
It’s been cold, wet, and breezy – now it looks like it’ll be just plain cold today… I guess we shall see. Let’s continue the calendar with some chicken!
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It’s been cold, wet, and breezy – now it looks like it’ll be just plain cold today… I guess we shall see. Let’s continue the calendar with some chicken!

Wow, that stripe at the top of these posts is getting longer and longer to do every day! I have to edit it in every single post! I’m sure there’s some kind of way to automate it, but I am just doing copy paste on each one at the end of the day – easier. Anyways, this is a spicy yakisoba we have here – let’s give it a try!

Only about a week to go until Christmas Eve – crazy. Hope you’ve got all you gifts got and ready to go! It’s getting late in the game… But today is my daughter’s birthday! She’s exceedingly stoked! Let’s try this Thai take on chicken from Nissin’s newest range – made in Vietnam for the EU market.

Had a feeling this one would make an appearance sooner or later! We slept in a skosh so glad it’s one I’ve already tried – makes things a lot quicker on readying the post. Let’s cook it up!

I started doing this big advent calendar 2 weeks ago today – pretty crazy! It’s going very well thus far it seems! Thought I’d mention – if you like following, that’s great – I have my posts going out on quite a few platforms, but a couple have barely anyone following. I’m on Substack and Bluesky – it seems people started noticing that and then poof. So, I thought I’d remind folks that if they like those, I’m there. Tumblr too for what it’s worth. Now, on with the review!

I’ve been happily going through a big box sent to me by the kind folks over in Germany at Nissin Foods. It’s a huge advent calendar filled with instant noodles. Each day I have been starting my doings by shooting video of myself opening the correlating door and freeing a pack or cup of noodles – often before I’m really awake. Then I get the post ready to go and go on with my day until the right time when I cook it up on Instant Noodle Recipe Time and then post around 3 to 4 in the afternoon. Usually, I do reviews and I’m very far ahead, so a post I do today might not come out until close to six months from now. This is a very different way of doing things for me and it’s been a whole lot of fun! I thought maybe I ought to do a single post where I can have everything easily viewed. I’ve been updating a stripe at the top of each review – adding a link to each day. I’ll be doing that here as well, but it’ll be stuck to the top of the home page of The Ramen Rater for easier access. With that, here is the calendar series – from the initial unboxing to current day. I should also note I’ve no clue what is going to be behind each door I open – despite being tempted to open the door the night before. I should also note we have a LEGO advent calendar – I am showing those in the beginning as well – but they are of the previous day so as not to spoil anyone doing the same one. Alright – let’s go.

Had a great time for my daughter’s birthday party yesterday, did a bunch of stuff afterwards, then my wife and I stayed up watching YouTube until almost 4am. It’s noon now so I’m kinda behind my usual workflow, but it’s Sunday so no big deal. Anyways, let’s cook this up – I’m very curious how this will be! Let’s cook.

Well it’s Saturday and time to start the second half of the advent calendar. Today’s my daughter Mimi’s birthday party so I’ll have to get going here. This is the teriyaki Soba pack version as opposed to the cup I did prior. Let’s cook it up!

Ah its a day for beef. I went to the grocery store to get some. I got my second shingles vax yesterday and today feel like death warmed over. Anyways, I tell the guy at the meat counter I need 1oz of their cheapest ground beef. He tried to give me 0.4lbs which is way too much, then a much smaller amount that was perfect, but when he tried to weigh it it wouldn’t register so he said it was on the house. So shout out to butcher at our local Safeway. But yeah I feel worse than crummy. Let’s see if I can cook a Cup Noodles this morning…

This one was included in the advent calenda box from last year – and it would have been good I figure. Alas, I lost the sachet from this one. I hunted through the trash but never found it. Fortunately, I get another chance at it! Do I give it a new numbe? Why not! Let’s cook it up!

