Hello! I’m a NAVER blogger

and NEXON Picker who goes by 피스타임.

January 16 is International Hot and Spicy Food Day.

A day to melt away stress with hot and spicy food!

Gaming can leave you feeling pretty stressed sometimes, too.

When that happens, I sometimes unwind by cooking up some ramyeon to eat.

Released as a collaboration between MapleStory and GS25,

용사라면 packs a whopping 23000 Scoville units of heat.

Honestly, I’m not great with spicy food, so I’d never dared to try it,

but then I wondered: what if I made it into cucumber ramyeon?

With cucumber’s crunchy texture and refreshing aroma,

maybe it could take the edge off the heat of 용사라면..?

Feeling hopeful, I decided to give it a try.

Cook the ramyeon

and julienne the cucumber!

용사라면 comes in a cup, but since this recipe calls for packet ramyeon,

I brought some water to a boil in a pot, then added the powdered seasoning and chopped blue mushrooms.

While that was boiling, I cut the cucumber into thin strips.

I’d heard the more, the better, so I prepared more than you see in the photo.

Add the egg and perilla oil,

then remove the noodles before adding the cucumber!

First, I cracked in an egg,

and when the noodles were almost cooked, I added a tablespoon of perilla oil.

The perilla oil helps tone down the cucumber’s aroma!

Then I lifted out just the noodles,

turned off the heat, and added the cucumber to the pot.

The residual heat gently cooks the cucumber!

Cucumber ramyeon with perilla oil,

made with 용사라면!

Then I poured the broth and cucumber over the noodles.

It looked a little unusual, and there wasn’t much broth left—perhaps I’d let it boil too long—

but I still had faith!

By the way, you can adjust how much of the extra seasoning packet

that comes with 용사라면 you use, depending on your taste.

I figured 23000 Scoville units would be too much for me even with cucumber,

so I went for a more manageable 15000 Scoville units or so!

Made this way, it tasted better than I expected.

The heat didn’t taste artificial—it was the kind of spiciness you can enjoy,

with the aroma of perilla oil and the crunch of cucumber, too!

It was definitely spicy, but it tasted so good that I could handle the heat!

The cucumber’s distinctive aroma was gone, and it tasted so good that I wished I’d added more.

The broth was still too much for me, though.

It was so spicy that I finished up by just picking out the poison mushrooms to eat.

So that was my attempt at making MapleStory 용사라면

using a cucumber ramyeon recipe.

Since I haven’t actually tried 용사라면 on its own,

I can’t say for sure whether it’s a particularly good pairing,

but I was pretty happy with how it tasted.

I’d buy it again, too.

That said, the family members who tried it with me weren’t impressed.

Keep in mind that it may not be for everyone!