Cycle 4 – Item 87

2 (Tue) April 2013

Crab Meat & Vegetable Soup Noodle

3.0

by me

at home

-Oksu, Seongdong, Seoul, Republic of Korea-

solo

Homyeondang (호면당) is a local Asian-style rice/noodle restaurant chain.  Founded in 2002, the chain currently has 8 branches throughout the country; for some reason, 7 of them are inside Hyundai Department Stores.  I’ve probably visited at least one location through the years, perhaps during a shopping trip, but I can’t recall a single instance.  The menu selection is an eclectic mix of dishes, predominantly Korean/Chinese/Japanese in origin, items such as sushi rolls, fried rices, noodle soups, and noodle stir-fries–though apparently, nothing was good enough for me to remember.  The name means “premium (ho) noodle (myeon) house (dang),” which is the brand slogan.

Recently, Homyeondang released a line of instant noodles, versions of items found on the restaurant menu, including this Crab Meat & Vegetable Soup Noodle.  It’s the best one that I’ve sampled thus far.   The broth had good crab flavor, very realistic, which worked especially well with an egg cracked/stirred into the mix, making it taste like actual though not necessarily great Chinese crab & egg drop soup, something that might be found at a fast food joint in Hong Kong.  I also appreciated the fact that it wasn’t spicy, as are most Korean ramyeon.  The noodles were firm and chewy, possibly the best texture among the deep-fried ramyeon-type noodles in my experience, which is admittedly limited, not being a huge fan of instant noodles.   I added a couple fresh heads of bokchoy and shiitake.  Overall, instant or otherwise, it was a fine noodle soup, definitely worth keeping in the pantry.

(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)