gave the flavor more balance. I found the noodles and sauce to not be too oily, which might be due to the fact the noodles weren’t fried, but dried. Japagetti for example, has a more oily texture in comparison.
Spiciness:
As is the case with most variations of jjajangmyeon, Nongshim Jjawang Geonmyeon is also perfect for children. These noodles aren’t spicy at all. The only downside to these noodles is that they’re quite messy. You’re going to be cleaning the black, sticky sauce off of your child’s face for weeks.
Smell:
Of course, these noodles have a powerful smell of black bean paste and noodles. The chunjang does compliment the smell of the dried flakes that have been reconstituted into vegetables and meat.
Texture:
I found these noodles to be slightly more uniform than most hand-cut noodles you find at restaurants serving jjajangmyeon. This makes them ever so slightly easier to eat and enjoy. These noodles have a long cooking time of 5 minutes when compared to other noodles, so they turned out to be quite soft. They are also thicker, so they pick up the sauce well.
One key thing to discuss with these noodles is that they are dried, rather than fried before packaging. The mental relief in knowing that you’re saving some calories, as well as your health, was a welcome change. I hope other brands start to offer “non-frying” noodles across their different product lines in the future.
Overall Impression:
A child-friendly package of instant noodles that offers a better flavor than most other instant jjajangmyeon noodles. Nongshim Jjawang Geonmyeon just might be one of the better black bean paste noodles currently on the market. If offers dried noodles that are slightly more healthy than traditional ramen and that enhance the overall flavor and enjoyment factor. Cheers to your health!
Do you think your children, friends, or family could handle the black bean paste flavor of these noodles? Does that flavor profile seem a little bit too foreign? Let me know down in the comments!
Here’s the link I posted in the how-to guide if you would like to try the original version of these noodles:
If you’re interested in hearing more about instant ramen, check out my on-going series, Noodle Story: An Exploration of Korean Instant Noodles, here on Medium.
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