Reddish orange like the delicious rivers of the crustacean underworld (our other overlords), YouUs Gonghwachun Samseon Jjambbong is a mild version of our beloved jjambbong that features a savory broth as its greatest strength. It’s not perfect, but it’s one of the best cups of instant jjambbong I have tasted. Great care must have gone into creating this tasty broth, because it is exceptionally tasty. It needed to be though, because no restaurant worthy bowl of jjambbong would be complete without it. These noodles made me almost forget I was having instant jjambbong. I’ll let you be the judge on whether or not you see these as a replacement for jjambbong at a Korean-Chinese fusion restaurant. Just between us, I enjoyed every bite of these noodles, so I hope you do too!
Flavor:
Gonghwachun Samseon Jjambbong tastes similar to authentic jjambbong with a side of ramen noodles. It has that rich seafood flavor that is salty, spicy, and intensely umami. It‘s a well-rounded and satisfying flavor that has many dimensions to it. This might be one of the best attempts I have tried at recreating restaurant quality authentic jjambbong. One problem I had with this cup of noodles was with the ingredients. The fragments of ingredients are quite small, so it made identifying them rather difficult. It tastes like jjambbong, but doesn’t even come close to the real experience that is chum full of various seafood. Here’s what I could identify: pieces of squid (possibly other seafood in mix…), chopped spring onions, slices of red chili pepper, and some pieces of well-fermented kimchi. The costs had to be cut somewhere… I wish there were larger identifiable chunks of seafood, but I must remind myself that these are instant noodles…
Spiciness:
There’s a bit of spice to these noodles, but they are quite mild. The spice is black peppery with most of the spiciness coming from red chili pepper powder. The black pepper mixed with the red chili pepper lights up your mouth a bit. As I kept eating these, the spice built up and I eventually started to break a tiny bit of a sweat. Still though, I think these noodles are rather mild when compared to a lot of instant noodles out there. These aren’t for everyone, but probably manageable by most.
Smell:
The smell of Gonghwachun Samseon Jjambbong is almost exactly how it tastes. The broth is unfortunately a bit secondary in the smell. I would have liked it to be the reverse, but basic ramen noodles have an overpowering aroma to them. After the initial hit of ramen noodles, I could smell the spicy seafood broth. The broth smells mostly of squid, but it has a much more pungent savory smell to it. These noodles smell nice, so don’t worry about them smelling like the ocean.
Noodles:
I’m always pleasantly surprised about how many noodles YouUs packs into each of their cups of instant ramen noodles. There’s a lot in here, so you will most likely be left feeling satisfied. These are your basic ramen noodles, so nothing fancy today. The strands of noodles are medium-sized and the texture is on the soft side. They aren’t too soft, but they didn’t hold up to the broth very well.
Overall:
Far from perfect, but I have to say, YouUs Gonghwachun Samseon Jjambbong is one of the best cups of instant jjambbong out there. It tastes similar enough to authentic restaurant quality jjambbong with its spicy, salty, and rich seafood flavored broth. I do miss having jjambbong style noodles though. The ramen noodles just don’t quite do the dish justice. They’re a bit lackluster. The ramen noodles are just too overpowering with their strong flavor. I would have liked the broth to be the star of the show. If you can get past eating ramen noodles instead of type you normally get with jjambbong, then these noodles will be a perfect addition to your pantry.
Do you prefer your jjambbong mild, spicy, or extra spicy? What do you like best about the flavor of jjambbong? 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.
