As a blogger, nothing makes me happier than finding something unique or interesting to share on my blog. When I was at the supermarket last week, I came across this peculiar spaghetti ramen product (brand name: Ottogi) at the international food aisle. When I laid my eyes on it, I knew I just wouldn't let up on the chance to sample it and blog about it after.
Normally, I would go for this Korean ramen brand called Nong Shim, but just as I was about to reach for a bowl of Nong Shim noodles, the spaghetti ramen next to it caught my attention.
Spaghetti. Ramen.
Normally, you wouldn't find these two words together within the same sentence, but this certain Korean company just decided to put them together. I'm guessing those who came up with this product conceptualized it after having one too many bottles of Soju (a Korean alcoholic beverage).
Almost everything on the packaging is written out with hangeul characters, with only one or two words/phrases in the Latin alphabet. This caused a bit of trouble for me--I'll explain in a bit.
As always, the picture of the food on the packaging makes it so attractive. I think the photo was what really attracted me to try out this product. That, and the fact that you normally don't see the words "spaghetti" and ramen" together.
Just like regular bowl noodles, I added hot water, and then added in the sauce, veggies, and powder, and then waited for a few minutes before I started eating. After reading more about the product online, however, it was only then that I found out that I was supposed to have drained the water first before mixing in the sauce, veggies, and powder. But how was I supposed to know? Everything was written in Korean! Besides, the way the product was packaged made it look like your typical bowl noodles. Oh well.
The end result looks nothing like the photo on the packaging (but then again, I should have expected that already). There was nothing special about it, too--if you look at the photo above, it looks just like your regular bowl of Korean noodles. Nope, nothing spaghetti-ish about it. Not at all.
Well, what about the taste, then? Overall, the product is bland, and I don't think much would have changed had I prepared the product the "proper" way. The sauce had just a hint of sweetness that also tastes a bit like tomato sauce, but doesn't really add much to the whole thing. The veggies and meat mixed in were nothing special--just your typical add-ons that don't taste like anything at all. Contrary to how it looks, the spaghetti ramen wasn't spicy at all, so no use of having a pitcher of water right next to you while eating (as I would normally do when eating a bowl of Korean noodles). It would have been better if they just made it even a bit spicier, or at least added more flavor. This product that seemed to be so promising turned out to be quite a disappointment.
I think I want my money back.
You ate it wrong, you are suppose to drain the water after letting the raw noodles get soft and then add the sauce.... look at your first picture, at the top of the picture of the noodles you will see 4 exclamation boxes (with 4 exclamation marks before them) thats where you puncture the packaging to train the water.
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