Gen Z is ‘pimping up’ instant noodles with gourmet upgrades — and ramen sales are surging
TikTok is turning into a real noodlist colony.
Once relegated to cash-strapped college students, instant noodle packs are now haute cuisine that’s selling like hotcakes. This is thanks to Gen Z gourmands zhuzhing them up with top-shelf accouterments like spring onions and Kewpie mayonnaise.
“Instant noodles have come a long way from being just a cheap, quick meal,” Dean Harper, chef and director at UK caterer Harper Fine Dining, told the Daily Mail. “Now, thanks to TikTok and social media, people are turning them into gourmet dishes.”
Indeed, the hashtag #ramenhacks boasts over 22,000 posts on TikTok, which depict 20-something Snack-gyvers ritzing up their prepackaged ramen, the Guardian reported.
“Welcome back to pimp my ramen,” declares travel influencer Serena, who goes by @onserenasplate, in one clip. She then proceeds to festoon her noods with bacon, chilies, eggs and more in a dish she dubs “Firecracker Carbonara Ramen.”
Meanwhile, ramen rebooter Joely Hiles gave her noodles an upmarket makeover by adding pan-fried shiitake mushrooms, kewpie mayonnaise and even maple syrup, as seen in one tutorial.
In fact, this idea of upwardly mobile insta-noodles has even repped by celebrities.
In 2016, Kylie Jenner shared a Snapchat post on how to pimp ramen with butter, garlic and egg — a recipe that quickly took the food world by storm.
This fancy instant noodle trend has unsurprisingly been a boon for retailers.
Sales of instant noodles have spiked by 50% year on year on the online supermarket Ocado, while searches for ramen noodles have jumped by 35%, the Guardian reported.
The craze has reached such a fervor that brands are using influencers to rep their products.
“In recent years, they have been marketed on TikTok to engage younger audiences through creative and interactive content,” said Jonny Forsyth, senior director of Mintel’s food and drink division. “Brands are tapping into TikTok’s short-form video format to resonate with Gen Z.”
Perhaps it’s no coincidence that this wallet-friendly trend has occurred as the price for eating out has skyrocketed amid inflation. In New York City, dining out costs 6% more than it did last year.
“When it comes to a budget-friendly quick-fix for dinner, you can’t get much better than packet noodles, but here, these have often been dismissed as a bit studenty and not very gourmet – I’m happy that’s starting to change,” said Jason Holt, a world foods buyer at Ocado.
Ramen remixes aren’t relegated to US zoomers. In South Korea, instant noodle hounds swear by Ram-Don (a portmanteau of “ramen” and “udon”) or Jjapaguri, a mashup of Chapagetti and Neoguri instant noodles.
The hybrid dish was popularized by Bong Joon-ho’s Oscar-winning movie “Parasite,” in which the rudimentary dish comes with several slices of high-end Wagyu beef, symbolizing the clash of rich and poor in the film.
Perhaps with “girl dinners” (aka leftovers) and tinned fish this is perhaps another instance of Gen Z “discovering” something that already exists.
Don’t go out and buy a year’s supply of packets just yet — experts warn that eating too many, particularly certain brands like Buldak, could be detrimental to one’s health due to the sodium content.
New York City urologist Dr. David Shusterman said that the noodles contain as much as half someone’s recommended daily serving of salt in a single meal.
This extreme salinity increases the risk of crystals forming in the kidneys, which can then develop into stones that damage the organs and cause infections.
Untreated infections can reportedly result in blood poisoning, as was allegedly the case with US content creator Lucy Mourad, who said she suffered the complication after eating Buldak ramen for six weeks straight.
