Since the release of the South Korean movie Parasite, fans have been raving about ram-don, a dish made using two types of instant noodles and topped with premium Hanwoo beef.
In the movie, rich housewife Choi Yeon-gyo instructs her housekeeper to prepare ram-don, with the addition of premium Hanwoo beef, within eight minutes.
The craze for the dish has intensified since the film clinched four Oscars at the Academy Awards last week.
On Feb 11, South Korean noodle manufacturer Nongshim, which produces the Chapagetti and Neoguri noodles featured in the movie, released its own YouTube cooking tutorial for the dish, known as Jjapaguri in Korean.
Ram-don is a dish name coined by the Seoul-based American film scholar Darcy Paquet, who wrote the movie's English subtitles. He had found it difficult to translate Jjapaguri.
In the movie, Jjapaguri is made by combining two types of noodles - Chapagetti Chajangmyun Noodles, made using black bean sauce, and Neoguri Seafood & Spicy Ramyun, an udon-style soup-based noodle product.
This hybrid dish is not new in South Korea. According to the Korean Herald, the dish first went viral in 2009 after it was introduced by an online community user and later featured in Korean reality TV shows.
What is attention-grabbing about the movie's version is the addition of premium Hanwoo steak to accentuate how wealthy the family is. Hanwoo beef is from a highly prized and priced breed of cattle that is native to Korea, which South Koreans indulge in only on special occasions such as the New Year.
Hanwoo beef is not available in Singapore - South Korea is not on the Singapore Food Agency's approved beef imports list, but you can recreate the decadence of the dish by using well-marbled ribeye or striploin steak.
To replicate the dish at home, I splurged on a piece of Australian wagyu beef striploin, which costs $138 a kilogram at Culina at Como Dempsey.
I had difficulties buying Chapagetti and Neoguri instant noodles at Korean supermarkets here and could get only the bowl versions. Korean supermarket chain Sol Mart's manager Robin Yoon, 48, said both the Chapagetti and Neoguri in multi-pack packaging versions have been sold out since last week, partly due to the spate of panic-buying over fears of the coronavirus, as well as rabid interest from Parasite's fans.
If using noodles from the bowl packaging, I recommend cooking them in residual heat for a better texture. If you are able to get the packet versions, boil the noodles for two minutes.
The packet version of the Chapagetti noodles has a sachet of oil which you can add together with the seasoning.
While cooking the noodles, fry up the beef. It takes about two minutes for the beef to cook to medium doneness.
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RAM-DON (JJAPAGURI)
INGREDIENTS
1 litre of water
1 packet of Chapagetti Chajangmyun Noodles
1 packet of Neoguri Seafood & Spicy Ramyun
300g wagyu striploin, cut into 3.5cm-thick cubes
Pinch of salt
Dash of crushed black pepper
2 Tbs cooking oil
1 stalk of spring onion, sliced
METHOD
1. Bring 1 litre of water to a boil in a pot.
2. Add the Chapagetti noodles and Neoguri noodles into the pot.
3. Add the vegetable mix of both packets into the pot.
4. Cover the pot, turn off the heat and allow noodles to cook in residual heat for two minutes.
5. While waiting for the noodles to cook, heat two tablespoons of oil in a frying pan.
6. Season the beef with black pepper and salt. Add the beef to the pan and fry over high heat for two minutes. Turn off the heat and set aside.
7. Strain the noodles. Reserve 150ml of the cooking liquid.
8. Pour the cooking liquid back into the pot and bring it to a simmer. Add all of the Chapagetti seasoning and two-thirds of the Neoguri seasoning. Stir well.
9. Turn off the heat and add the noodles into the pot. Mix well.
10. Add the beef and pan juices into the noodles and mix briefly.
11. Garnish with spring onion and serve
