Make your own ram-don (aka Jjapaguri) from Parasite

Since the release of the South Korean movie Parasite last year, fans have been raving about ram-don, which is made using two types of instant noodles and topped with premium Hanwoo beef.

In one scene, rich housewife Mrs Park (Cho Yeo-jeong) instructs her housekeeper (Jang Hye-jin) to prepare ram-don, with the addition of premium Hanwoo beef, within eight minutes.

The craze for the hybrid dish has intensified since Parasite clinched four Oscars last month.

Ram-don is a dish name coined by Seoul-based US film scholar Darcy Paquet, who wrote the movie's English subtitles. He had found it difficult to translate Jjapaguri.

In the movie, Jjapaguri is made by combining two types of noodles - Chapagetti Chajangmyun Noodles, made using black bean sauce, and Neoguri Seafood & Spicy Ramyun, an udon-style soup-based noodle product.

What was attention-grabbing about the Parasite version was the addition of premium Hanwoo steak to accentuate how wealthy the Park family is, as the beef is from a highly prized and priced breed of cattle that is native to Korea.

Hanwoo beef is not available here - South Korea is not on the Singapore Food Agency's approved beef imports list - but you can recreate the decadence of the dish by using well-marbled ribeye or striploin steak.

To replicate ram-don at home, I splurged on a piece of Australian wagyu beef striploin, which costs $138 a kilogramme at Culina at Como Dempsey.

I had difficulties buying Chapagetti and Neoguri instant noodles at Korean supermarkets here and could get only the bowl versions.

I recommend cooking them in residual heat for a better texture. If you are able to get the packet versions, boil the noodles for two minutes.

The packet version of the Chapagetti noodles has a sachet of oil which you can add together with the seasoning.

While cooking the noodles, fry up the beef. It takes about two minutes for the beef to cook to medium doneness.

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Ram-don (Jjapaguri) 

INGREDIENTS

• 1 litre of water
• 1 packet of Chapagetti Chajangmyun Noodles
• 1 packet of Neoguri Seafood & Spicy Ramyun
• 300g wagyu striploin, cut into 3.5cm-thick cubes
• Pinch of salt
• Dash of crushed black pepper
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 1 stalk of spring onion, sliced

METHOD

1. Bring 1 litre of water to a boil in a pot.

2. Add the Chapagetti and Neoguri noodles into the pot.

3. Add the vegetable mix of both packets into the pot.

4. Cover the pot, turn off the heat and allow noodles to cook in residual heat for two minutes.

5. While waiting for the noodles to cook, heat two tablespoons of oil in a frying pan.

6. Season the beef with black pepper and salt. Add the beef to the pan and fry over high heat for two minutes. Turn off the heat and set aside.

7. Strain the noodles. Reserve 150ml of the cooking liquid.

8. Pour the cooking liquid back into the pot and bring it to a simmer. Add all of the Chapagetti seasoning and two-thirds of the Neoguri seasoning. Stir well.

9. Turn off the heat and add the noodles into the pot. Mix well.

10. Add the beef and pan juices into the noodles and mix briefly.

11. Garnish with spring onion and serve.