Today is a glorious day for ramen noodles! I have struck down countless other instant noodle attempts at getting cheese right and I am relieved today that I can finally say that YouUs Maeun Cheese Bokkeum Myeon gets a grade of pass. While it doesn’t taste anything like real cheese, it doesn’t have the disgusting artificial cheese taste that you find at the local carnival. I absolutely hate “carny cheese” and anything that gets doused in it. I want something more authentic. Something that actually tastes like the flavor it is supposed to mimic. Maeun Cheese Bokkeum Myeon tastes like an artificial cheddar cheese. Is “carny cheese” supposed to be artificial cheddar cheese? I don’t buy it, if it is! This cheese is sweet, tasty, and most importantly unlike “nacho cheese.” These noodles don’t have an authentic cheese flavor, but it does have the best cheese flavor yet of all the instant noodles I have tried. It’s not perfect, but I’m satisfied for now. At least until something even better comes along…
Flavor:
A unique artificial cheddar cheese experience. Maeun Cheese Bokkeum Myeon has a cheesy flavor that is just a tad better than the other cheese flavored ramen noodles on the market. The faux cheddar cheese and the spiciness of these noodles covers most of the other flavors. That’s okay though, because there actually aren’t a whole lot of ingredients anyways. YouUs probably could have omitted more if they wanted! There were some flakes of: circular slices of squid, spring onion, and shredded cabbage. That’s about it! These noodles are definitely lacking in variety of ingredients, but either way, you wouldn’t taste them because of the intense spicy cheese flavor.
Spiciness:
This little cup of noodles lit my mouth on fire! I didn’t expect to feel much heat from these instant noodles, but they are quite spicy. These are mouth hot. The spice builds in intensity as you eat it. You will probably sweat a little from these noodles. I would consider these to be about medium hot for myself, but some people might find these a bit more than that. These noodles are straddling the line for comfort. I don’t quite like the spice in these noodles. The spice comes from capsaicin and feels artificial. I don’t know about you, but I prefer to have natural spices in my noodles.
Smell:
As you can easily guess, Maeun Cheese Bokkeum Myeon smells like artificial cheddar cheese. If you’ve ever had the sweetened powder cheese that some fast food chains put on their fries (I’m thinking Lotteria here), then you know what these noodles smell like. It’s a combination of this plus some spiciness from the capsaicin flavor. The aroma of the noodles don’t really come out in this cup of noodles. The cheesiness blankets most of the other smells.
Noodles:
These noodles were great with the light sticky cheese in this cup of noodles. The noodles helped to pick up the flavors of the cheese and paired nicely. The noodles were soft and the cheese was also soft, so they were a perfect couple. There’s nothing fancy here though. The noodles are basic ramen that has the typical size and thickness you would expect.
Overall:
YouUs Maen Cheese Bokkeum Myeon is actually a decent spicy, artificial cheese ramen. I don’t hate it! It doesn’t taste like “carny cheese,” but has its own fake cheddar flavor, which makes it better that most. The spiciness was a surprise and it made the cup of instant noodles more fun to eat. The flavors transitioned between sweet and spicy. This teeter-totter of flavors along with its soft texture kept me shoveling, bite after bite. While these noodles aren’t mind-blowingly awesome. They are a delicious cheesy experience that is a rare find among other instant noodles. You should definitely give this a try at a GS25 near you!
What is your favorite kind of artesian cheese? Does your culture consume a lot of it? If so, do you buy locally or straight from the grocery store? 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.
