Thank you Steve C. for sending these along! Curious to see what’s inside!
Two bags of noodle (click to enlarge). Steve wasn’t sure how they translate – anyone want to give it a shot?
The Definitive Source For Instant Noodle Reviews Since 2002
Thank you Steve C. for sending these along! Curious to see what’s inside!
Two bags of noodle (click to enlarge). Steve wasn’t sure how they translate – anyone want to give it a shot?
First, I want to send a special thank you to Yongmin Park for sending me product samples! See, every year I do the Top Ten South Korean Instant Noodles list and each year it’s starting to seem like I get fewer and fewer products to try from South Korea. People have been getting grumpy about the list too – see, it’s only for products made IN South Korea, not elsewhere. Let’s have a look inside and see what awaits!
It’s so awesome! Every month, I get a box of instant noodles from Javier over at www.BoxFromJapan.com. There’s always 4 bowls and cups (he also has boxes of unique Japanese candies as well!), 4 pairs of chopsticks and a note about the box. To date, I’ve NEVER RECEIVED ONE I’VE REVIEWED BEFORE. This is truly amazing to me! Shall we look inside the September box?
This is the fourth year of The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Taiwanese Instant Noodles Of All Time lists. The list definitely has had a lot of movement every year – a good sign as those who produce instant noodles in Taiwan are innovating and producing new styles and flavors all the time! Here are my pick of the tastiest and most memorable Taiwanese varieties from my over 2,000 reviews to date.
Today started well, then got a little crazy then got better – I started at 5am with reviewing some noodles. Then the power went out around 7am for over two hours! A bit later, the mailman knocked on the door with a big package of Taiwanese noodles! Tseng was in The Ramen Rater’s top Ten Instant Noodles Of All Time 2016 list this year – and they have some new products! Let check them out!
Walked to get the mail today and the mailman gave me this box. Wasn’t sure what it was and then remembered! Nissin Thailand has a line of Winnie The Pooh themed noodles I saw a few times on instagram. I asked my contact Ms. Janenate about getting some samples and here they are! You might remember her name from the Nissin Thailand Meet The Manufacturer (check it out here). The neat little cups have little Winnie The Pooh fishcake in them! Let’s look inside!
The Top Ten Taiwan list is coming late September and a few Taiwanese companies are sending me their latest products ! Let’s see what A-Sha Dry Noodle has to offer!
Today I got this box in the mail from Marvin in Fort Worth, Texas! What’s inside?
We’re greeted by tasty packing peanuts, coffee treats and a card (click to enlarge). Marvin has a coffee and grill business! Check it out if you’re in Fort Worth or online at www.rodakscoffeeandgrills.com
A package from Malaysia! Let’s look within!
Hmmm what do we have here?
Penang White Cuury in regular and vegetarian! Seems like for a while I was reviewing so much white curry… Really excited to try some again!!
I asked CarJEN abouyt their snacks recently – I’ve tried so many of their noodles and noodle snacks, but I was curious about their other snacks – and so they sent me some!
A coompany called Choumama recently reached out to me and asked if I’d try their product. Here’s the box today!
For a while now, Javier over at BoxFromJapan.com has been sending me sample boxes and they’ve been really out of this world. Box From Japan is a subscription service – you can get a new box every month to your door – it’s reasonably priced I think since you can’t find any of these in the USA, plus I’ve NEVER gotten a single instant ramen from him that I’ve ever reviewed before – and that’s definitely saying something. Not only that, he also has a candy box – all sorts of neat treats from Japan as well! Let’s look inside!
I was on KOMO TV, an ABC affiliate recently! How did this come to pass? Well, I posted a pocture that was sent to me by Samyu Group, a noodle company over in Malaysia. They have a wall of clocks for important timezones like London, Tokyo, New York, etc. Well, They’d done one for Kenmore, WA for where I live! The PR person contacted their PR agency who contacted KOMO TV and in a few weeks, I had a few people over and a big light pointed at me and a huge video camera in here! I want to thank Leslie Harris from the City Of Kenmore, Eric Schudiske from Gallatin Public Affairs, and Leslie Cohen and Eric Jensen from KOMO TV Seattle! Here are some videos and the story on their website.
Every year, I review a ton of instant noodles – and every year I come out with quite a few lists. This list tends to change the least of all my lists – I’ve had a lot of spicy instant noodles in my time and just seems like nobody’s getting any spicier products to market. Could be that they don’t want to melt people’s faces off perhaps. Anyways, here’s this year’s list – the spiciest varieties out of over 2,100 reviews. Enjoy – if you dare!
