I was at the store and saw this Ottogi Ramen Bokki staring at me and I mistakenly thought that it was a version of ttoekbokki. Apparently bokki means stir fry though and this was not the case. I was a bit disappointed at this but was happy to find that the flavor for these is very similar to my favorite chewy Korean street food ttoekbokki.
I bought the bowl version and was delighted that it came it a drain-able bowl as this is stir fry and is meant to be eaten dry. There was a pack of paste and a packet of dried veggies inside with a noodle puck.
I had hoped the noodle puck might be different in some way as I was still thinking this should be like tteokbokki and perhaps the noodles might be extra chewy. This was not the case though and as far as noodle pucks go this was good but nothing too different from many other Ottogi noodles.
The seasoning paste was very thick and had a very strong gochujang smell. There didn’t seem to be a lot of oil that I find in many pastes and I was very hopeful at the gochujang flavor as that is one of the key flavors for ttoekbokki.
The dried veggies were not distinct or memorable. They were fine for what they were and the fish cake elves have been put to work again to provide tiny fish cake slices. I say slices being very generous as flake might be more appropriate.
I boiled some water to the veggies and noodles to the fill line, covered and drained when the time was up. Ripped off the lid and mixed in the paste. The gochujang is strong with this one! Smelled strong it did! I love it.
The noodles were not in fact very chewy but the paste tastes very much like ttoekbokki and the noodles were good without being the best I’ve ever had. The fish cake might as well not have been in it for all the flavor and texture it provided but the paste more than made up for it. These are a little spicy as tteokbokki should be but they’re no where near “very spicy”. In the end the packaging and bowl make them convenient and the flavor is pretty good. Not a bad ramen at all.