Editorial: It’s Okay to Not Like Buldak

There’s no denying that Samyang’s hype machine with their Buldak product line has been a major force in the noodle industry throughout the last several years. For a while, you couldn’t scroll through social media without seeing someone demolishing a bowl of the original Hot Chicken flavor (or 2x or even 3x nowadays). While it seems like that trend has calmed down a bit, Buldak has done something that very few Korean brands had managed to do before now: infiltrate non-Asian grocery stores. Even those big-name supermarket chains that, a decade ago, would’ve pointed to Frank’s RedHot as the spiciest thing in their aisles are now selling Buldak noodles to unassuming consumers. So as with most things with this much hype and exposure, the inevitable backlash has already been in full swing for a couple years now. When something becomes more of a dare than a dish, it stops being about taste and starts being about spectacle, and I feel like that’s pushed many consumers into the realm of false assumptions about what Buldak is or isn’t.

I frequent the r/InstantRamen subreddit multiple times a day to help out where I can, and one of the main things people complain about is just how many Buldak posts there are. I don’t personally have a problem with that; if Buldak is what it takes to get people more interested in spicy noodles, especially if they’ve only ever been exposed to Cup Noodles and Instant Lunch, then I think that’s great. Broadening your food horizons is a wonderful thing, even with something as low-stakes as instant noodles. But coinciding with the large number of “Buldak is the Best!” and “Look at my Buldak!” posts is a lot of people posting just to say they tried Buldak and don’t like it, as if there was some sort of mandate somewhere that you should like it. And you know what? It’s okay if you don’t.

Full disclosure: If you’ve poked around this website enough or seen my videos, you know full well that I enjoy most Buldak products. I fell in love with Carbonara pretty soon after starting the channel, and have tried just about every flavor produced in the last three years. And while there are some varieties I disliked immensely, you could say I’ve climbed aboard the hype train. For me, the combination of sweet, salty, smoky chili in the base Buldak sauce is something I crave often enough, and I love most of the recipe variations Samyang has concocted over the years.

But my tastebuds are not your tastebuds. What I perceive as a delightful combination of flavors, you may perceive as horrendously sweet or egregiously capsaicin-heavy. The problem comes when this difference of opinion turns contentious. Hyperbole and strong opinions abound on either side of the aisle, but too often it feels like people who dislike Buldak get downvoted into oblivion just because they don’t like the way something tastes. Isn’t it better that they tried something new, even if they didn’t like it? I think so, because maybe the next noodles they try outside of their comfort zone will be their new favorite.

The other side of this coin is the folks who ask where they can try Buldak that isn’t spicy, because they bought into that hype and feel like they need to try it despite not having any appreciable spice tolerance, or worse, they bought it and discovered it was far too spicy for them to handle. Buldak quite literally translates to “fire chicken.” There is no escaping the spice. Even the most mild varieties of Buldak still pack quite a bit of heat for someone who doesn’t enjoy spicy food. A common reply to this is usually, “Use less of the sauce.” I disagree; using less of the sauce means you end up with less flavor, and then you’ve put someone in a position where they’re not experiencing the product the way the manufacturers intended, and you’re certainly not helping that person build their spice tolerance by playing it safe. The correct reply should be that, if you can’t handle objectively super-spicy food, Buldak isn’t for you. And that’s okay. You might want to build up your tolerance first — but if you find you just don’t enjoy spicy food at all, that’s valid too.

As cool as it is to see a Korean product breaking into mainstream shelves, it’s important to remember that eating Buldak doesn’t have to be treated like a rite of passage. If you love it, great. If you hate the flavor or can’t consume that much spice, that’s also fine. Sometimes it’s not about the heat, but it’s about how the heat masks the rest of the flavor profile. For some palates, Buldak ends up tasting more like punishment than pleasure. There’s an amazing world of instant noodles out there with enough flavors and spice levels to accommodate everyone, so don’t feel like you’re missing out if the endless hype of Buldak doesn’t match your own personal experience.