Here another one I got up in Canada at T&T Supermarket in Richmond, BC. Never have I seen this brand before and thought ‘hey – this in interesting!’ What’s more, it’s actually heavy! What’s inside this thing making it so heavy? It took me a bit of looking to find out about this brand and it’s products. Here’s a little something I read on Wikipedia about where the manufacturing facility is:
Nanjie (Chinese: 南街村; pinyin: Nánjiē Cūn) is a village in Linying County, Henan province, China, widely reported as being the last Maoist village in China.[1][2][3] It is under the administration of the town of Chengguan, which also serves as the county seat.In 1992, the GDP of this village exceeded 100 million yuan and became the famous “billion village” at that time，but its output growth is proportional to the loans form some national banks of China.Since it is Unable to repay its huge loans, it is added to the reputation blacklist. There are rumors of bankruptcy about this village.
I decided I wanted to check out whether there was a company website. Nan Jie Cun isn’t a company, but a collective run by the people of Nanjie Village. In true Maoist fashion, they all participate in the production of products and in turn, they can all go to a store and get them for free. There is no currency in Nanjie. During my search, I found this website in English.
I looked at the root domain and found what I was looking for. This place is referred to as a village but looks very big and modern in all the photos. After digging, I found the village’s products page and the noodles.
I looked around and found that this place has kept all the images and ways of the Cultural Revolution – it looks absolutely fascinating. I’ve found that through my study of instant noodles from around the world, it’s given me the opportunity to find out about some pretty interesting places, Nanjie Village being one of them. Let’s check these noodles out!
Importer sticker (click image to enlarge). Looks to be meat–free but check for yourself. Take out everything, put the noodles and the dry vegetables sachet back in and add boiling water for 1-2 minutes. Drain. Add the rest of the sachets and stir.
Here’s a detail of the front with the instructions (click image to enlarge).
Hooray! An included fork!
The fresh noodle bag.
The mustard stem sachet (front and back).
They look nice and crunchy.
Dehydrated vegetables sachet.
Green onions, carrot and sesame.
Spicy sauce sachet.
Has a very rich and spicy scent.
The sesame sauce sachet.
The peanut scent is strong.
Finished (click image to enlarge). Added sweet onion and beef I sauteed with a little garlic salt. the noodles are alright – nice fresh noodles. The flavoring reminds me of dandan noodles – very hot and spicy and dry; dry flavor. Peanut butter and chilli oil abound. The mustard is crunchy and of good quality. Despite the good quality of the ingredients, the flavor is very monotone; hot spicy and peanut butter/sesame taste. I think this may be another instance of me really disliking traditional Chinese flavors (I really dislike a brand of Sichuan province that makes sweet potato thread). I’m sure if you like Chinese flavors like these though, you will be very pleased – I certainly would like to try more of their varieties and will attempt to contact them in hopes of a Meet The Manufacturer spotlight as my curiosity is piqued. 0.5 out of 5.0 stars. UPC bar code 6938618411076.
Here’s a video clip about Nanjie Village.
