Nong Shim Chapagetti

Made By:  Nong Shim America, Inc.
Required to Prepare:  saucepan & range, strainer,  2-1/2 cups + 3 tablespoons water
560 calories per package

Available online through Amazon.com

Today we have a pack of Nong Shim's Chapagetti for review!  This is an instant version of a very popular Korean dish called chajangmyeon, which (according to Wikipedia) consists of noodles topped with a salty black-bean paste.  They should be interesting to try!

Inside the package is a disc of the puffy-looking noodles like the ones in Nong Shim's Neoguri, along with a packet of dried 'Vegetable Mix', a packet of soup base, and a small pouch of oil.  We are supposed to boil 2-1/2 cups of water, add the noodles and veggie packet and cook for five minutes, then drain the noodles well.  We put the drained noodles in our bowl, add the oil, soup base, and 3 tablespoons of water, and stir thoroughly.  Since the soup base seemed a bit coursely ground, the stirring was easier said than done, but eventually the noodles are coated with a thick, dark sauce and are ready to serve!

The star of this show, of course, is the chajang sauce, so we'll start with that; it has a deep, nutty, almost coffee or cocoa-like flavor, and isn't nearly as salty-tasting as I expected based on the description of chajangmyeon that I read.  It definitely doesn't taste like it looks like it would taste, if that makes any sense.  The vegetable mix seems to be mainly toasted onion with some carrot and faux beef bits; they are present and accounted for but don't seem to assert themselves above the sauce that much.  The noodles are spaghetti-like in consistency (hence the "pagetti" part of the name), soft but not mushy.

I didn't find these all that exciting, but they do seem to have a comfort-food vibe going on.  Although I am a bit curious now to taste some "real" chajangmyeon to compare, I doubt if I'll be seeking them out on a regular basis. :|

Nong Shim Shin Ramyun BLACK

Made By:  Nong Shim America Inc.
Required to Prepare:  Water, saucepan & range (or bowl and microwave)
560 calories per package

Available online through Amazon.com

So, it's been a while... did y'all miss me?

Today I finally tried a package of the infamous "Shin Ramyun Black" by Nong Shim.  The infamy, by the way, stems from the fact that Nong Shim of Korea got hit with a false-advertising fine for stating that their new Shin Ramyun Black was nutritionally "the perfect food."  I was unaware of all the controversy when I purchased them (although I do find it amusing), and honestly I'm much more interested to see how the flavor compares to Shin Ramyun 'Red'.  So, on with the review!

Inside the package is a disk of noodles that looks just like the ones in normal Shin Ramyun, along with three packets; there is a "Beef and Vegetable Mix" which has the usual dried veggies but also some dehydrated beef chips including some dried mushrooms, a plain "Soup Base," and something called a "Sul-Long-Tang Soup Base" which is apparently a bone soup of some sort.  We boil 550cc [2-1/3 cups] of water, then add everything to the pot and cook for five minutes.  Then we just transfer the soup to our bowl and serve!

The broth is very creamy-looking, and the little chunks of beef mushrooms are easily visible.  Like the other Shin Ramyun, the noodles have a nice texture, and are flavorful from cooking in the soup broth.  The broth itself has the expected spiciness, although it does seem to be a bit milder than regular Shin Ramyun... maybe the creaminess from the Sul-Long-Tang stuff is toning it down a bit.  There is a much deeper beef broth flavor here than in the normal Shin Ramyun, too.  The rehydrated mushroom pieces stay a bit tough and don't seem to have a lot of flavor on their own, but I'm imagining they've contributed their flavor into the broth instead, and it's not like they really detract or anything.  It seems a bit more "premium" than adding powder mushroom extract, anyway.

I think I may have actually enjoyed the flavor of these more than regular Shin Ramyun; the extra flavors from the beef bone extract seemed to provide some welcome complexity to help the flavor not be quite so one-sided.  However, the premium price on these makes the question of value a bit harder to answer... but I will say that I'm more interested in having this product again than I am the regular Shin Ramyun.  :)

Soup it Up:  Most times we enjoy this soup, we do add a soft egg to it, to balance the spice level with a bit of richness and creaminess.  There's no huge need to add other items because of the 'premium' nature of the included add-ins, but some thin slices of beef could be a thing.
Also, my wife decided to try adding some sour cream to hers, as a different variation to 'cool down' the spice, and I thought that was a worthy option as well, the sourness brings forward a different set of flavors than with the ultra-creamy egg yolk.

{5/15/15 edit: I've recently realized that what I had thought were strange little pieces of beef were actually mushrooms.  They make much more sense to me now. ^_^; }

Butterfly Bento #3: Leftover Steak

Back to making lunches after a round with a bad winter cold!  Today's bento is some sliced leftover steak on a bed of rice flavored with a little steak sauce (and parsley for garnish), with some snap peas, cheese cubes, and half of a satsuma mandarine.

Butterfly Bento #2: Smoked Salmon Sushi

Another work week, another set of hers & hers bento boxes!  This one has nigiri sushi with some smoked salmon slices for topping, along with sugar snap peas, carrots, Havarti cheese cubes, and nuts.  (Mine has wasabi & soy almonds, and she doesn't like those so hers has plain mixed nuts.)  ^_^

(If you're interested in practical bento making, be sure to check out Makiko Itoh's Just Bento blog for all you could ever want to know about the subject!)

