Hello! Today, I’m introducing CU’s new instant food menu, Bbangbbang’s Spicy Street Food Fish Cake Noodle Soup(빵빵이의 얼큰 포장마차 어묵국수). CU has collaborated with the YouTube animation Bbangbbang to present various menus! This time, they released a spicy noodle soup with street food-style fish cakes, so I decided to try it. I remember having convenience store lunch boxes, instant food menus like Bibim Noodles or Banquet Noodles a few times! I’m quite looking forward to this menu! Let’s find out what this menu is all about.
Spicy Street Food Fish Cake Noodle Soup Price and Features
As the weather gets chilly, I was looking for a decent menu at the convenience store when I stumbled upon a new product. It turns out it was released back in September. So, thinking it was a new product, I bought it right away. This product is part of the refrigerated instant food lineup, and microwave cooking is recommended. It’s said to be a daily collaboration menu with Bbangbbang, which I’ve seen a few times at CU!
The total content of this menu is 204g, with 420Kcal, and sodium is 195% of the daily recommended intake! The content and calories are about the level of regular ramen, but the sodium content is quite high. If you don’t drink all the soup, it might not be a big issue, but for those who love soup like me, it’s good to keep this in mind! It might be necessary to consciously eat a little less than usual.
The cooking method is to put the noodles, two types of sauce, and fish cake in the container, pour hot water up to the marked line, and cook in the microwave for 4 minutes at 1000W or 4 minutes 30 seconds at 700W. After cooking, just check to add the flakes. Additionally, there’s a character sticker included, but since it’s not an animation I usually watch… well, that’s that.
Composition and Cooking Method of Spicy Street Food Fish Cake Noodle Soup
Let’s check the composition right away! Inside the package, there are noodles, fish cake, two types of sauce, and flakes! The noodles are dried and packaged like ramen, and the reason it’s a refrigerated product is probably because of the fish cake! The amount of fish cake is quite a lot, more than expected.
Interestingly, there are two types of sauce! One is a special fish cake udon sauce, and the other is a spicy udon sauce, making a total of two. It says to add both sauces! Is that why the sodium content is high?
Let’s start cooking right away. I put the noodles and fish cake in the cooking container first, and added the two types of sauce together! It feels a bit like a concentrate!
After pouring hot water up to the marked line, I gently loosened the noodles and cooked them using the microwave (I used 1000W)!
This is how it looks after cooking! Although it’s called fish cake noodle soup, the broth is closer to udon (the sauce also seems to be based on soy sauce and katsuobushi, similar to fish cake and udon) and the aroma is almost like udon. I also sprinkled the flakes appropriately!
The flakes mainly consist of seasoned seaweed, dried green onions, roasted sesame seeds, and a bit of dried tofu, but surprisingly, there’s nothing like tenkatsu, making it feel similar to the flakes used in banquet noodles. Well, some people say that the taste of broth used in noodles or udon is similar these days, so it shouldn’t be a big issue!
Taste of Spicy Street Food Fish Cake Noodle Soup
Let’s take a bite right away! After mixing well with the flakes sprinkled on top, I took a big bite of the noodles! The broth definitely tastes closer to udon, and although the noodles are noodles, it felt like the noodles I used to have at street food-style pubs!
A similar menu was the Seven Eleven’s Aged Kimchi Banquet Noodle Lunch Box, which had a strong anchovy broth with soy sauce, while this menu has a strong katsuobushi and soy sauce flavor, so if you’re expecting just banquet noodles, it might be a bit polarizing.
But if you don’t get into the details and just think of it as noodles in udon broth, the taste is quite good! Even if it’s ramen, noodle menus are mostly popular with rice noodles, so I personally find the soft texture of these wheat noodles quite nice!
The fish cake is also quite good. Personally, I think a significant part of the price of this menu might be due to the fish cake. It’s not just dried fish cake cooked in water, but fresh fish cake is used, giving a different eating experience, and the quantity is sufficient, making it satisfying!
And of course, since there are two sauces, it would be nice if the amount of water was simply doubled, but it’s not, so the broth feels quite salty. Still, if you’re having it as a snack, it might be a decent taste, but if you’re having it as a regular meal, you might want to mix in a bit more water, so keep that in mind!
Still, from the perspective of fish cake noodles, the experience of eating noodles in fish cake soup might feel a bit unfamiliar (Japanese-style fish cake udon), but the basic taste is quite good. Thanks to the spicy and warm broth, it’s suitable as a winter meal, and with its savory umami, I thought it was an excellent menu as a snack too!
