Samyang Buldak – Carbonara Spicy Ramen

Bitter: ⭐✰✰✰✰

Salty: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✰

Sour: ⭐✰✰✰✰

Sweet: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰

Umami: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✰

Heat: ⭐⭐✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰

Quick Flavor Notes: Sweet, mild cheese, heat, garlic and spices

Texture: Soft noodles that still have some chew, thick sauce

Recommended: Yes

Ingredients: Noodle: Wheat Flour, Food Starch, Modified Palm Oil, Wheat Gluten, Salt, Glycerin, Soybean Oil, Onion Extract, Potassium Carbonate, Guar Gum, Riboflavin (Color). Sauce: Water, Artificial Chicken Flavor Powder (Dextrin, Yeast Extract, Artificial Flavor, Water, Sugar, Maltodextrin, Salt), Soy Sauce (Water, Soybean, Salt, Wheat), Sugar, Chili Pepper, Soybean Oil, Onion, Monosodium Glutamate, Chili Pepper Seed Oil, Garlic, Food Starch-Modified, Paprika Oleoresin (Color). Powder: Milk, Sugar, Salt, Mozzarella Cheese (Palm Oil, Skim Milk, Milk Cream, Water, Enzymes), Annatto Extract (Color), Oleoresin Paprika (Color), Butter, Food Starch-Modified, Parsley, Soybean Oil, Garlic, Black Pepper

Buldak, literally translated as Fire Chicken, is a South Korean dish of chicken pieces and rice cakes (and sometimes vegetables) in a spicy sauce, often covered with cheese. It’s also the brand of Samyang’s most successful product which has branched out from their original Buldak flavored ramen into a range of a dozen ramen flavors plus hot sauces, chips, and other snacks with their distinctive seasoning blend.

Carbonara is a classic Italian dish features pasta, guanciale (cured pork cheeks similar to bacon), egg yolks, pecorino romano cheese, and of course copious amounts of black pepper. It’s not a spicy dish nor does it include chicken. That raises the question about how closely this mash-up dish will play to its namesake.

The answer is, of course, that it’s nowhere near the Italian ideal of carbonara. Samyang Buldak has never been accused of tasting natural, and in fact proudly proclaims on the front of all of their packaging that their chicken flavor is artificial. No bone broth, schmaltz, or other authentic chicken flavor to be had here. Instead of a hard strongly flavored Italian cheese the Buldak Carbonara makes use of mozzarella, interestingly made with palm oil, not something I’ve seen before in a mozzarella. Like classic carbonara this does have black pepper, but also garlic, onion, and of course the chili pepper flavors we’d expect from the Buldak side.

The cheese power in the seasoning does make this version taste creamier than original flavor of Buldak. The heat level is lower than the original as well but this still has some spice and would be enough to cause a bit of a warm tingle for those with lower tolerances. I typically prefer soupy noodle dishes to dry ones such as this but the noodles do have good texture for an instant ramen product and there’s plenty of sauce to evenly coat everything. The flavor is spicy and sweet with the notes of garlic, onion, and cheese coming through along with a big umami sensation. The chili flavor in original Buldak there’s no real flavor of an individual type of pepper more of a general sense of ‘hot’ that comes from the extract used. Like original Buldak there’s also the unmistakable flavor that you’re eating something that in large part is artificial and there’s a peculiar chemical taste that’s difficult to describe that that isn’t entirely off-putting. No one expects instant ramen to be health food and while Buldak is perhaps one of the worst offenders when it comes to loading up with artificial ingredients, they have the experience with them to create something tasty out of them.

While this is as far from the typical craft hot sauces and spicy foods that I usually love as you can get, it’s still tasty in a guilty pleasure type of way, and there’s nothing wrong with occasionally letting some processed foods into your diet. For those reasons I will give Samyang Buldak Carbonara Spicy Ramen my recommendation.