Safeway Select Chicken Bacon Alfredo Pizza

Distributed by:  Safeway Inc.
Tools Required:  Oven
600 calories per 1/2 pizza

I debated with myself as to whether to include store-brand products like this one, but I decided that Safeway is a national chain, after all, and I imagine there are people who would like to know if the store-branded products can compare with the more-expensive name brands.  Now that that's settled, it's time for the Butterfly to review!

Out of the package, the pizza doesn't look too bad; there is a fairly generous sprinkling of bacon bits and cubes of white-meat chicken.  It kind of looks like there isn't much sauce, but that could just be because it's a white sauce and blends in with the crust.  I preheat the oven to 425°, fix the positioning of the chicken cubes a bit, and bake it for 13 minutes (the package says 12-14).  Let it cool for a bit, and it's time to serve!

The pastry-style "Pizzeria Crust" isn't too bad, although I think the Red Baron crust was better both in texture and flavor.  I think this one could have stood a little extra time in the oven to crisp up, and maybe then the texture would have compared better.  The chicken pieces have a nice "real-meat" texture and flavor and stay tender and moist, and there is a nice balance between chicken and bacon. The sauce, though, seems a bit off to me; it doesn't come across as quite rich enough to be true alfredo sauce, and especially with the black pepper sprinkling, it ends up tasting a bit more like country gravy to me--which makes the whole thing taste kind of like one of those 'breakfast' pizzas.

Overall, I think it did seem like a quality product and a decent value; it might not be quite as appealing as the name-brand Red Baron pizza I tried last time, but it wasn't bad by any means.  I will be interested to try one with a normal pizza sauce for a better comparison.  As for this particular flavor, my sweetie said she liked it, but I'm probably going to try something else next time.  :|

Samyang Cold Ramen with Ponytail Radish (Yulmu Bibimmyun)

Made By:  Samyang Foods Co., Ltd. (Korea)
Also Required:  Saucepan & Range, Water, Strainer, Bowl/Utensils
550 calories per package

Available online at OrderRamen.com

For today's lunch, I am going to try something completely different--this "stir noodle" style product from Samyang is made to be served chilled (hence the name Cold Ramen).  On the side of the package, it says "Yulmu Bibimmyun," which I'm guessing is a Korean noodle dish of some sort, which this is the instant variety of.  It's also described as a Spicy Radish flavor, so I am expecting the chili heat that is typical for Korean ramyun.  I'm actually a little nervous about this one, I'm not going to lie... but if I didn't want to try it, I shouldn't have bought it in the first place, so here goes!

Inside the package is a block of very pale-looking noodles, and one packet of a deep red seasoning paste.  We are to boil 600ml of water, or around 2-1/2 cups, add the noodles and cook for 4 minutes, then drain them and rinse under cold water until they are chilled.  Then we transfer them to our bowl, add the sauce and toss until mixed well, and it is ready to serve.

I have to say, the experience of eating cold noodles is dramatically different than having hot ones--it's like the difference between a nice hot plate of spaghetti and a cold pasta salad.  The texture of the noodles seems very different; they feel much firmer and chewier, not quite to the point of being off-putting, but almost.  The sauce does have a kind of radish-vegetable flavor going on, but that is all overpowered by the intense heat level.  These are some seriously spicy noodles!  I think I have a pretty good tolerance for the chili heat, but these left my mouth burning for at least fifteen minutes after I was done.  (Even my sweetie commented that I don't normally carry on like that after eating spicy noodles.)  Whew~!

I think overall, I would have to say that these really aren't my kind of thing.  While the fact that they were served cold didn't bother me in and of itself, I didn't really care for the rubbery texture of the noodles, and the spice heat was a little over the top even for me.  I do think that as a cold noodle, they feel more like a summertime thing to me, but if I were to revisit the cold noodle category again in the summer, I think I might try to find something a little less extreme, and give this one a pass.  :\

My first homemade bento box lunch!

A while back, I was cruising the internet and I ended up looking at Makiko Itoh's Just Bento blog.  My sweetie and I had been talking about trying to make some healthier meals, and I was very inspired by the recipes and meals that she presented.  Yesterday I went to Uwajimaya Bellevue again, and I found some really cute bento boxes on sale--this one was only $9.00!  I ended getting us two boxes each for less than $50.  Last night I made some Japanese rice (which was the best rice I ever made thanks to Itoh-san's easy to understand recipe) and today I put together our first bento lunches!

I made matching hers-and-hers lunches (her bento box is the same style but green); on the left is a bed of rice with some katsuo furikake, and then a good helping of leftover baked salmon from last night's dinner.  I tried to cut out little hearts from some teriyaki nori strips for decoration, and then I just crumbled the rest of it up for topping.  On the right is some sweet cherry tomatoes, cheese cubes, broccoli, and grapes.

I spent about a half-hour this morning putting everything together, but it was a lot of fun.  I'm looking forward to doing more of them soon!