I looked around a bit and read that these big things in here are burdock tempura. Should be interesting – if you don’t know about burdock, here’s some info from Wikipedia –
The taproot of young burdock plants can be harvested and eaten as a root vegetable. While generally out of favour in modern European cuisine, it remains popular in Asia. Arctium lappa is known as “niúbàng” (牛蒡) in Chinese, which was borrowed into Japanese as gobō, and is still eaten in both countries. In Korea burdock root is called “u-eong” (우엉) and sold as “tong u-eong” (통우엉), or “whole burdock”. Plants are cultivated for their slender roots, which can grow about one metre long and two centimetres across. Burdock root is very crisp and has a sweet, mild, and pungent flavour with a little muddy harshness that can be reduced by soaking julienned or shredded roots in water for five to ten minutes.
Immature flower stalks may also be harvested in late spring, before flowers appear; their taste resembles that of artichoke, to which the burdock is related. The stalks are thoroughly peeled, and either eaten raw, or boiled in salt water.[7] Leaves are also eaten in spring in Japan when a plant is young and leaves are soft. Some A. lappa cultivars are specialized for this purpose. A popular Japanese dish is kinpira gobō (金平牛蒡), julienned or shredded burdock root and carrot, braised with soy sauce, sugar, mirin and/or sake, and sesame oil. Another is burdock makizushi (sushi filled with pickled burdock root; the burdock root is often artificially coloured orange to resemble a carrot).
Alrighty then – let’s dig in!
Maruchan Bariuma Goboten Udon – Japan
The distributor/import sticker (click to enlarge).
Detail of the side panels (click to enlarge). Contains fish. To prepare, add sachet contents 350ml boiling water and cover for 5 minutes.Finally, stir and enjoy!
Detail of the lid (click to enlarge).
The noodle block.
A dual sachet.
Powder soup base.
Togarashi.
Large pieces of tempura as well as kamaboko.
Finished (click to enlarge). Added spring onion. Okay so the udon is the standard udon you’ll find in bowls like this – not chewy and broad with a bit of thickness. Very soft tooth to them. The broth was exceedingly salty, almost to the point of inedibility. What drove the edibility car off the road and into a fiery tragedy for the mouth was the burdock. This just was so poorly executed and just did not work whatsoever. It was like eating thick potato skin that had been under a heatlamp in a gas station hot case. I mean really – even though there was a little tempura going on, a little kamaboko too, they were overshadowed by the Asian jojos of horror. Don’t get me wrong – I like burdock – a scant amount in my kimbap is alright, but this was just nasty. Disgusted and very surprised. 0.0 out of 5.0 stars. JAN bar code 4901990521949,901990521949,
12 pack Akai kitsune Udon (6pack) and Midori no Tanuki Soba (6pack) set
