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Archive for the 'Instant Food' Category

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Instant Cup Noodles “King Lid” (Wang Ddukkeong)

Published February 14th, 2007 in Instant Food and Noodles. 13 Comments

Instant Cup Noodles King Lid(Wang Ddukkeong) 1

Made by Yakult Korea (110 g, 490 kcal, Sticker Price 850 won)

It’s been nearly 17 years since these King lid (왕뚜껑) cup noodles came out to the world. King lid! What a name! I guess its container is a lot wider than the other ones. What about the taste? As 17 years of history tells, it is pretty good. I think these were the most tasty cup noodles I have ever had so far. Though I remind you, I don’t eat cup noodles very often nor have I tried every cup noodles in Korea yet. I guess I was pretty hungry so it might have helped too.

How to cook (I am sure you know already but for clarification)

Instant Cup Noodles King Lid(Wang Ddukkeong) 3

  1. Open the lid and half of the paper lid. Add the powdered sauce and dried veggies and meat packet.
  2. Pour boiling (100℃) water up to the inside line of the container.
  3. Put the lid on.
  4. Wait about 3 minutes. Stir it well with chopsticks.
  5. Dig in.

Instant Cup Noodles King Lid(Wang Ddukkeong) 2

Yet I prefer slightly undercooked noodles. So I would wait only for 1-2 minutes.

As a Korean, I would describe them as refreshing. That may not work as a description to many of you, but that’s how they make me feel.

Some westerners seem to think that instant noodles are for uni students, yet that is not so in Korea. There is a certain time you crave cup noodles, like a rainy day or when you see someone eating on the TV. Cup noodles are also a very popular snack at Internet cafes, so called PC bangs (but they are usually very smoky, dark, and noisy places unlike a western style one).

What are your favourite cup noodles? And do you have your own secret way to enhance the taste?

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Instant Cold Noodles in Broth (Mul Naengmyun)

Published January 16th, 2007 in Instant Food, Noodles and Product Reviews. 16 Comments
Review - Instant Cold Noodles in Water (Mul Naengmyun)2

When I bought a cold instant noodles pack, Michael said I was crazy. His point was, who would want to have freezing cold noodles in the middle of winter? I picked it up as a back up just in case I couldn’t find buckwheat noodles for New years eve, but since I had found buckwheat noodles I didn’t need to use this packet. However as the expiry date was getting closer, I had to use it up somehow. There, that’s my excuse for cooking these in Winter.

My defense theory (for cooking these in winter) was “the smell of garlic takes away the smell of onions.” Along the same theory, there is also a Korean saying “Rule the heat with the heat and rule the cold with the cold.” Michael insisted that it is a crazy idea. So I decided to eat these noodles when Michael wasn’t around. I had my sister over for a couple of weeks now, so I decided to have the noodles with them. It didn’t make me colder than I expected (I was having noodles on a really well heated floor, so called ondol)

Though, maybe Michael was right. I would have appreciated them more if it was a hot summer day.

This is a picture of the instant packet I used. (It does look really nice, doesn’t it? Although my meal doesn’t look nearly as good as this, but as least mine is very encouraging for you to give it a try ;))

Review - Instant Cold Noodles in Water (Mul Naengmyun)1

Made by CJ

Price : 3,720 won (US $ 3.90) at Homeplus

Inside of the packet (for 2 people) - It includes two packs of noodles, two packs of broth, and two packs of mustard sauce
Review - Instant Cold Noodles in Water (Mul Naengmyun)packet1 Review - Instant Cold Noodles in Water (Mul Naengmyun)packet2

Cooking for 2 people

Review - Instant Cold Noodles in Water (Mul Naengmyun)cooking
  1. Slightly freeze the broth in its packet. (It takes about 3-4 hours)
  2. Boil the noodles in boiling water (7 cups) for 1 minute.
  3. Drain the water and rinse the noodles in cold water a couple of times.
  4. Put the noodles in a bowl, add the broth. You can add boiled egg, cucumber, pickled radish, pear, steamed pork etc, as a topping if you want. I only had egg and cucumber available, so I just added those two.
  5. Enjoy! (You can add the mustard sauce if you want)

The noodles’ taste depends 90% on the broth, and the broth was nearly as good as some restaurants in Korea (Apparently not many restaurants make the broth themselves, they buy it from the food suppliers). In my opinion, as long as you can make some effort for the toppings (more than I did), it will taste as good as you can get them from a restaurant.

Total Points for winter : 3.1 (5 is the highest)

  • Taste - 4/5 (if I had more toppings, I would give 4.5/5)
  • Affordable price - 4.3/5 (compared to eating it at a restaurant where one dish is usually US $5.30)
  • Appropriateness for winter - 1/5 (Just writing about this post, makes me shiver. :))

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Instant Dumplings (Mandu in Korean)

Published December 18th, 2006 in Instant Food. 7 Comments
Instant dumplings- Panfried mandu

One thing I don’t like about winter is its weather. It is just too cold, so I am not as motivated as other seasons to cook any meals. I just want to stay in my room and snuggle up. However the fact that we have to eat to survive is what makes me still cook something. I have to admit that I am a lazy cook. :D

So this is what we had for dinner last night. No rice! No Kimchi! Just some instant fried mandu. (We had kind of a big lunch luckily, so we could cope with just some mandu for dinner.)

instant dumplings

I bought these packs last week at Homeplus. It was really a good deal, because I got these two packs (total 2.4 kg) for 5,880 won (US $ 6.20). Great Bargain isn’t it? So I still have lots more bunches to go. (I am planning to make some mandu soup this weekend.)

I pan fried them, not deep frying. I think pan frying is a more common way to eat mandu instead of deep frying in Korea, and pan fried mandu is called “Gunmandu” in Korean. To get the best result (crispy texture), defrost them completely before you cook them.

You can also steam them or cook them with a microwave.
If you steam them, you can get a result like this. (Eat them when it is still hot. When it gets cold, it is not yummy.)

Instant dumplings- Steamed mandu

Steamed mandu is “Jjinmandu” in Korean and I personally prefer fried mandu.

There are lots of kinds of mandu, such as Kimchi mandu, Meat mandu, Squid mandu, Seafood mandu, even Pizza mandu. The mandu I bought was Japchae mandu.

You can use some soy sauce as a dipping sauce, but I added some extra ingredients for flavour.

Sweet and sour dipping sauce : (Mix these in a bowl)

  • Soy sauce - 2tsp
  • Vinegar (I used apple vinegar) - 1/2 tsp
  • Plum extract - 2 tsp
  • Garlic - 1/10 tsp
  • Chili powder - 1 sprinkle
  • Sesame oil - 1 dash

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