Here’s all the noteworthy noodle news you may have missed in February 2026. The shortest month of the year also has precious little noodle-related news to report, although there are a couple things I thought were worth documenting. Read on for more!
Samyang Is Trying to Trademark “Buldak” Again
This one’s a little surprising in that it hasn’t happened already, but also in that it seems like it may be difficult to do. Samyang, back in 2008, attempted to trademark the English word “buldak,” but a judge ruled that they couldn’t do so. If you’ve followed along with my videos or just have a basic understanding of some Korean cuisine, you may know that the word “buldak” literally translates to “fire chicken” and is the name of a Korean spicy barbecue chicken recipe. Samyang’s Buldak noodles are an instant noodle recipe based on the sauce typically found in buldak chicken preparations. Since this is a term that has a general culinary meaning already, the judge said that Samyang couldn’t trademark a term that was widely used outside of Samyang’s product line. Imagine if Heinz attempted to trademark the word “barbecue” or if Kraft trademarked the words “macaroni and cheese.” Same idea, as far as I see it. But now it’s 2026 and Samyang’s Buldak noodles are getting knocked-off left and right by other manufacturers, including some really shady manufacturers that are audacious enough to straight-up counterfeit their products right down to the packaging, and so Samyang is attempting to trademark the word again. The fact that “buldak” is much more ingrained in the public consciousness now thanks to Samyang may help their case, but I’m not a legal expert and I have no idea if there’s any merit to this whole thing. While I agree that they should protect their brand from knock-offs, I imagine trademarking a widely-used term is a slippery legal slope. It will be very interesting to see how this goes.
Open Mouth Launches in the USA
This one’s pretty cool. A new Chinese-American noodle product has launched in the USA under the name 张的嘴 (Zhangdezui), or “Open Mouth” in English. This is a brand, originating in California, targeted at Chinese-Americans who want better quality noodle products than what are typically available from China (their assertion, not mine). There is certainly a stigma against Chinese noodle brands that I’ve seen many times since I started eating and researching instant noodles, with many complaints about ingredients, quality, and lack of standards in manufacturing. And while I don’t have any particular beef with Chinese noodles personally, it is true that some of the major brands seem to have been investigated in the past for various issues and have been subject to some recalls. Open Mouth hopes to change all that with Chinese noodle recipes manufactured in the USA using quality, responsibly-sourced ingredients, including real American beef in their recipes. I haven’t seen anything like this since Ramen Talk products started showing up in the USA, and if Open Mouth is successful in gaining a chunk of the noodle market, this could be a game-changer in the world of instant noodles. Currently they are selling three varieties on yami.com and sayweee.com: Braised Beef, Sichuan Sour Beef, and Tomato Beef. I am dying for an excuse to review these, so if there’s enough demand from you readers/viewers, I’ll pick up a pack of each and devote a video to them.
