There’s nothing quite like that distinct, permeating, spicy-salty smell of instant ramen. You won’t find anything cheaper or punchier in taste (and less post-stomach satisfying) than these quick-made noodles.
In Korea, there’s a distinct difference between ramen (라멘) and ramyun (라면). Ramen refers to the deep, carefully-constructed Japanese noodle dish that you get from restaurants.
Ramyun, on the other hand, refers to the cheap instant noodles that you cook quickly in boiling hot water.
Everyone in the world knows instant ramen. And most Asian countries have their own distinct and delicious instant “ramens” (quotes because there often based on different noodle dishes than ramen).
But I don’t think anyone’s quite as nuts about it as Korea is.
If you go to any grocery or convenience store, the colorful ramyun aisle will instantly jump out at you with the dozens of unique brands and flavors. This next photo was an entire ramyun-themed shop in a new mall nearby. International instant noodles, retro noodles, vegan noodles, you name it.
In regular convenience stores, it’s common to pick out the ramen and other snacks you want to eat, open it up right there, use their hot water machine, and eat it in the store. But here’s an entire self-serve convenience store dedicated to ramyun a couple stops away from where I live.
If you’re deep in the game, you’ve probably heard of buldakbokkeummyeon (불닭볶음면). These are really popular insanely spicy instant noodles. I can’t even eat them anymore. I’ll be drenched in sweat by the end of eating a bowl of it.
One time, my girlfriend bought ghost pepper noodles and I was literally in bed dying for the next few hours.
But one of the greatest ramyun experiences in Seoul is going to one of the hangang (river parks) and making ramen in one of the tin foil bowls with the special machines they have there, then eating it by the water on the grass.
I don’t know what the hell it is about those tin foil bowls, but it tastes x1000 better than normal.
Ramen “hacks” are also nothing new around the world. Dropping eggs, changing the broths, adding seemingly weird ingredients (look up the peanut butter one) to zhuzh it up.
(pronounced “JUJ” like “JUJ it up” I bet you didn’t know that’s how it’s spelled)
My girlfriend especially loves the mayo ramen one. Don’t knock it ‘til you try it. It gives it a more thick, Japanese ramen kind of feel.
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So it’s not so uncommon for someone to ask…
“What’s your favorite ramyum flavor?”
Mine, you ask?
Man, they’re all good. But I gotta go with Shin Ramen, Jin Ramen (Spicy), or the OG orange Samyang ramen.
I always grew up with neat, endless stacks of either Shin or Samyang in my childhood home’s pantry, so that probably played a big role.
But sadly I don’t buy them anymore.
As good as they are and always will be, it feels like a sodium bomb every time I eat it. And more importantly, my fat ass is never satisfied by the end of a bowl.
It was just one of those sad, health-related, grown-up decisions I made a while ago to stop buying them, because if they are present in my house, I’ll destroy like two a day.
I might not buy typical instant ramyuns anymore, but I ALWAYS have ramyun sari on hand. Basically just the noodles without any of the flavor packets.
And with that — I’ll show you how to turn simple ramen noodles into a full meal that is…dare I say…
…way better than normal ramyun.
[Blank] Oil Noodles
I’m kind of a picky about eating things more than once in a week, but this is something I never get sick of. It’s easy, customizable, and I always have the stuff on hand. Drop an egg on it and it’s breakfast.
This pretty standard Asian dish kind of became a trend on social media for a while. They were always presented as some sort of “chili oil noodles” or “garlic oil noodles” or “scallion oil noodles.” It kind of bugged me because the names make it sound more complicated than it is, they’re literally all the same thing, same technique, same super-easy way to make it.
Thus, I call them the “[blank] oil noodles” (insert whatever you have on hand).
Note that these are not “soup-y” noodles, it’s a “dry” noodle dish.
Ingredients:
For one serving.
One pack of noodles (instant ramen is great, udon is great, literally whatever you have. You can even make use spaghetti who cares)
~1 tbsp of soy sauce
A splash of vinegar
A splash of sesame oil
A tsp of honey (can sub sugar)
At least one (best case scenario all) of the following:
2-3 scallions, chopped
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
~1 tsp Chili crisp / chili oil
Things you could should add:
shredded chicken
ground beef or pork
a fried egg
veggies galore
Steps:
1 - Boil water for the noods. Don’t throw them in yet.
2 - Chop up your scallions and garlic.
If you’re using scallions, it’s called scallion oil noodles. If garlic, then it’s garlic oil noodles. If chili, yada yada. This is why I think names are stupid. It’s all the same thing.
3 - Mix the soy sauce, vinegar, honey, sesame oil, and chili crisp (if you have it) in a bowl.
I was vague about amounts for a reason. Let your ancestors guide how much you need. Get to know your taste. For instance, my girlfriend likes it a bit more sour-punchier so I add more vinegar for hers.
4 - Throw the noodles in until they are just undercooked (no more than 2 min).
Always better to undercook than to have soggy gooey noodles. They’ll cook a bit more after in the sauce.
Once you get the hang of the timing, you’ll want to do this while you’re doing the next steps so you can just throw the noodles directly into your pan sauce when it’s ready. But no worries if you just throw it in a colander while you do the other part. Just save some of the noodle water.
4 - Heat up a pan with a tbsp of cooking oil and pan-fry the scallions. After they get a little bit of char (couple minutes), throw the garlic in for less than a minute.
If you want to be extra here, char the scallions (slightly blackened) and then remove them from the pan and put it on a paper towel. They’ll crisp up and you can put them as a crispy topping. I’m usually too lazy for this unless I’m trying to impress (which is what I did for the picture up there).
Remember that cooking aromatics is more about flavoring the oil and less about cooking the actual ingredients.
Scallions taste great charred so you can let those go for more color. Do not, on the other hand, let the garlic char. In fact, barely cook it. The less you cook the garlic, the more flavor it has.
5 - Next add your sauce mixture into the pan with your scallions and garlic. Let it cook down for a minute or two.
If you saw this “trend” on social media, you might have seen the more traditional (Chinese maybe?) way of actually just putting all of these ingredients (raw) into the serving bowl, than pouring hot oil over it. I don’t really prefer doing it like that. It’s harder to mix everything together in the bowl and it’s not as scalding hot once it touches my mouth (I want to burn). I prefer tossing in the pan.
6 - Finally, add the noodles to the pan. If it’s thick, add a little bit more of the noodle water to help it meld together with the sauce. Let it cook down until its the desired consistency.
7 - Serve and devour.
If you want to be extra cool Korean style, after you finish the noodles, if there’s still a good amount of sauce left, add like 4 bites of worth of hot rice into it and mix it up. No sauce goes to waste.
what are your favorite instant noodles?
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The mayo ramyun is my favorite!! And I tried your recipe with udon noodle and it was amazing. 👍
The ramyun in the foil container looks so good and Jihyun looks so adorable!