Buldak Ramen

Submission 2,492

About

Buldak Ramen or Buldak Carbonara refers to an instant noodle product made by Samyang Foods and sold around the world. The line of products, of which Buldak Carbonara is the most prominent, are famous for their high spice level. Throughout the 2010s and 2020s, the ramen noodles were the subject of viral spice tolerance challenges. In late 2023 into early 2024, recipes combining the spicy noodles with cheese and cooking them made the rounds on TikTok, garnering increasing attention for the food.

Online History

The official site of Samyang Foods calls the Buldak Ramen line the "Global Icon of K-Spicy."^[1] The first Buldak Ramens were sold in Korea in 2012, and were then distributed abroad in the years to follow, becoming the brand's most popular (and most spicy) product.^[2]

Fire Noodle Challenge

In 2014, the "Fire Noodle Challenge" spread online following a video posted by the account Korean Englishman, which showed people in Britain trying the noodles. The video (seen below) received over 11 million views and 86,000 upvotes over the course of nine years, spawning a series of other challenge videos which depicted people trying the extremely spicy noodles.^[3]

TikTok Resurgence

In 2023, Buldak Ramen saw a resurgence on TikTok. Like in the previous viral cycle about the product, the spiciness of the noodles interest posters who made challenge videos of themselves eating the Buldak Ramen. For example, @haihjbebhjsq124 received over 1 million likes and 24 million views over the course of eight months on April 7th, 2023 for posting an "ASMR" video of himself eating the spicy ramen noodles (seen below) and having "no reaction," although in the comments section, viewers noted that his eyes appeared to be watering towards the end.^[4]

Various recipes describing ways to cook the ramen also were devised throughout the 2020s, with posters experimenting by adding different things to the noodles and their sauce. The noodles became a subject of mukbang videos as well. In January of 2024, videos about cooking the noodles with cheese became increasingly prominent on TikTok, with creators like @hannahg11 (seen below left) posting on January 4th, 2024 about seeing them "everywhere on my For You page" and making their own.^[5] Other creators, like @checkoutvick (seen below right) posted about making the Buldak Ramen recipe, earning almost a quarter of a million likes and almost two million views in three days (seen below right) on January 5th, 2024, also beginning his video by pointing out how popular the noodles were on TikTok.^[6]