Samyang Hot Chicken Flavor Ramen - Curry edition
I decided to start my journey into the unknown with some fancy-looking ramen that, as I unfortunately realized a little bit too late for comfort, is often used in YouTube spicy challenge videos (the one where people try a spoonful of food and start flailing and screaming like they’re possessed because it draws in them sweet, sweet views). I like the packaging, though! Looks very colorful and fancy, and I like the chicken. It looks adequately mortified at being killed and stuck into a cheap Korean instant noodle pack.
As is often the case with these curry ramen noodles, you’re supposed to cook the noodles to a reasonable consistency, drain the water out, and then add the sauce. This makes a nice change from slurping down cheap chili flavored water (not that I have anything against chili flavored water, mind you) and provides a bit of a “wow I’m actually almost cooking this as opposed to just spilling some water on it” feel. On the picture above, you can see the two packets that came with it, the veggie packet full of carrots and other topical veggies that expand when you pour hot water on them (magic!), and the curry sauce packet, full of a thick, dark mixture of soy sauce, curry, chili, and presumably a whole lot of monosodium glutamate. So I cook this thing, pour in the sauce that immediately makes the room smell very pleasantly of curry and spices, stir it around a bit and dig in. (here’s a blurry-ass picture of the stuff in action, don’t hate on my spoon.)
Down to brass tacks. The noodles and veggies are good and cook evenly, but they are by far not the focus. The sauce that I keep harping on about? Absolutely amazing. Not only is it full-bodied, tastes very strongly of curry and soy sauce, very tasty, it is also INCREDIBLY spicy. Like, I’m not talking normal “put too much chili” spicy. I’m talking burning, smoky, dark, powerful spicy that hurts your tongue so bad you have to take a break and be scared you hurt something and/or will get a heart attack, but is so God damn delicious you just keep cramming more in. After like 5 mouthfuls I had tears streaming down my face and my nasal passages were nonexistent. Every nerve ending in my mouth was SCREAMING to please stop. However, since I’m not a little bitch and can appreciate delicious food (and a bit of pain) when I score some, I ate the whole thing and practically licked the bowl clean. This ramen, slightly surprisingly, does not have any of that plastic crap twang you usually get from these packets, it actually almost tastes like something you’d recognize as real food. The serving is also big enough to pass as an actual meal. Very impressive for this kind of package.
Right after I ate this, I sprinted to the kitchen and drank milk straight from the carton, which alleviated the pain a little bit. I may be a white girl and believe some forms of mayonnaise are too spicy, but this shit is brutal. It’s a shame, because I really wanted to taste the sauce more, yet most of the time I only tasted the pain. (Sick XRA reference.) I would highly recommend this ramen as long as you have a glass of milk at hand.
The day after, I went to Morg, my partner in crime, ‘s place and bullied him into eating the second packet. He started making pained noises almost immediately and maybe cried a bit halfway through the bowl, but did agree with me that the stuff is delicious, so there’s that. That’s your cross-examination of the day.
Overall, I’d give the Samyang Hot Chicken Flavor Ramen a 89,2/100 rating. A few points off for actively trying to kill me. Nevertheless, very good quality and definitely something to try if you can handle a little bit of masochism.
