Korean noodles on fire!
Globally, Buldak has been buoyed by an enduring social media trend where users try it and react on camera. The instant noodle brand is tagged in more than 360 million posts on TikTok and has garnered hundreds of millions, if not billions, of views on YouTube. It’s so popular that Denmark’s recent move to ban some of the spiciest Buldak varieties made headlines around the world — though its maker, Samyang, has disputed the Danish calculations, according to South Korean media reports. Besides the noodles, its main ingredient is gochujang, a Korean chili paste made from soybean paste, red chile pepper flakes, and other ingredients.
“The conversation that’s going on around the world — the fact that Denmark is banning Buldak — I think this is indicative of the fact that Korean food has become one of the major cuisines,” said Robert Ji-Song Ku, a professor of Asian and Asian American studies at Binghamton University who has written several books on Korean food history.