Looking at the Buldak Original ingredients list, it looks like many of the same ingredients, but in reverse proportions.

Buldak has a lot of chicken flavoring/bullion to make the chicken flavor (dak=chicken) and a lot of pepper flake to make it hot (bul=fire) and then soy sauce and seasoning.

The fried chicken sauce doesn’t have the chicken flavor since it’s intended to go on actual fried chicken, and I don’t make it super hot. It’s a little more earthy and a little sweet.

I use a decent scoop of gochujang paste (lower heat level), a nice amount of minced garlic, a splash rice vinegar, a tiny blep sesame oil and some sesame seed, and then honey or brown sugar to taste, then soy sauce to get it to a nice dipping sauce consistency.

I don’t measure it, I just make it for making fancy pizza, so I eyeball it in a ramekin and then drizzle as desired on pizza.

Huh, that makes sense the real deal would also be a bit more finicky and dependent on a lot of variables that industrialized product wouldn’t be affected by.

Glad to (possibly) help!

I’d take a lab diamond or bottle of vanillin over the truffle stuff I’ve had any day!

Even the old school beaver anus vanillin! 😅

I also despise broccoli, but broccolini is much milder in smell and taste, and has a tender stem. If you can deal with asparagus, you may like broccolini.

Fig & Pig pizza is so awesome! Sweet, salty, and carby! 🤤

This is my opinion too! Basic Italian-American stuff seems really simple to DIY, so unless a place has some really killer house made sauce it always feels like such a ripoff. If I’m going out, I typically want something that is either too hard, laborious, or messy to make at home.

I think it’s usually for those umami packed glutimates.

If I were to see someone shaving it off the real deal, I’d give it another try, but at this point I’m done with the stuff otherwise and even if the real deal is a better version of that flavor, it hasn’t inspired me enough to cough up the money for a small real truffle for myself.

I used to get the blackened tenders, but I must be the only one because they always took so much longer to get than the regular tenders. They’re pretty alright though otherwise.

That sounds like a pretty good combo pizza!

I was hesitant to have Hawiian pizza the first time, but I instantly liked it. I soon changed it up though to get bacon instead of ham so it adds crunch and smokiness.

Korean fried chicken sauce is also good on pizza.

We come up with some particularly interesting ways to execute lobsters, that’s for sure. I’m not sure we dispatch any other food animal in so many ways.

Lol always a possibility. I’ve tried both a few times to give them a fair shake, and while I taste amazing flavor elements in both those things, the cons just always outweigh the pros. 😅

Yes, no matter what flavor enhancer you’re adding to a dish, once it starts replacing the actual flavor of the main ingredient, you’ve gone way too far!

Extreme hot sauces, over hopped beers, etc

All the chain chicken joints (Popeyes, Bojangles, Dave’s, etc) taste so salty as it is, but KFC is off the charts too salty for me to enjoy.

The best fried chicken (for me) is actually from a gas station chain here, Royal Farms, which I coincidentally had tonight!

I still wouldn’t put it as an S-Tier food or anything, but I think it’s well ahead of the bigger brands, and especially KFC.

I see truffle fries most commonly, and I’ve taken to calling them “pig stink fries” in reference to the horny truffle finding pigs. 😁

Nice to randomly bump into you again btw, I haven’t seen a comment from you in a bit!

I’ve had lobster pot pie at 2 different places this year and thought both were amazing. No smashing required, and while lighter than a hearty shepard’s/cottage pie, they really hit the spot!

Also tried stone crab on our honeymoon this year, and though the shell lives up to its name, some things can be worth the effort!

If you get crustaceans out at a place, you can usually ask them to give it a few whacks in key locations with their big ass knives and then the bulk of the work is done for you.

Anything “truffle” I’ve ever been offered smells absolutely terrible to me. While not near as powerful as durian, the smell and taste give me a bit of that vibe.

Perhaps it’s all just been fake truffle oil type crap and real shaved truffle is amazing, but nobody’s ever given me any of that or inspired me to try it.

Lobster High Pressure Processing

Text Article if you don’t want to watch a video, also has more details

There are now machines that will remove the lobster meat from the shell without cooking it, so you can have 100% of the edible stuff with no shell bits.

It comes at a premium, but if speed and a hassle free experience are what you’re after, the tech exists!

I had been debating getting into Discworld forever and someone here recommended checking out the Hogfather movie as it was up on Youtube anyway, so I checked it out. Without having any context, I still really enjoyed it and the style of humor. Felt like a fun take on Nightmare Before Christmas, but perhaps even weirder.

A few months later I read Guards, Guards and loved that. Had to do some longer road trips this fall so I listened to audiobooks of Mort and Equal Rites and loved those, so at that point I decided I mat as well start from the beginning and just today started Witches Abroad. I’ve been hooked!