Samyang’s fiery combination of ddeokbokki and jjolmyeon is a welcome addition to the Hot Chicken Flavor Ramen Family. It brings a perfectly balanced flavor to the series that is rather hard to come by. Playing off of two of South Korea’s popular dishes, this cup of noodles retains the spirit of each and blends them together to create an enjoyable snack that feels less like a challenge and more like something you would actually want to consume for pleasure.
Flavor:
Finally a Buldalk that actually tastes like food! Jjolbokki has a simple, sweet and spicy flavor that is easy to fall in love with. The sweet flavor really does taste like ddeokbokki and the texture of the noodles accurately displays the texture of jjolmyeon. It’s really a well-balanced and enjoyable flavor, which, again, isn’t common among Samyang’s popular spicy ramen series.
Spiciness:
These noodles are just spicy enough. They are mouth hot, but the sweetness of the ddeokbokki sauce beckons you to keep shoveling bite after bite. The spiciness and the sweetness balance each other well, which makes this cup of noodles more enjoyable than the original.
Smell:
Wow… Jjolbokki smells so much better than the original Buldalk. The sweetness actually does come through in the odor, which I didn’t expect. Typically, the Hot Chicken Flavored Sauce completely overpowers, but in this case, it did not.
Noodles:
These noodles look like your usual ramen noodles, but trust me, they are very different. The size and thickness closely resemble generic ramen noodles, but the main difference lies in the extra bounce in the texture. These noodles are made from wheat flour and starch, which are called “jjolmyeon” (literally: chewy noodles) in Korean.
For the linguists out there, there really isn’t a perfect translation into English, because Koreans have created a unique word for the exact texture and feeling you get from these noodles. To paraphrase, the English word “chewy” just doesn’t truly express the feeling.
Got off on a little tangent there… anyways, because of the different ingredients used in these noodles, you can expect a chewy texture, which works nicely with the sweet and spicy sauce.
Overall Impression:
I really think this cup of noodles makes a great snack. It’s simple, not too heavy, and the spiciness is just enough to wake you up. It’s still a little extreme for children in terms of spiciness though. Also, you probably don’t want to eat this one before bed, unless you want to enjoy some midnight heartburn. The sweet and spicy flavor of Samyang’s Buldalk Bokkeum Myeon Jjolbokki makes it a snackable cup of ramen that fits nicely into the series.
Have you ever tried ddeokbokki or jjolmyeon before? What do you think of Samyang’s Hot Chicken Flavored Ramen Series? 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.
Note: This article may contain affiliate links that support the author’s ramen purchases for these how-to guides and reviews.
