#69: Baijia Instant Sweet Potato Noodle Spicy Fei-Chang Flavor

Since these noodles are Chinese, I thought I’d include our pugs in on cooking them. They were extremely helpful with the preparation.

So Here we go – notice the pugs in the background. I thought sweet potato noodles sounded fascinating.

So this looks a little worrisome. Very dark noodles and three packets – one with a very fine powder and the other two – one with seasoned fat and the other was some form of hot pepper paste – but it was based with some form of greasy nastiness.

So here’s the finished product (click image to enlarge). It reminds me of gravy. However, not the kind of gravy I usually enjoy – like the stuff you can get on mashed potatoes at KFC. No, this is a mean gravy.
The noodles were too hot to eat until about 8 minutes after cooking. The broth was sucked up by the noodles and turned into a Jell-O like consistency. Very greasy concoction. It really is the kind of food that if I ate the whole bowl, I’d require an altogether new meal to ingest as to recover from the sheer work of eating this stuff.
Although rather nasty (I don’t honestly think people should eat this), it does certainly seem bizarre and I like bizarre. I’m going to say Fei-Chang means ‘dirt and urine.’
So let me just rate this ramen and get it over with. The official ramenrater.com rating here is 1.75 out of 5 stars. Gross. Just gross.

29 comments

  1. Are you serious? Your review is as crap as these noodles apparently taste to you. They are by far the best noodles I have ever tasted. Get some new taste buds, love!

  2. Thanks for the review of what I’m sitting down to for lunch. In a remote location. Without any other options. Damn.

  3. As a note Baijia has, sometime in 2013, changed their recipe for this one. It comes with vegetables now and the spices aren’t quite the same. The noodles are still their usual sweet potato style though so, since you disliked that aspect, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend going back to try it again.

    Personally I liked the old formula and am not fond of the new one so to each their own.

  4. seriously. This is my all time fav in college. I don’t care the “urine” whatever smell you mentioned. The smell is just right. Fei chang is a popular ingredients in Chinese cuisine. Just like chicken feet, pork head, beef tongue, etc, those kinds of stuff. Not bizarre at all. It can be found in almost all east and southeast Asian cuisines. You don’t judge Asian food if you think that is bizarre. And the dark color noodle, that’s because it’s not flour noodle! Rice noodle could have such color if sweet potato is added as minor. Taste is awesomely spicy and I love it. I used to keep at least 3 of these in dorm. The package is poor, even safety might be a potential problem, but seriously, you don’t question the taste. You just don’t know the food, that’s it.

  5. Hahahaha yeah – it’s funny. Thing is that instant noodles can be very personal to some – I think it’s especially those who remember them as a taste from somewhere they can’t live anymore. But yeah – I still say this stuff is nasty! Glad you like the blog!

    – TRR

  6. well you just have to be the epitome of ignorant white trash, don’t you sweetie?
    Different cultures have different things in which they call tasty, and these special szechuan peppers and herbs are very delicious to Chinese taste. Respect other people’s culture, isn’t this the first thing you learn in college? Oh right, you probably never went to college and still live in your parent’s basement.
    Anyways, I eat these regularly, and for your information, you didn’t even cook this correctly. You’re supposed to put everything in a bowl, pour hot water in it, and cover it and let it sit for 5 minutes, you dimwit. The consistency is no where near what you described. Don’t blame the product for your ignorance, you’ll just be the laughing stalk in the eyes of 1.3 billion people in China.

    1. Well ma’am/sir, apparently you like the taste of fatty pork intestine. If disliking that flavor as well as disliking the consistency of sweet potato thread makes me white trash, I guess that’s a new definition of white trash but hey cool creativity for you to come up with that! Gold star! As far as getting all offended because I have a differing opinion, have fun. I think it would’ve been better if you had gone with saying something positive about the product rather than bashing me. Here are all the other reviews I’ve done of Baijia’s products: https://www.theramenrater.com/?s=baijia – I don’t like them. If you like them, that’s great! Last I checked, my reviews are my reviews. If you want to start a site with your opinions go ahead that’s great! Having some kind of cultural tantrum on my blog because I don’t like the instant noodles you like won’t get you very far – it’ll just make you look like a Republican. And don’t call me sweety.

