How to Make Ram-Don from “Parasite”

I will probably get a lot of flack for this, but I was not a big fan of “Parasite,” the critical darling that won this year’s Oscar for Best Picture. I’m sure it was a fine film, but I’m a comedy and musical kind of guy, and the movie’s violence was a bit much for me. One part of the movie I was fascinated by, however, was the scene in which the con artist mother had to make a dish called “ram-don” in a hurry. I had never heard of ram-don, but it sure looked good after she made it. So what is ram-don?

Ram-don is a noodle dish mixing two packs of Korean instant noodles: Jjapaghetti and Neoguri. The hybrid’s name is thus “jjapaguri.” It turns out the people who translated the dialogue into subtitles were afraid western audiences wouldn’t know what jjapaguri was, so they called it ram-don, as if that would make more sense to us.

There are a few websites that show how to make their version of ram-don, so I took tips from them to make my own. I went to my local Korean market and bought a few packs of Jjapaghetti and Neoguri (there were lots of them on the shelves so they were easy to find), and was excited to make it.

This is what the two packages look like. Jjapaghetti is spelled “Chapaghetti,” I guess to help us figure out how to pronounce it. The picture on the package didn’t look very appetizing to me.

Here are the open packages. Chapaghetti is a thinner noodle that resembles ramen. Neoguri noodles are slightly thicker. The package calls them “udon type noodles” but they are not the fat udon noodles that I know and love. Chapaghetti comes with three packets: a vegetable packet, a soup base and an oil packet. Neoguri comes with two packages: a vegetable packet and a soup base.

The ram-don in the movie included a very bougie form of steak that is only available in Korea. I just bought a sirloin steak at Gelson’s, which was bougie enough. I cut it into cubes and seasoned the meat with salt, white pepper and sesame oil. Then I cooked the beef in a cast iron skillet and set it aside while I cooked the noodles.

Heat five cups of water to boiling. Then drop the two dried noodle disks into the water along with the vegetable packets for each. Stir frequently until al dente.

Drain the noodles, reserving a cup of the water. Place the noodles back into the pot along with the reserved water. Heat to simmer, adding the full Chapaghetti soup base and half the Neoguri soup base.

Stir frequently. When the sauce has thickened, add the steak cubes into the pot with the noodles. You can add that oil packet from the Chapaghetti package now.

I garnished my ram-don with scallions and some enoki mushrooms. Next time I may try some baby bok choy or snap peas.

And how did it taste? You know what, I really liked it. It was flavorful without being too salty, and it was better than top ramen served dry with the soup base, which I do like from time to time. So I would definitely make this again. It sure made me appreciate “Parasite” a lot more.