Ace Cook Super Cup 1.5x Butakim Ramen Review

This instant ramen bowl called "Butakim" was something I had to try it out.  Buta means pork while the kim is short for kimchi (spicy pickled cabbage).  So this is a pork and kimchi bowl that should be savoury and spicy!  Ace Cook's product description even says the original pork kimchi ramen "Buta Kim! Buta Kim!" is powered up!   These noodles are supposed to be smooth with an nice elastic bite to them.

3/4 view of the bowl.  Very bright graphic design, like a pop billboard draws you eye to the product.  The typical Ace Cook big bowl circle logo is shown on top of the noodles.

These noodle bowl is touted as having 1.5 times more sauce and this line of noodles comes in larger bowls than the regular bowl or cup of instant noodles.  The bright red and black background colours make the appearance of the bowl pop with bright red or yellow lettering depending on the background colour.  The noodles are prominently displayed on the left side of the lid.  You can see it is not a noodle soup, but more like a yakisoba or stir fried noodle with sauce.

The lid of the bowl.  Very bright and bold colouring to attract your attention.  Very nicely done and very busy for text, much like many Japanese ad posters.

Buta Kim and Yakisoba lettering on the side of the cup.  It really isn't intended for a side view.

Ingredients and manufacturing information.

Preparation directions, warnings, and contact info.  Text across the top is kimchi flavoured yakisoba.

Nutritional info.  It isn't light on the fat content.

When the bowl is opened half-way you get two packets and you can see dried kimchi, pork, green onion, and bok choy on top of the noodles.

Seasoning packet.

Flavour oil packet.

Fill the bowl with boiling water.  Close the lid and let it rehydrate for at least 4 minutes.

Next peel off the little tab on the lid to reveal drain holes.  Dump all the water out.

You are now ready to add both the seasonings and the flavour oil.  Mix it thoroughly.

The yakisoba sauce base for this bowl is a tonkotsu shoyu soup base with garlic and chili peppers along with some pork extract.  I found that the soup powder mixed in really well with mild aromas to it.  I could smell the fried instant noodles along with a hint of cabbage, spice, and meat from the sauce. There was a mild kimchi flavour to the dish and the orange coloured seasoning oil was didn't have a strong aroma either. The noodles were pleasantly and mildly flavoured overall with a kind of generic umami taste. I was expecting something more flavourful and zippier though.  Some of the zip in the dish came from garlic and this was a different kind of yakisoba flavouring.  The noodles had a very nice texture and were pleasantly chewy to make them the star of the bowl.  This was a decent noodle bowl, but I'm not sure I'd get it again.

Noodle closeup.

 

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