Korean Ramyeon: How It Fits Into Everyday Korean Life

Ramyeon is so ordinary in Korea that most people do not think much about it. It is inexpensive, quick to make, easy to find, and useful whenever you want something hot without preparing a full meal.

People cook it at home late at night, eat cup noodles at convenience stores, take packet ramyeon camping, order it at PC bangs, or cook it beside the Han River. At the same time, Korean ramyeon has become increasingly familiar overseas, where spicy products such as Shin Ramyun and Buldak may be someone’s first introduction to Korean instant noodles.

That creates an interesting difference in perspective. A visitor may approach Korean ramyeon as a famous K-food experience, while someone living in Korea may simply open the cupboard because they are hungry and want something quick. I think that ordinary place in everyday life is more interesting than treating ramyeon as something unusually exotic.

Korean Ramyeon Started in a Very Different Korea

Korea’s first domestically produced instant ramyeon appeared in 1963, when the country was still dealing with food shortages and economic difficulties after the Korean War.

Instant noodles had first been commercialized in Japan in 1958. In Korea, Samyang introduced Samyang Ramyeon in 1963, at a time when the government was also encouraging greater consumption of mixed grains and flour-based foods because of rice shortages. The National Folk Museum of Korea discusses this connection between ramyeon and Korea’s mixed-grain and flour-food promotion campaigns in its exhibition on Korean and Japanese food culture.

The food did not remain simply a Japanese instant-noodle import. Korean manufacturers developed products for local tastes, and spicy soup-based ramyeon became especially familiar. Samyang Foods itself dates the release of Korea’s first domestically produced ramyeon to September 1963.

In English, the word “ramen” often brings to mind a Japanese restaurant bowl with prepared broth, noodles, meat, eggs, and other toppings. In everyday Korean, ramyeon usually means instant noodles, whether they come in a packet or a cup.

Today that category has become extremely broad. There are spicy soup noodles, seafood flavors, jjajang-style noodles, stir-fried products, cheese and cream-based varieties, and many other combinations that would have been difficult to imagine when Korean ramyeon first appeared in the 1960s.

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Where Ramyeon Fits Into Everyday Korean Life

The most ordinary place to eat ramyeon is still at home. It works when you do not feel like cooking a full meal, when you want a late-night snack, or when something hot and spicy simply sounds good.

Egg and green onion are familiar additions, but there is nothing unusual about adding whatever happens to be available in the refrigerator. Rice cakes, mandu, cheese, kimchi, sausages, or leftover vegetables may all end up in the pot depending on the person and the day.

Ramyeon also appears in places that have little to do with home cooking. It is common at campsites and has long been part of the food available at Korean PC bangs. Modern PC bangs can have surprisingly extensive menus, but ramyeon remains one of the foods most naturally associated with eating while gaming.

I write more about how those spaces changed from the relatively simple PC bangs of the late 1990s to today’s gaming and food businesses in my Korean PC Bang Culture guide.

Its place in Korean life comes partly from this flexibility. Ramyeon does not require a special occasion or even a dining table. It fits easily into situations where people want something warm, inexpensive, and quick.

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Convenience Store and Han River Ramyeon

For international visitors, a Korean convenience store may be one of the easiest places to try ramyeon.

Convenience stores usually carry many varieties of cup and packet noodles. Cup noodles can be prepared with hot water, while some locations also have machines that cook packet ramyeon in disposable heat-safe containers.

There are even stores where the variety of ramyeon has become part of the attraction. Korea Tourism Organization has featured the CU Ramyun Library in Hongdae, where a much larger selection than an ordinary store was displayed along with multilingual information about flavors and spice levels. Since individual stores and products can change, I would treat it as an example of Korea’s convenience-store ramyeon culture rather than assume that every detail remains the same whenever you visit.

For me, however, the number of products is less important than where and when people eat them. Someone may have ramyeon late at night after walking around Seoul, sit outside a convenience store with friends, or simply choose it because they want an inexpensive hot meal.

Han River ramyeon is probably the best-known version of this experience for visitors. Convenience stores around some Hangang parks have cooking facilities, and preparing ramyeon before sitting beside the river has become a familiar way to spend time in Seoul.

It works as a travel experience partly because it is not completely separate from ordinary Korean life. Koreans really do spend evenings in Hangang parks eating convenience-store food, talking with friends, walking, cycling, or simply sitting by the water. If you want to know more about what Koreans actually buy in these stores beyond ramyeon, I explain that in my Korean Convenience Store Guide.

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Ppogeuri and My Memories of Korean Military Ramyeon

For many people who remember ppogeuri from military life, the word is therefore about more than the taste of instant noodles. It can bring back a very particular period of life.

One of the ways I remember eating ramyeon is ppogeuri (뽀글이), a method strongly associated with Korean military life. I ate it many times late at night during my own military service.

We would open one end of the ramyeon packet, take out the seasoning, and break the noodles into several smaller pieces. After pouring hot water directly into the bag, we folded the top over and held it closed with an unsplit wooden chopstick. After waiting about five or six minutes, we drained off as much water as we wanted and mixed in the seasoning.

Thin noodles such as Ansungtangmyun worked particularly well for this, although thicker noodles such as Neoguri could also be prepared this way. Even jjapagetti could be made as a version without soup.

Ppogeuri became such a familiar part of military food culture that many Korean men who completed military service will recognize the experience immediately. It was not a special dish. It was simply a practical way to eat packet ramyeon when there was hot water but no convenient way to use a pot.

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How Koreans Cook Ramyeon and What You Might Try

For a packet you have never tried before, the best starting point is simply the cooking instructions on the package. Different products recommend different amounts of water and cooking times because the noodles, seasoning, and preparation style are not identical.

After that, people adjust ramyeon according to preference. Some prefer firmer noodles and others cook them a little longer. An egg may be dropped into the soup and left mostly intact or stirred through the broth, while green onion, mandu, rice cakes, cheese, sausages, or other ingredients can make a single packet more substantial.

With soup ramyeon, some people put a little cooked rice into the remaining broth after finishing the noodles. Others eat ramyeon with gimbap or triangle gimbap instead. These are familiar ways of eating it, but they are habits and preferences rather than rules.

If you are standing in front of a Korean instant-noodle shelf for the first time, it helps to choose according to the kind of food you already enjoy rather than automatically reaching for the hottest package.

Shin Ramyun is a familiar example of spicy soup-style ramyeon, while Jin Ramen is available in different spice levels. Neoguri has thick noodles and a seafood-based soup, and Nongshim’s Chapagetti is an instant interpretation of jjajang-style noodles. Buldak Bokkeummyeon is a stir-fried style known for considerably stronger heat.

Even a product considered relatively mild in Korea may taste spicy to someone who rarely eats chili. The VISITKOREA guide to the Ramyun Library makes the same point in its spice-level information for international visitors.

Kimchi is an easy side dish with soup ramyeon, while gimbap or triangle gimbap can turn it into a more filling meal. At home, though, people often do something much simpler: open the refrigerator, see what is there, and decide whether anything looks worth adding.

The variety can be fun, especially for someone discovering Korean ramyeon for the first time, but there is no need to approach it as a spice challenge. The packet someone keeps buying after years of eating ramyeon may say more about Korean ramyeon culture than whichever product happens to be the hottest or most viral at the moment.

That is probably why ramyeon has remained so familiar in Korea. It has changed enormously since 1963, but it has never stopped being something people can make quickly on an ordinary day.

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