Arrr, mateys!… I’ve got a cup of seafood instant noodles worthy of being served on board your ship today. Paldo Palae Tangmyeon is a hurricane of ocean flavors that features green laver, a nutritious “seaweed,” as the main ingredient. I might not be able to taste much of the laver in the torrent of seafood ingredients, but it is a delicious cup of ramen.
This specific ramen also won fourth place on a TV series titled, Pyeonsteulang, which is a clever combination of the Korean words for convenience store and restaurant. The TV series, as you might have guessed, was about creating restaurant worthy foods for the convenience store. Hence, the reason why this green laver ramen was created. Fourth place isn’t bad, but it’s not great either. I’ll be the judge today, so let’s see how this ramen stacks up with the competition.
Flavor:
This cup of noodles has one of the most intense seafood flavors. It’s not fishy, if you were wondering, but it has an overly complicated and slightly confused seafood flavor. Maybe Paldo and its creator used a bit too many ingredients from the sea in this one. It makes it frustratingly hard to identify what I’m actually tasting in the broth. This is a letdown, because I thought green laver was supposed to be the star ingredient. One ingredient that does feature prominently in the broth is shrimp. It’s the only thing I can one-hundred percent identify. The soup is also quite salty with a touch a black pepper added in. I’m not trying to say that the flavor is bad in this cup of noodles, but I really think they took a bit too much of a shotgun approach with the flavor.
Spiciness:
There isn’t much spiciness to this cup of noodles. It comes mostly from black pepper as well. It’s a gentle spiciness that helps to remove a lot of the intense ocean flavor.
Smell:
Palae Tangmyeon has such a complex smell to it, mainly because of all the seafood ingredients. Like the flavor, I find it difficult to identify just exactly what specific aromas are in the soup. If I had to take a guess, green laver, shrimp, and a plethora of other seafood ingredients are what create most of the complicated odor.
Noodles:
These noodles are green… They look exactly like basic ramen noodles in terms of size and thickness, but showcase a subdued greenish hue. The cook on the noodles came out soft and a bit mushy, but they did manage to pick up the soup well.
Overall:
Paldo Palae Tangmyeon is yet another breath of fresh air for me. If you can handle the flavors from under the sea, then you will most likely find this cup of noodles tasty. It is very delicious and treading a bit of new ground by experimenting with different flavors. I only have one gripe and that is with the confused and complicated flavor. I wish they would let the green laver itself shine, but that might just be me being too harsh. If I had to give these a score, I would say they were a solid 4 out of 5. Even more importantly than that, these are going to be my new favorite cup of noodles for when I’m craving some seafood.
Do you like the taste of green laver? Do you think you can navigate the stormy seas of seafood flavor in these noodles? Let me know down 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.
Note: This article may contain affiliate links that support the author’s ramen purchases for these how-to guides and reviews.
