Recipe: OMG mother, what were you thinking??

Sometimes when my mom visits, she’ll pick up groceries for my grandparents from the local Korean market. Ama mentioned that my mom had gotten them a bunch of spicy ramen, and she doesn’t have much tolerance for heat in her late 80s, so she cooked them without the spice packets and seasoned with other stuff.

I was curious to see what my mom had purchased, because we love Nongshim Shin Ramyun and I would totally just boil tofu or veg in those packets — why waste amazing MSG-loaded flavor?

So my grandma gives me a bag (Asians don’t throw away packets–you have a drawer or you stick them in your spice cabinet) of spicy ramen sachets, and hey, I recognize several of them because they’re Samyang HOT Chicken 2x Spicy Ramen, and wait THAT SH*T IS HOT.

It’s SO hot, in fact, that there are loads of YouTube videos of people doing the so-called NUCLEAR FIRE NOODLE CHALLENGE. We had tried some hot Samyang chicken ramen before, but now I’m wondering if it was just, like, 1x hot, because… I HAD AN IDEA.

2x spicy yaki udon with 2 types of mushrooms and some spinach. Sounds almost healthy and a fun dinner plan! Surely!

INGREDIENTS (makes 2 portions)

2 servings of frozen sanuki udon
1 chopped eryngii (king oyster) mushroom, or substitute with white buttons
Handful of chopped fresh shiitake mushroom
Large handful of spinach, or whatever else, because you’re not going to be able to taste much soon
1 sachet of 2x HOT chicken ramen sauce

Bring the frozen sanuki udon to a boil for a minute, then add them to whatever you’re stir frying. They should only take a few more minutes to cook along with the rest of the ingredients.

While waiting for the udon to come to a boil, add 1 tbsp. of oil to a frying pan, and cook your mushrooms or whatever the heck you’ve decided will taste nice with fire. When the noodles are ready, add them to the pan and cook until tender. As you taste to see if the udon is done, you may notice a tingling sensation in your mouth. Ignore that for now.

Serve. Regret. But mm, it’s kind of good? Oh dear. We don’t know. What will tomorrow bring? Enjoy!

MOTHER. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING???