The Taste Bud: Buldak Ramen Brings the Heat — and Flavor

Hochi looks uncomfortable — and this isn’t even the hottest version. Photos by Kevin Gibson

Working from home most days, I find myself always looking for quick and easy lunch solutions I can make and then eat while working. Working from home in a reborn pandemic means I prefer to not leave the house unless necessary.

Ramen noodles are often the answer; they’re cheap, quick and … well, they’re cheap and quick.

But recently, my friend Laura introduced me to a ramen of a different color. She knows that anytime I see the word “spicy” on a package, I’m interested. When it comes to ramen, if it doesn’t have that simple five-letter word on it, I’m not interested at all, and I still end up adding hot sauce or pepper flakes to it.

But Laura brought me a package that was bright red, with the brand name Buldak in big red letters. Flames shoot out from behind the logo, with a picture of a bowl of ramen (“serving suggestion”) and an angry looking Hochi, which the label identifies as a “Buldaki trade character.” Hochi has fire shooting from his head, a bright red forehead and dark red cheeks, as he slurps on a bowl of ramen with a hot pepper poking out the side. The package also identifies this version of ramen as “stew type,” which was a new one on me. The product is made by South Korean company Samyang Foods.

Unlike the microwaveable version of ramen, this one is more like the stuff people used to eat in college. A quick boil, a spice packet, and you’re eating. This one, however, comes with a pouch of thick black goo that goes into the water at the beginning of the boil. That’s when your water starts to turn blood red — it’s really quite startling, because that broth turns nearly as red as the packaging as it boils. Once the noodles go into the menacing soup, it appears to fade to more of a reddish brown, and in five minutes you sprinkle in the garlicky contents of an enclosed flavor packet (did I see sesame seeds in there?), stir and you’re ready to roll.

No, it doesn’t look quite as appetizing as on the package, but it still packs a wallop.

And Buldak features thicker noodles than the run-of-the-mill cup-o’-ramen you find seemingly everywhere, making it extra slurpable. (Really, grab an extra napkin, because you’ll wind up with red spots everywhere.) Honestly, ramen usually dents my hunger and simply gets me to the next meal, but I got to the point where I was feeling full by the time I got to the end of my bowl of Buldak. Not bad for packaged ramen.

Best of all, this spicy ramen is actually spicy. And flavorful. I made it a point to not add anything that wasn’t in the packet, and I made a wise choice, because it stands alone well enough. The broth seems a bit thicker and more robust than most, and it brings the heat, slowly but surely. By halfway through the bowl, my nose was running and my palate was sizzling — but in a good way. The flavor is somewhere between a hearty, garlicky tomato soup and a smoky hot sauce.

All in all, if some smart aleck added a bit of chicken and a few vegetables, they might be able to pass this stuff off in a restaurant. I’m only half joking.

Now, all that said, Buldak isn’t the most healthful lunch in the world. The nutrition facts on the back tell us that one serving packs 540 calories, 16 grams of fat and 1,860 milligrams of sodium (!). Yep, that’s nearly a day’s worth of sodium if you go by the USDA recommendations.

With a quick Google search, I learned this is a product born of the popular Fire Noodle Challenge craze, which began in 2014 and went viral. There are several flavors of Buldak, including a 2X version that clocks in at 10,000 Scoville units — which is to say it would be like eating an extra hot jalapeno pepper or chugging Tabasco sauce. If the 2x Haek Buldak Spicy Chicken Ramen is at 10k, then the original stuff I ate must approach 5,000, right? Interestingly, the ultra hot version was intended in 2017 to be a limited offering, but its popularity brought it back.

You can grab Buldak ramen products on Amazon. My friend Laura bought the pack she gave me locally at World Market, and you also can probably get the noodles at places like Choi’s Asian Market, Dixie’s Oriental Food & Gifts and other Asian markets in town.