Traditionally in South Korea, people enjoyed eating the wholesome innards of a variety of animals. It provided excellent nutrition that is lacking in today’s modern society and left nothing to waste. Times have changed and neighborhoods don’t collectively cook and share blood sausage and other dishes like they used to. It’s a shame that a lot of these traditions have died out, especially because eating those parts is healthy, while giving respect to an animal that died to feed a community.
While organ meats are still quite prevalent at barbecue restaurants and other snack food type restaurants, true blood sausage is extremely difficult to find. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever even come across it before in South Korea. It has been replaced by a pork intestine casing filled with various ingredients.
Samyang’s Baek Sundae Bokkeum Myeon is a cup of instant noodles based on the flavors of the modern altered version of traditional sundae. Although I’ve never tried it. I have heard there is a dish made with sundae up north (not that far north!) that this cup of noodles is directly inspired by. If you happen to know what the dish is called and where to get it, be sure to let me know in the comments. Anyways, it looks like Samyang hoped to replicate that specific dish in the form of instant noodles. Did they succeed or did they fail? I think they failed miserably, so allow me to explain just exactly why…
Flavor:
Well, I think I’ll be in a bodily surplus of piperine for the rest of my life after eating Baek Sundae Bokkeum Myeon. Samyang was definitely heavy-handed with the black pepper with this cup of noodles. Good thing I can also handle my sodium like a champion, because Baek Sundae is also mega salty. The flakes found in this cup of instant noodles were underwhelming. Samyang only includes: one tiny slice of red pepper, a few shredded pieces of carrot, spring onion, and some cabbage. I know they aren’t known for being generous with their ingredients, but you would think at least one of their cups would actually include something more than noodles and sauce, right? Most of the flavor only comes from their sweet noodles. The biggest travesty of all is that these noodles don’t taste anything like sundae or perilla leaves, which literally makes my blood boil until it practically turns into sundae anyways…
Spiciness:
This is turning out to be one unusual cup of ramen noodles… Unlike most of the ramen that I have reviewed, Baek Sundae Bokkeum Myeon gets its heat from black pepper. While I’m fairly certain there has to be a dash of red chili pepper powder in here as well, I can’t believe that there’s so much black pepper in these noodles. South Korean instant noodles typically stick to the color red, which makes these noodles strange or possibly genius? I actually enjoyed the changeup quite a bit. These noodles have a gentle spiciness that only leaves your mouth tingling.
Smell:
For some reason, I had a lot of trouble trying to figure out what these noodles smell like… It might be a stretch, but maybe… just maybe… these noodles have the aroma of perilla leaf. However, I don’t think it really does smell like that. These instant noodles are almost devoid of any odor, which is incredibly strange. If I’m really being honest to myself here, they only smell like Samyang noodles, because I find their noodles have their own distinct odor.
Noodles:
Dark ebony noodles. The noodles are brown, almost to the point of becoming black. If you’ve ever eaten squid ink pasta, these are quite similar to those. These are not squid ink noodles though, so don’t be intimidated. The noodles taste exactly like the Samyang noodles you know and love. To describe them a bit more, the noodles are moderately thick with a soft and semi-spongy texture to them.
Overall:
Samyang’s Baek Sundae Bokkeum Myeon is a super tasty cup of noodles that is eatable and easily enjoyable. They really aren’t all that funky tasting. You’re not going to get any flavor of traditional blood sausage from these noodles, which for me, personally, is a MASSIVE letdown. They taste more like black pepper and noodles than organ meat and coagulated blood. I really thought Samyang was going to make something unique with this cup of noodles, but I was wrong. I almost feel like these noodles are just a marketing trick, rather than something new and exciting. I guess Samyang thinks they can change the color of the noodles, swap a few ingredients, and slap a new label on a package of ramen to say they made something new? I’m upset… Baek Sundae Bokkeum Myeon doesn’t even taste like sundae or perilla leaves! I guess these noodles are mostly just a rehash of ingredients they already had on hand, because the flavors don’t match the label. So, if you want an authentic Korean sundae experience or something that’s even in the ballpark, then skip these noodles. Then again, they are kind of tasty with their black pepper flavor, so maybe you should give these a go? The choice is yours!
Have you ever eaten perilla leaves before? What do you think of the flavor? Do you think you can handle eating these uniquely colored noodles? 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.
