Hello! Today, I will introduce CU’s new fresh food menu, Gupsik Daega Hanwoo Yukgaejang Gukbap. It feels like CU has released a lot of Gupsik Daega menus now! From lunch boxes to ramen, single items, kimbap, and sandwiches, they have now released fresh food instant menus.
It’s Yukgaejang Gukbap! I bought it with more concern than expectation because when convenience stores like CU release such fresh food menus, there’s a slight sense of unease. Let’s find out what kind of menu it is!
Gupsik Daega Hanwoo Yukgaejang Gukbap Price and Features
In fact, these instant soup-type fresh foods are not just CU’s issue, and the quality and composition vary so much from menu to menu that I usually don’t review them. But since it was released as part of the Gupsik Daega series, I decided to trust it and buy it. The regular price is 6,900 won.
This menu is a bit more expensive than other soup or stew-type fresh menus, but it includes two additional side dishes! The Yukgaejang itself is said to be filled with Hanwoo beef and green onions, with a clean taste concept. Some people prefer Yukgaejang to be spicy, while others like it moderately spicy and salty. I’m curious about what style this will be, haha.
The total content is 476g with 480Kcal, and sodium is at 99% of the daily recommended intake. For a gukbap menu that requires hot water for cooking, the content is quite substantial, but the calories are relatively low! The sodium level is slightly higher compared to typical lunch box menus! It proudly states that the beef used is domestic Hanwoo.
The cooking method is to first cook the instant rice, then pour hot water into the Yukgaejang and cook it separately! The rice is meant to be mixed with the Yukgaejang and eaten with the side dishes. I thought the side dishes would be in a separate container, but it seems they are packed separately in the instant rice container, haha.
Gupsik Daega Hanwoo Yukgaejang Gukbap Composition
Let’s quickly check the composition. It includes Yukgaejang ingredients and sauce, instant rice, dried radish and fish cake side dishes, and a spoon. The soup bowl container seems to aim for a slightly earthenware style! The instant rice uses the common Crate rice bowl used in such fresh food menus.
The Yukgaejang sauce and ingredients are quite substantial, and there are quite a lot of ingredients at a glance. Given the price, it also includes separate side dishes! Although the price feels a bit high, if the taste is decent, it might be acceptable!
Gupsik Daega Hanwoo Yukgaejang Gukbap Cooking
Let’s start cooking right away. I pre-cooked the instant rice, then without fully removing the packaging, I added the Yukgaejang ingredients and sauce to the soup bowl, poured hot water, and cooked it in the microwave!
Once the soup was cooked, I immediately added the instant rice. I squeezed the side dishes into the remaining instant rice container! The vacuum packaging is quite tight, so it doesn’t come out easily, just a heads up, haha.
The cooked visual looks like this. When it was just the soup, it seemed a bit lacking, but after adding the rice, it seems to be a reasonable amount. With the appropriate side dishes, it seems quite decent! Let’s taste it right away.
Gupsik Daega Hanwoo Yukgaejang Gukbap Taste
I took a big spoonful of the gukbap and tasted it! The main ingredients seem to be mushrooms, green onions, and beef! It’s not surprising, but the beef isn’t as abundant as expected. Still, there’s a decent amount, haha.
The overall taste is slightly spicy with a bit of saltiness, and it’s not a style that relies on chili oil for flavor, so the aftertaste is quite clean! It seems to have excellently recreated the taste of old Yukgaejang specialty restaurants.
Overall, it’s a menu that you have to eat with just a bit of side dish and gukbap. It’s not a menu that makes you feel very full, but it provides a moderate sense of satiety and is quite comfortable to eat (though it’s a bit salty) as a fresh food menu.
If you like this style of Yukgaejang soup, you might find it quite tasty. Haha. If you feel the soup is a bit lacking but want to feel full, buying an extra cheap instant rice to mix in might be a good idea, haha.
Overall, it was a menu that could be considered decent for a fresh food soup menu. The taste was surprisingly clean and good, and considering it’s convenience store food, the ingredients weren’t too bad, and there were separate side dishes. Haha. It was nice to be able to scrape the bowl clean!