This is the fourth Top Ten Instant Noodle Cups list I’ve done since 2013 and I just looked at the first one – none of them are still on this list! I will say one thing though – the ones on the 2013 list are all really good too. It’s hard picking a list to be honest; maybe a top fifty? Naw – ten is enough. Maybe when I’ve done 5000 reviews a top fifty might be in order. But for now, here’s the best of the best – my absolute favorite cup varieties from the 2,100+ reviews I’ve done.
Seems like it wasn’t that long ago I came out with the first Top Ten Rice Noodles list – was thinking I might not do an update since I hadn’t reviewed a ton of new ones in the last year but since a couple were definitely worthy, here it is. Here’s The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Instant Rice Noodles Of All Time 2016 Edition!
I was checking out Nongshim America’s website a few days ago and noticed a new product I’d not seen before. I sent my friend Ray a message and he sent me a package!
Looks like I’ll be doing some interview here in the USA soon! Those are always a lot of fun. I asked Prima Taste over in Singapore if they could send some samples along of the products they have that are in the Top Ten this year – and they did!
I saw a picture of something new on CarJEN’s facebook page and asked if I could get some samples – and they arrived recently!
A while back, somebody asked me if since I have top ten lists, what about a ‘bottom ten’ list? Well, when I was asked that, I was a little leery at first and then figured hey – why not. That’s what we have here. In it’s fourth iteration since 2013, here are my very least favorite varieties I’ve samples out over over 2,000 reviews. I should note that I see these often and so I’m sure many of you will disagree with me. It’s kind of crazy – some people get really offended at my picks. But these are my PERSONAL least favorite instant noodles; don’t take it personally… Geez… Without further ado, let’s dig in to The Ramen Rater’s Bottom Ten Instant Noodles Of All Time 2016 Edition!
Instant noodles sold in bowls are very popular as they provide a certain convenience to those ‘on the go.’ They’re great to pack in a bag for a trip or for the office at lunch. These are the best of the best that I’ve tried out of my over 2,060+ reviews to date. With that, open lid halfway, pour in some boiling water, stir – and enjoy!
So if you like the reviews lately, many of them can be attributed to a guy named Colin from Massachusetts. He has sent three boxes in the past few months, full of varieties I’ve not reviewed. What’s amazing is that he’s in the USA – just on the opposite coast! Thanks, man! Let’s take a loo inside this one.
For a while now, Javier over at BoxFromJapan.com has been sending me sample boxes and they’ve been really out of this world. Box From Japan is a subscription service – you can get a new box every month to your door – it’s reasonably priced I think since you can’t find any of these in the USA, plus I’ve NEVER gotten a single instant ramen from him that I’ve ever reviewed before – and that’s definitely saying something. Not only that, he also has a candy box – all sorts of neat treats from Japan as well! Let’s look inside!
I’ve been getting a LOT of boxes lately! Here’s one I wasn’t expecting!
Two new varieties (click to enlarge)! I’ve reviewed the two on the top, their ghost pepper and xo sauce flavors. On the botton are the new tuna and seaweed flavors! Thank you – looking forward to checking these out!
The DHL guy is my new pal – I hook him up with extra instant noodles I’ve got. He’ll probably end up with a couple from this box too! Kind of neat – he bring me noodles and I share some of the ones he brought! Well, let’s have a look inside!
Here’s the poll for the 2017 Reader’s Choice Top Ten Instant Noodles list! 2016 was the first go at this with over 250 votes counted (results here). Let’s make 2017 even better! Remember – if you don’t put the brand AND the variety, your vote will NOT be counted, so make sure to do so. Don’t forget to invite your friends to vote! The results will come out next year (probably May 1st 2017).
I got an email a few weeks back from a reporter at Apple Daily News of Hong Kong asking if I’d like to do an interview. I said sure – and then she asked if I’d also review some Hong Kong varieties – which I agreed to as well. Over 4 days, I tried 11 different packs of noodles! This is the video from the news article and here’s the link to the story! Was a lot of fun! Special thanks to Winnie Wong for contacting me on this unique project! Here’s the unboxing of the samples, and the full reviews of each one will come in the next few weeks.