Time for some quacking with Peking Duck. I really think duck ought to become the nation protein – maybe just plain international protein of choice. Duck is really great so if you’ve not tried it, you’re missing out. Let’s cook this one up!

Started a little late this morning but no harm – it’s one I did recently enough… Curious if today will bring more torrential downpour and gusty winds. Guess we shall see.

I started doing these last Monday and now it’s a new week with day number eight. So far so good – I think it’ll get a little tricky once we get towards my daughter’s birthday but the train will go throughout I tell ya! Got some extreme weather for this area coming up this week. Time to cook!

Here’s another one I’ve not tried and it’s interesting. This one isn’t produced in Hungary like the previous ones I’ve shown but instead in Vietnam. I’ve noticed many companies producing in Vietnam – guessing that there’s a really good reason for this, probably has to do with cost and production volume? But that’s kinda outside my purview. This one’s Vegetarian friendly and touts a Korean spicy flavor. Sounds good – let’s give it a go!

Good morning, or good afternoon – it’s Saturday! We were up late – watched a movie called The Substance – if you like weird, it’s gonna fit the bill. Anyways, it’s a big day around here. My daughter Mimi is taking part in a special ‘Chorus Club’ performance at city hall with her school music class so that’s pretty awesome. But first thing I’m doing is editing images of noodles/taking pictures, etc. Next is to do this post and then cook, so that’s what’s going on. Let’s do this.

Another one of the Soba range I’ve not reviewed in this package or at all in pack form from what I see. Curry sounds good – perhaps with some chicken? Let’s give it a whirl!

Well, they forgot (so did I) about the LEGO calendar we’re doing concurrently, but here’s another one from the Nissin Germany box!

This s a bigger undertaking thank I expected! Woke up, shot a quick video, edited images… I usually will do three reviews in a day but a set schedule for ones I’ve not reviewed (I’ve had this but not in this version of packaging) is pretty hardcore! It is fun though – let’s get this reviewed!

Well, here we go with day two. I’ve reviewed this one somewhat recently, so no new number here. We’re also doing a LEGO City advent calendar here so I’m showing what was in there from the previous day in the video. By the way it’s Giving Tuesday I hear so if you wanna help out click here! Let’s continue on with the Nissin Germany Advent Calendar!!!

Here’s the first of the Nissin Germany advent calendar! I didn’t think the first one would be a variety I’ve not reviewed, so here I am wrapping the post up at 8am. Let’s check this one out!

Last year, Nissin Germany was kind enough to send one of these – however it didn’t arrive in time to do it. Well, rather unexpectedly, this year’s version arrived yesterday – just in time to start on Monday December 1st! With that, here is a vide of the unboxing. I’m going to do one variety every day until the day before Christmas. This is gonna be fun! Huge thanks to Nissin Deutschland for sending this over – very kind! By the way – here they are on Amazon Germany!

Well, it’s about to be Thanksgiving here in the United States and here we have turkey dinner in a cup. This is yet another one of the Limited Edition range Nissin Foods has been coming up with and honestly, I’m pretty happy that they keep coming out with these. I’ve seen images of mountains of this variety at Walmart on clearance for 25 cents each, but I don’t know if that’s true or not. On the bright side, you could just skip all the insanity and just have this and a Pumpkin Pie Cup Noodles and call it a turkey day. How’s that for a cheaper Thanksgiving – and it does generally come from Walmart. A recipe at the bottom shows you how to economically make a pumpkin pie using the pumpkin cup as well. Be festive in the face of financial ruin! Let’s give it a try.

Here’s another German Cup Noodles variety – very curious so let’s get to it.


You’re probably wondering ‘whoa what’s with the jump in numbers here?’ Well, I pushed the wrong button. My fancy keyboard is now doing double letters on the i’s and r’s intermittently as well. But here’s a sneak peek and one of a series from these folks – neat stuff!

