Starting as a hot and spicy new food trend popularized by a YouTube channel named “Korean Englishman,” the trend of eating the Korean Samyang fire noodles has reached its decade milestone. Though originally started in 2014, the trend of eating these capsaicin-loaded noodles peaked in 2017-2018, with numerous online influencers trying these noodles. Coughing, crying, and choking, these content creators endured the spice of the noodles for both the social media attention but also the delicious flavor of the noodles. This soon resulted in hundreds of millions of people at home joining in the trend of eating the buldak fire noodles.
However, early in the summer, the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration found the buldak noodles as a serious health risk due to the noodles’ high capsaicin level. In other words, it was too spicy. Soon after the ban, both Samyang and the enjoyers of their instant noodles contested the ban to get their delicious products back on the shelves. Fast forward to early August, and the efforts of everyone were heard, as the noodles were brought back onto the shelves. To celebrate their return to the European country, Samyang hosted a ferry in Coopenhagen’s harbor and fed social media influencers the fire noodles.
Nowadays, buldak noodles have become a staple item in almost every modern Asian household. Thousands of recipes have popped up on TikTok, Instagram, and other social media platforms. Although it may not be a huge trend anymore, spicy buldak noodles still maintain their merit of being a delicious and spicy noodle dish you can now find conveniently in most supermarkets.