Instameal: Nongshim Doongji Korean Cold Noodle with Chilli Sauce

Name: NongShim Doongji Authentic Korean Cold Noodle with Chilli Sauce
Cost: $1.20
Contents: Wad of arrowroot noodles, 1 sachet of dehydrated fish and seaweed, 1 packet of chilli sauce
Spiciness: 6/10
Taste: Noodles 5/10, Sauce 3/10
Would I buy it again? No.

Nice advertising/ Looks nothing like true product/ See real deal below

It’s a large packet with a plastic tray inside. These sorts of instant noodle (with plastic trays inside) tend to be more expensive, but take more care with their sachets and noodles.

Love the packaging/ However, contents average/ Packaging bumped price

Arrowroot noodles are darker and chewier than buckwheat noodles. It is similar to konnyaku jelly noodles, but much thinner. Seasoning sauce is a hot sauce to be poured over the cooked and washed noodles. Seasoning flakes go into the boiling water with the noodles, a close-up of the flakes can be seen below.

Worst seasoning flakes/ It smells and tastes like fish food/ Just don't it, kids

The things that look like croutons feel like foam packaging peanuts, smell like MSG and taste of bad prawn flavouring.

Question: What was worse?/ Chewy noodles or hot sauce?/ Ack, tough choice. Hot sauce.

You’ll want to boil these noodles in a larger volume of water than you would for other noodles, then rinse them out very thoroughly. Otherwise they are very gluggy. The chilli sauce is a foreboding red (much more red than the picture suggests. The lighting was blue at the time.), but it isn’t as spicy as it looks. It is spicy, but it’s the usual Korean sweet-spicy so I can tolerate it more easily than if it wasn’t sweet.

Maybe I have a thing against cold sauce noodles, I just didn’t think it was delicious. I washed those noodles out repeatedly, but the noodles were gluggy anyway from being drowned in sauce. The sauce got boring after a few mouthfuls, though the sesame seeds make it bearable. The noodles are meant to be chewy, and they are, but I didn’t find it a pleasant summer experience. It was made worse by those dehydrted foam pellets. The texture seems to suggest it’s meant to be fish, but taste like vietnamese prawn cracker chips, and feel like chewing a sponge.
Overall, the dehydrated packet is terrible. The noodles and sauce could be nice if you like this sort of thing. Just don’t overdo the sauce. (I just dislike cold saucy noodles.) But I would strongly suggest for you to use the non-instant packets of arrowroot noodles (which take the same time to cook.) Get a separate chilli sauce too. Add some cucumber, and you have yourself cold noodles with chilli sauce. The instant packet is meant to imitate this dish, but it’s a terrible imitation.