GoGo noodles

I was craving something savory, sour and fast! I was hungry and knew this Tom Yum flavor would hit the spot. I peeled back the lid to find 1 seasoning packet, 1 flavoured oil packet and a small convenient plastic fork. Fun! All the seasoning went into the bowl and 1 quick push from my nifty Zojirushi hot water dispenser and I was set. The noodles were thin but were soft and springy in texture. I accidentally left the noodles covered for a little too long so that’s why the noodles were on the softer side. The tom yum flavor was on the milder side which wasn’t exactly a bad thing. Overall, this was a nice snack.

I’ve noticed more of a variety of Vietnamese instant noodles popping up. However, they are hard to find. These were given to me by a friend, otherwise, I’ve never seen these in the Asian grocery stores. Most of the Vietnamese noodle dishes are made with rice noodles as it’s used more often in their dishes. I was surprised by all the ingredients and fork that they were able to cram in this tiny cup. The soup had a distinct beef flavor. I think I tasted a hint of basil also but overall, the soup was too salty. I could have done without the oil packet or just added less too. As you can see, the portion size of these noodles are very small and barely enough to make a decent meal. I would not buy these for myself.

I was a little confused when making this. The noodles came with one packet of a brownish-reddish bean paste. The directions say to add the paste to the pot of boiling noodles but I was afraid that the flavor would be too diluted so I drained the noodles instead. I was content with my decision to drain the noodles because the paste barely coated them. As you can see, the color of the noodles are not as colorful as the serving suggestion picture. In a hurry, I didn’t bother with the extra veggies and the egg which would have enhanced these noodles 100 percent. The flavor was interesting…the paste was on the sweeter side and was tangy, tasted similar to gochu jang but not quite. I was pleasantly surprised that it was spicy!

These noodles, in it’s fancy gold packaging turned out to be delicious! It’s different from the rest of the instant Korean noodles that I’ve had…which have mostly been red, spicy and seafoody. I had no idea what gomtang meant so I did a little research and found that gom tang is a meat and tripe soup. A variety of beef cuts, beef and ox tail bones are boiled over a long period of time that result in a rich, creamy and flavorful broth. It reminded me of the Japanese tonkotsu broth. To be honest, it’s not something that I would normally order if I saw it on a menu, but after this, I have to try the real thing. When I first opened up the package, there was the normal powdered seasoning packet and also a packet of thin brown sauce. The noodles are not as thick as most other Korean instant noodles, they were actually like “regular” ramen noodles. The addition of the egg was pretty yummy too. Wish I had some green onions but I was out!….shocker!

Assembling non-broth noodles or dry noodles as I like to call them is always fun. Because of the extra steps, I feel as if I’m actually making the noodles from scratch…well sort of. As with most “dry noodles”, there were 3 sauce packets: 1 seasoning powder, 1 packet of hardened oil and 1 packet of a thick soy based sauce. So I poured all the seasonings into my dish and added the cooked and drained noodles and mixed! I usually don’t drain the noodles thoroughly because the extra water helps in mixing everything together. Make sure to mix well so that teeny bit of sauce coats all the noodles. These noodles were pretty tasty and almost tasted like the real thing. I would highly recommend adding a squeeze or two of lemon juice. You can’t have pancit without lemon or even better, kalamansi if available! I should have shredded the cabbage into thinner slices but I was lazy. Sliced celery and carrots would have been a great addition too.

I went back to basics with this packet of noodles. Didn’t doctor it up based on the serving suggestion picture (well, I didn’t have any shrimp anyways). All I added was an egg and some cilantro…just like I used to make it in my school days. You can always count on Thai instant noodles to satiate every flavor craving. My favorite is actually the creamy tom yum flavor but I haven’t been able to get my hands on any for a while now. So in an effort to make the soup a bit more hardy and creamy, I broke up the egg by stirring it with the noodles. The sprigs of cilantro are for color. If you are really hungry, I would suggest to make 2 packets of these noodles. As with most Thai instant noodles, the serving portion is rather small, which is perfect for me. The noodles themselves are usually thinner which I also enjoy.