Released towards the end of the 80’s and probably a delicious cup of instant noodles for that time period, Nongshim U-Yuk Tang hasn’t aged very well. Modern cups of instant noodles have come a long way since then and are often packed with plenty of high quality ingredients that are sure to fill you up. U-Yuk Tang likely feels like a dinosaur at Jurassic Park in Costa Rica (It exists. I swear!), which upon being resurrected from extinction tries to act like nothing has changed, while the strange monkeys who call themselves humans, just don’t want anything to do with their playful antics of yore.
I’m not sure if that analogy worked or not, but hopefully you’re catching my drift…
While I find it commendable that ramen companies like to keep the original flavor of their classic noodles, some of them actually do need some updating… others have served their purpose and need to be laid to rest. U-Yuk Tang, for me at least, is the latter. I just can’t understand why such a mediocre tasting, low quality, artificial meat filled cup of instant noodles remains extant, while other tasty noodles suffer their demise prematurely? I guess that’s what we call life? Within all the randomness, we’re all hoping to latch onto patterns that make sense to us, to only get repeatedly punched in the face with the simple answer that life isn’t fair and actually doesn’t make any coherent sense.
Who knew ramen could be so insightful!?
This cup of instant noodles feels like one of those punches to the face. With my understanding of life and my position in the universe back on track after that hit, we can only wish that it echoes back with reason and not unpredictability by removing these noodles from the shelves… permanently…
Flavor:
Nongshim’s U-Yuk Tang has me guessing what kind of mystery meat has been inserted into this cup of noodles. Is it pork and beef? Beef and chicken? Or, something far more sinister..? It’s extremely hard to tell. There is a circular pepperoni of fake meat included in this cup. That’s right! Only one… It tastes similar to the strange, pink sausage of artificial meat gum that you can get at the supermarket here in Korea. However, there’s a twist! If you took that pink sausage rocket and boiled it until you removed every last bit of flavor, you would create this pepperoni thingy. There are also other yellow nuggets of mystery meat that are unidentifiable. These are certified U.M.N. (Unidentified Meat Nuggets) and none of that hoax talk. They are certainly from another planet.
The broth is salty and tastes nearly identical to Ottogi’s Snackmyeon, which is a bit hard to describe. I guess the best description I can give is mystery meaty, MSG saturated, and sodium filled. Finally, after yet another arduous search, I managed to find some: carrot, spring onion, and a bit of red and green chili pepper slices.
Spiciness:
This cup of instant noodles is rather mild, but it does have some added spice. The spiciness more or less enhances the flavor and nothing more. It has a mild warming sensation that works well with the temperature of the warm broth. If I’m not mistaken, the heat is coming from red pepper powder and some added garlic.
Smell:
Actually, there’s not much to say about the aroma of U-Yuk Tang, which is surprising. I thought there would have been more aromatic complexity to these cup, but like most instant noodles, it is fairly one-dimensional. The only ingredient that my nose can sense is ramen noodles.
Noodles:
Again, there isn’t much deviation from your typical cup of noodles in terms of noodle size, texture, and ingredients. Nongshim just slapped in a disc of your basic ramen noodles. These noodles came out extra soft and the size of the individual strands of noodles were fairly average too.
Overall:
If you’ve been following my other reviews of instant noodles, you probably already know that I’m not a big fan of the overly artificial tasting cups of noodles. I’m aware that they do have their audience, but they just aren’t for me.
Nongshim’s U-Yuk Tang fails to “wow” me with its ultra-processed meats and meat broth residue. The only thing that actually excites me about these noodles is that they are loaded with MSG, so my brain feels satisfied, while my body screams in agony. Now, if you’re a fan of other artificially flavored noodles or don’t really care either way, these noodles taste like Snackmyeon. Or, Snackmyeon tastes like these? Probably the latter. Anyways, both of these noodles feature that mystery meat flavor that never ceases to surprise. So, I guess I’m saying, if you have a fetish for MSG drenched, mystery meat super noodles, these will satisfy your mutant hunger.
Do you enjoy meat discs, pink sausages, or pepperoni? Also, let me know if there are any cups of noodles that you think I should try. What do you want to know more about from South Korea? Let me know in the comments!
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.
