Korean Table

A packet of Shin Ramyun already works fine on its own, but an add-in can wreck a bowl of ramyeon just as easily as it can improve it. Cheese, egg, and frozen mandu are the three add-ins everyone reaches for first. Only one of them is close to foolproof. This is a rundown of what each ingredient actually does under heat, not a ranking of whichever combination photographs best. It also skips how to boil the noodles themselves. If you're here, you already have that part handled. The Cheese Question Cheese is the add-in most likely to go wrong, and the reason is chemistry, not taste. American cheese and other processed cheese slices — Kraft Singles, Land O'Lakes deli slices, the orange squares sold at nearly every supermarket outside Korea too — contain sodium citrate or a similar melting salt. That salt keeps milk proteins from clumping as they heat, so the cheese turns into a smooth, pourable film instead of separating into grease and rubber. Natural cheese doesn't get t...