Here’s a variety that I found in one of MiauMall’s Nakama Noodles subscription boxes! These boxes are discontinued, however you can find their stuff at MiauMall – here is what they said about this one – “We’re keeping up the cheese party with another tasty bowl of yakisoba! This bowl features yakisoba noodles in a sweet n’ spicy gyudon-inspired sauce and a 3-cheese mayo made with edam, parmesan and romano cheese. This bowl is packed with flavor that you’ll love!”

Hey look at this one! Big thank you to my wife Kit for getting me this! Only at Walmart. So, haven’t we gone through this before? Yes and no. Yes, it’s identical in every way to the pumpkin spicy flavor Cup Noodles – except one little thing. The name. They changed the name from spice to pie – why? I don’t know. New barcode now as well. To see both and a myriad of weird things to do with it, check out my definitive guide here. I’m gonna do it up real pretty. Let’s do it up!

It isn’t often I hear about varieties that I had no idea existed. When it does, I’m usually on the hunt – but these are hard to come by. Luckily, the folks at hongkongfoodies.com have all these neat ones – and more! Check out the video!

Here’s a variety that I found in one of MiauMall’s Nakama Noodles subscription boxes! These are discontinued, however you can find their stuff at MiauMall – here is what they said about this one – “We had to bring this popular, limited-edition tempura soba back! This pretty, pink soba bowl has delicious soba noodles in a savory katsuo dashi (Japanese soup stock) and soy sauce soup! It’s topped with tasty beni shoga (red pickled ginger) tempura, perfect for the season!”

Tried this 12 years ago. Packaging has changed as well as what’s in there – let’s give it a whirl in the microwave!

Here’s a new packaging variety from the ‘states. These contain instant rice as well as little bits of noodle – last one I tried was quite nice – let’s give it a go!

Here’s a variety that I found in one of MiauMall’s Nakama Noodles subscription boxes! These boxes are discontinued, however you can find their stuff at MiauMall – here is what they said about this one – “”Most of the fun this holiday season happens when the sun goes down. That’s why we got you a classic bowl of yakisoba inspired by nighttime shops and stalls! These noodles come with a tasty sauce and a slightly spicy mayo for tons of tasty yakisoba flavor and goodness!”

I’ve done a lot of reviews lately of things that arrived in a Nissin Germany advent calendar box. This particular variety arrived in a box from Nissin USA that contained every noodle product they make! Let’s cook this one up!

I think this is the very last of the German Cup Noodles – it has been a lot of fun reviewing them! They came in a big advent calendar the folks at Nissin Germany sent – thanks again! Let us begin.

Another one that came from the big advent calendar Nissin Germany sent – thanks again! These cups and packs have been a lot of fun! Let’s cook!

Well, I’ve got shrimps and I have varieties that would like shrimps in them so today I’m using shrimps. So there – let’s cook!

This one came out of the gargantuan National Noodle Day box Nissin sent. I looked it up and I reviewed this once before – in 2013. Let’s revisit this one – done a lot differently as for my garnish than the first time.

Here’s another cup from the big advent calendar box! I was tepid on reviewing these as I did awhile back, but the chicken one I did the other day was excellent, so I’m wondering if they’ve redone these. I’m excited to try this one – so let us begin.

A big Thank you to Aimee from the Ramen Junkies Facebook group! I’ve never had a Nissin Top Ramen corrections-style variety before and so this is the first and I’m STOKED. There’s really no correlating variety outside of prisons and jail like this flavor. Fascinating. Watch and check it out – and thanks again!

Here’s anothe from the Nissin Germany advent calendar! Let’s cook!

Detail of the side panels (click to enlarge). Unsure if it contains meat check for yourself. To prepare, fill to line with boiling water and cover for 3 minutes. Finally, stir and enjoy!

Another one from the big Nissin Germany Advent Calendar! Let’s quack up some duck!

Detail of the packaging (click to enlarge). Looks to be meat free but check for yourself. To prepare, boil noodle in 500ml water for 3 minutes. Add in sachet contents. Finally, stir and enjoy!