A couple days after The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Instant Noodles Of All Time 2015 Edition came out, I got to thinking. Every year, a lot of people enjoy my list, a lot also complain. They’ll say things like ‘how can this not be on here,’ or ‘you have no clue of what youre talking about’ – you can guess the rest but it sometimes gets downright rude. I usually tell people to go and review as many instant noodles as I have and make their own list and we can compare notes, but nobody’s ever taken me up on that. At the same time I thought of this, I came to the realization that although they might not agree with me, they’re still people who love their varieties of instant noodles. I thought that they (you) should have a voice. So, I started a poll. I didn’t want to make a list of varieties for people to pick from – that would sway things in those varieties’ favor. I told people to just write in the flavor they liked and what brand made them. A week or so ago, I ended up with a difficult task. See, a lot of them were listed as the brand name but no variety (six people put Maggi, but Maggi what? From India, From Malaysia? Which one?). Some got cut, but most got counted. There were almost 300 votes and here are the results. I’m going to start a new poll tomorrow and this will be an annual thing! Let’s begin!
For a while now, Javier over at BoxFromJapan.com has been sending me sample boxes and they’ve been really out of this world. Box From Japan is a subscription service – you can get a new box every month to your door – it’s reasonably priced I think since you can’t find any of these in the USA, plus I’ve NEVER gotten a single instant ramen from him that I’ve ever reviewed before – and that’s definitely saying something. Not only that, he also has a candy box – all sorts of neat treats from Japan as well! Let’s look inside!
I heard about this from a post by a colleague in the noodle review crowd (yeah, there are more of us) and thought I’d see if I could give it a review. I got an affirmative, and this is what they sent. First – Washoku Explorer appears to be a website with offerings that aren’t only about being tasty food, but educating you on the foods from Japan. It looks like a really neat thing – click here to check it out.This will be a special upcoming review! For now, let’s have a look at what we have here.
We were out doing grocery shopping and thought ‘hey there’s that Red Robin over there – wonder if they have those Red Ramen Burgers.’ Well, after a quick phone call to make sure they did, we swooped in to give them a try.
It’s been quite a year for The Ramen Rater. I’ve reviewed 357 new instant noodle varieties. I got to visit an instant noodle company in Thailand. I just hit my 2000th review. Since the beginning of this ‘noodle journey,’ I’ve wanted to try flavors from around the world and have been able to do just that. This new list is a compilation of the best of the best; the most memorable and most wonderful of the 2,004 varieties I’ve sampled thus far. If you are an instant noodle company and I haven’t reviewed your products, please contact me – I would love to review them. I decided to include what I added to them this year – however note the products are scored before anything is added. With that, let’s have a look at The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Instant Noodles Of all Time 2016 Edition.
A couple years ago, I had the opportunity to check out a course taught by Dr. Gary Hou at the Wheat Marketing Center in Portland, OR. It was a short course on making instant noodles and really fascinating. It’s coming up again and as a thank you for letting everyone know about it, Dr. Hou sent me something!
For a while now, Javier over at BoxFromJapan.com has been sending me sample boxes and they’ve been really out of this world. Box From Japan is a subscription service – you can get a new box every month to your door – it’s reasonably priced I think since you can’t find any of these in the USA, plus I’ve NEVER gotten a single instant ramen from him that I’ve ever reviewed before – and that’s definitely saying something. Not only that, he also has a candy box – all sorts of neat treats from Japan as well! Let’s look inside!
I WAS SURPRISED TO HEAR HOW MANY OF YOU I FOOLED! HAPPY APRIL FOOL’S DAY – I’LL BE REVIEWING INSTANT NOODLES FOR A LONG TIME COMING!
I was fortunate to be able to check out Dr. Gary Hou’s instant noodle course at the Wheat Marketing Center in Portland, Oregon a couple years ago – turns out he’s doing it again and if you’re interested, you should give it a look!
Reader Colin from Arlington, MA sent me yet another box of noodles – thanks man! He told me he was going to Mexico and offered to get some for me. Let’s have a look inside!
My sister took a trip to Canada and asked if there was anything I wanted while she was up there. Well, I asked for Great Value instant noodles from Canadian Walmart. What’s crazy is you can’t buy them individually – you have to buy a big box of them. She got me every flavor of the packs and cups!
A week or two ago, my friend Paul S. brought over a couple packs of instant noodles (click to enlarge) he got on vacation. He went down to Mexico and picked these up for me! Always been hard to source stuff from Mexico. Why? No clue; it just is. Anyways, thanks Paul, you rock!
Very curious about this – let’s pop it open.
Wow (click to enlarge) – that’s one angry looking pepper!