      – TRR

    2. I know it’s been a while, but I just HAVE to reply to this. Wow, Gillian, you are just full of yourself aren’t you? By the way, the term you were looking for is “laughing STOCK”. Soooo, sweetie YOU just made yourself look like a TOTAL fool to quite a few (several million, I would think) people. Your rudeness was totally uncalled for. And by the way, fatty pig intestine is well beloved in parts of THIS country too, under the name of chitterlings. It’s a popular “soul food” in the deep south, where they use “everything but the squeal” of the pig.There are a LOT of us, even from the deep south, who don’t like pork intestine with or without szechuan flavors and spices. Even some of us (like me) who LOVE szechuan spices, including their unique ‘szechuan pepper’, find pork intestine (especially the smell of it cooking) to be vile. There’s no need to be so appallingly rude just because Mr. Lienesch didn’t like your favorite instant noodles. If you’ve read more than one or two of his reviews, you would realize he is extremely open minded about flavors, and will try things many others would never even let in their homes. He has even gone back and re-reviewed flavors as his tastes have matured. Do you happen to have Jufran banana sauce(ketchup) or Dua Belibis sauce or kecap manis or gochujang(sp?) in your kitchen? I do and so does Mr Lienesch, so your accusation of his not respecting flavors from other cultures is totally unfounded, which you would know if you had read more than one of his reviews. I would go so far as to say he shows considerable knowledge of and respect for the cuisines of other cultures. Try not to be so ignorant and basement-dwelling white trashy judgmental of other people’s opinions yourself next time, sweetie.

    3. Oh, and by the way, I LIKE sweet potato noodles and mung bean thread and he is right, The products of this company are vile beyond description. I’ve tried two and threw both away after a bite or two. Words cannot describe how repellent they were.

        1. I am irked by such totally unnecessary rudeness. It is possible to express disagreement without resorting to such namecalling. I disagreed rather violently with your original review of the Mama Creamy shrimp tom yum flavor but I didn’t feel the need to berate you because you didn’t like them! And, by the way, I was delighted to see you re-reviewed them and found that since your tastes have matured, you revised your rating. It reflects an open mind and a willingness to reconsider initial opinions that does you credit. In light of that, I really felt Gillian was WAY out of line. It gets under my skin when people are that disrespectful with no reason! I looked at the comments on that review today because i recently tried a couple of this brand; I thought it possible that since you expressed a great dislike for the texture of this type of noodle, and I like them, that I might like the product. Sadly you were right and the flavor of the broth is vile. When I saw the number of comments appended to this review I was curious and took a look at them. Gillian’s comment just bugged me because of the rudeness and assumptions (unwarrented) that she made. I think overall your reviews are well balanced, open to new and interesting flavors and quite trustworthy. They have recently led me to try several new brands and flavors that I have enjoyed a lot. Thanks for putting yourself out here on the net and sharing your experiences with us.

          1. I try to keep to my main goal of just calling ’em as I see ’em. My agenda is my obsession with instant noodles and enjoyment of different flavors from around the world. Some people find these things so easy to get pissy about but they’re just noodles when it really comes down to it…

            Yeah that Tom Yum – got a few people telling me to try it again – and you were all right – that stuff is one of my favorites now!

            Glad you like the blog and I really appreciate your comments – it makes it so much more fun when people take part!

            – TRR

  7. Its not that companys best flavour, the purple bag ( Sczchwan hot pot I believe) is amazing. But you have to know those kind of noodles to enjoy them. For someone who hasnt tried them before they can be a rude shock with their consistancy. Good on ya for trying it though, I too like to try EVERYTHING at least once.

  8. Just tried the Sichuan Hot Pot version of these noodles that I found at my local grocer. Same packaging inside and out and looked basically the same as yours when cooked and judging from the review mine was just as nasty. First time trying sweet potato noodles, but I guess I’ll stick to udon and ramen instead.

  9. I just stumbled on to your site and am shocked by the similarity! I just tried the Hot & Sour version of these and they were equally nasty. I mean, probably the nastiest noodles I’ve eaten. Like your site though! Keep it up.

  10. well do you know why it tastes like urine? because the flavor says pork intestine. jackass needs to know what he is doing.

    1. Uhm, it says pork intestine in what language? Few of us here in the US read any form of Chinese. and pork intestine, while vile itself, is not pork bladder (or uteri, which I have seen for sale in Asian stores!). I haven’t tried this flavor but one of the cabbage based flavors I did try did have a disturbingly urine like smell and taste. One bite was enough (indeed it took me a few minutes to work up the courage to try even one bite, given the ammoniated odor). One can formulate a valid opinion about a flavor without knowing what the heck it is you are eating. The Ramen Rater has a pretty good grasp on what he is doing.

      1. you WASPs startle too easily. You’d run around like headless chickens if you encounter flavor other than dry bland chicken breasts and cow meat prepared in the same fashion that hasn’t changed since the time of the Neanderthals.the flavour of fried intestine is rather pedestrian to be honest, not to mention delicious.

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