Hello! Today, I’m introducing GS25’s new fresh food menu, the Spam Cheese Budae Jjigae, which is a savory and spicy cheese budae jjigae with Spam. This menu has been released as an instant food lineup, not a lunchbox! I love budae jjigae, and it’s been quite a while since I reviewed a new convenience store budae jjigae menu, so I decided to purchase it. Let’s find out what this menu is all about!
Price and Features of Spam Cheese Budae Jjigae
Although I haven’t reviewed it before, budae jjigae is a surprisingly well-replicated menu among the instant foods released by convenience stores, and it gets re-released from time to time! This new menu features a concept of adding whole Spam to cheese budae jjigae. The price is 5,900 won at regular price!
Of course, the Spam is not a whole can but uses the single classic sold in slices the size of a slice of bread. It also seems to include frank sausages and processed cheese.
The cooking method is to put the ramen noodles, Spam, and budae jjigae sauce in a container, pour hot water, and then cook in the microwave for about 4 to 4 and a half minutes. Finally, you can finish by adding cheese. If you want the cheese to melt completely into the soup, you can add it beforehand and heat it up!
The total content is 298g, but the calorie count is quite high at 836Kcal! Also, the sodium content is 161% of the daily recommended intake, so it might be a bit overwhelming to eat it all at once. Haha, but if you don’t drink all the soup, it might be okay somehow!
Composition and Cooking of Spam Cheese Budae Jjigae
Let’s quickly check the composition and start cooking. The composition includes ramen noodles, Spam, soup, and cheese, as seen in the previous cooking method. The plastic container seems to be modeled after a traditional Korean earthenware pot. A plastic spork is provided as standard. The ramen noodles are the half-size mini noodles that are popular these days.
The good news is that the Spam Classic and cheese are the same products sold in retail stores! The soup pouch feels thick when pressed, and it seems to contain quite a lot of ingredients.
First, I put the ramen noodles in the plastic container, then added the soup sauce from the pouch and placed the Spam on top in order.
I considered adding cheese after cooking, but I thought it would be delicious to melt the cheese into the soup, so I placed it directly on top of the ham and cooked it in a 1000w microwave for 4 minutes.
The cheese seems to have melted well into the soup! It doesn’t seem to have burned. The slightly pungent smell of the cheese and the spicy aroma of the soup blend well together!
Taste of Spam Cheese Budae Jjigae
Let’s taste it right away. I mixed the soup and noodles well right after cooking! I also cut the ham into bite-sized pieces.
Thanks to using Spam Classic, the taste of the ham was flawless! However, since the basic cooking was done in the microwave, the unique salty taste of Spam wasn’t completely removed, making it a bit salty to eat as is.
The ingredients are a bit lacking, and the ramen noodles are half-sized, so honestly, it’s more like sipping the soup rather than filling your stomach!
The replication of the soup is quite good. Since the soup is made by melting cheese, you keep wanting to eat it with a spoon! In fact, when buying this kind of budae jjigae, instead of eating it as is, I used to heat up some instant rice or leftover cold rice from the fridge, or add leftover dumplings or cheap frank sausages at home! Haha
In terms of value for money, it’s inevitable that this menu is somewhat lacking due to the nature of convenience store instant foods. Perhaps the only comparable item would be the frozen instant budae jjigae occasionally sold in supermarkets? The kind you pour water into an aluminum foil container and boil directly! Haha
Since the taste of the soup itself is quite good, it would be best to enjoy it as a simple snack as originally intended, or add your desired toppings, or add more rice or noodles to make it more filling. Although the value for money might be a bit lower, haha, the soup taste was a decent menu!
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