Country of origin: Korea
Bought at Super Oriental Market
Ok, so Teumsae is kind of a big deal in Korea (I'm assuming South). It's a big chain of ramen restaurants, and they have a line of home foods as well (a la Taco Bell, White Castle, etc) and this is the basic ramen of that lineup. There's not a single word of English on the package other than Since 1981 at the top, but there is a smug looking Korean chef on there. That tells me pretty much everything I need to know. It does however have an English ingredient list on the back, and from what I can tell it looks like this is a spicy beef flavor. One of the first ingredients is red pepper extract, and there's beef flavor extract and beef bone extract (bone extract?) among other semi questionable things. Enough jibba jabba, here we go!
Pretty standard deal here. It's a 120g Samyang size noodle block with a veggie pack and a seasoning pack and there is definitely a lot of both to be had in this package. They don't skimp on anything. Seasoning smells strongly of paprika and pepper, while veggies are green onions (of course), red pepper flakes and seaweed. A little too much seaweed for my taste, but let's cook it up and see how it goes.
WTF is up with Blogger's photo uploader? Get it together, y'all!
Anyway, I'm gonna be honest. This one's good, but it's not great. It is very spicy, and when I say very spicy, it may very well be the spiciest ramen I've ever eaten. Spicier than Shin Ramyun even! So in that respect it does not disappoint. Sometimes it's good to have your nose run while you eat, you know for your sinuses and stuff. Along with the spiciness, though, is something that is hard to describe. I want to say it's a fishy taste but I'm not sure. It's kind of a strange after taste that's not bad per say, but gives you a "what the hell did I eat?" kinda feeling. Basically these are very hot so if you like spicy ramen give em a try, but keep in mind it has a slightly funky taste. I'm giving these a 7/10 for the spiciness.
