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This one usually comes out in January, but a little late this year on edits. However, this one’s ready to go! This is my list of favorite South Korean varieties from my reviews up to number 4,650. Definitely want to try more South Korean varieties – especially those only found in South Korea – not export versions if at all possible. Anyways, let’s boil some water and check out The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten South Korean Instant Noodles Of All Time 2024 Edition!
Here’s one I’ve wanted to get my hands on for quite a while. I like tantanmen – usually thick and spicy stuff – a denser, sloppier ramen. Let’s give it a go!
Well, dang. I really would have loved to been able to review this sooner but tough to get samples from companies in the United States for some reason. Ah well. I found this at S*Mart – yup – shop smart, shop S Mart. Not sure if they just did a repackaging of the old version or not, but I’m guessing it’s a bit more than that. Let’s give it a try!
This list is coming a bit late this year, but I figure late is definitely better than never. This one’s comprised of varieties made in, and specifically for the US market. Some really tasty stuff here is your backyard if you didn’t know! These are my favorite US varieties out of reviews up to review 4,650 that are currently on the market. Got something I’ve not tried? Hit me up! Anyways, let’s check out The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten American Instant Noodles Of All Time 2024 Edition!
Our local store sells these for $4 each. I thought this was a little high and then I went to a different store and they were $2 which seemed a bit more reasonable. These are the popular bowls Nongshim has been producing and selling for years – I have seen them be made! It’s a very impressive process, with lots of little interesting things. One is a machine that checks each and every bowl to see if say a screw from the machinery fell into a bowl – they don’t. It’s pretty neat stuff. Most people are really into the whole deal with making noodles, but I find it fascinating. Let’s cook one of these up.
Here’s yet another sent by Pher Engi from Australia – thanks! This appears to be an export version specifically for Australia. Wish I had some beef to put in it. Ah well. Let’s give it a try!
This should be pretty easy to be found by just about everyone in the United States. Good ol’ Bowl Noodles. They’ve gone through numerous changes over the years insofar as packaging, and this is the latest I’ve seen. It’s got a plastic wrap around it with the labeling. Thanks guys – makes it more difficult for me to scan when things are shrink-wrapped!
Been lagging on doing top ten list editing – my apologies. The weather’s been really good for walking, and in May I did over 500 miles. I included a special post at the bottom about it. I also included something of a change from how I’ve been doing things as well involving AI. Anyways, this is the annual The Ramen Rater’s Global Top Ten Instant Noodle Bowls – these are my favorite varieties out of review up to #4440 which are in the bowl style. Hope you enjoy! Top Ten Cups and Bottom Ten lists should be coming soon!
New clothes for the classic! Originally, it was a foam bowl with a paper lid in shrinlkwrap. Then, they reformulated for microwave and had a cardboard sleeve. Now, it’s a plastic wrap with the graphics on that. This is classic – ubiquitous with gas stations and little corner shops, many o which are run by Korean Americans. I used to live in a place that had a little grocery/deli mini mart across the way. The fellow there was Korean American and he had these in there, but with a ridiculous markup. I asked him why once. ‘Because that’s my lunch!’
I’ve a couple fascinating varieties from the Shin range by Nongshim which came by way of The Fat Hipster – thanks man! He’s got a YouTube channel where does reviews you should check out. This is one I though was only in the UK but from the labeling it’s distributed throughout Europe – there fore its getting the South Korea stamp as it’s not just for one country but many. Let’s give it a try!
While at a Korean grocery in Seattle looking for things to make ice cream with, I noticedthis Vegan edition of the Shin cup. So, since I’ve not reviewed it, I got one. Let’s give it a go.
Big thank you to James from Lakesida, CA for sending these over! This is the second of two new Nongshim Shin varieties recently released. It’s Vegan friendly which appeals to a broader group as time goes on. I’m very curious – I really like their Vgean varieties quite a bit, but generally not a huge fan of mushrooms. So, let’s give it a try and see how it is.
Well, here we go. In my group Ramen Junkies, Shin reigns supreme. Just a post someone did showing this pack had over a hundred comments real fast. Of course, I’m curious about this one – there’s also a mushroom tofu Shin Green to try as well.
After a couple years, here’s The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten South Korean Instant Noodles Of All Time 2023 Edition. It’s been a sort of tough go lately; so few new Korean varieties have crossed my desk. Usually they’ve all been ultra spicy ones, and while good, they’ve not been ones that are top ten listers. There should be a few new ones to the list for next years list that have yet to be published, though. If you’ve an instant noodle company in South Korea, I’d love to review your products. I used to receive samples from the larger companies quite often, but unfortunately not so much recently. This list is comprised of varieties from South Korea that I’ve reviewed up to my 4,300th review. With that, here’s The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten South Korean Instant Noodles Of All Time 2023 Edition!
This one usually comes out earlier than now, but it’s been rather busy. There’s a couple more lists coming, so stay tuned. These are my favorite varieties I’ve samples thus far. This list is current as of my 4,300th review. Hopefully there will be more great new varieties to try during the next year to add to the list. If you’re a company with some varieties I’ve not tried, please by all means drop me a line! With that, I present The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten American Instant Noodles Of All Time 2023 Edition.
This may sound very weird to you, but this isn’t the first weird ice cream and ramen mashup rodeo I’ve done here. Actually, there are two others but those will be coming soon. This, however is one of the stranger ones and I thought why not just get it to you, the viewer as soon as possible? You like the Shin, don’t you? Yes, all of you do. Well, why not combine that flavor with a frozen treat and have Shin Ice Cream? What a perfect autumn dessert option? Well, Let’s continue onward with what we’re doing – you will enjoy the results possibly!
Here’s another neat and never before seen Shin variety that was sent by The Fat Hipster – Shin Bokkeummyeon. Basically, it’s a dry version of Shin – also looks to be spicy from the packaging. I hope it’s good – let’s find out!
Well, well, well. I think this one should warrant a mukbang, don’t you? I’m trying to remember the last time I did one, actually. I must say I’m sad to report that this is the first year a top ten list for South Korea has been skipped since I started doing them; I’ve reviewed so few new varieties. Really bummed about that – help! Glad to see a new one here, however this is for the US market and not the Korean version. Hopefully some new ones will cross my desk for 2023 soon. Either way, this is an extra spicy version of Chapaguri, made popular by the film Parasite I believe. Still haven’t seen the film… Being with poor vision, subtitles are a little rough. Definitely would like to see the ramdon scene. But anyhoo, let’s check this new ramdon out.
I know you’re wondering ‘why does he do these things?’ I pose the opposite question – ‘why don’t you do these things?’ I’ll be honest – I’m playing with food. It’s something different to try. Sometimes it doesn’t work, but I’m finding many times it does work and it works pretty well! Let’s make some stuffed bread with a popular variety!
Well, it’s been a long time coming, but here we are. It’s pizza time. I could go into detail to start with, but let me just say – this pizza is wonderful and I’ll tell you how to make it. Probably the best bready thing I’ve ever made. Before we start, let me say this also – if you’re looking for a pizza crust from instant noodles, you will not find that here. What I’ve found is that instant noodles are best as is and not screwed around with too much. A filling for bread, but not part of the dough. Let’s begin.
For the longest time, I only thought there was a single variety of Nongshim’s Tonkotsu bowl – the spicy one. Lo and behold, there’s this one with black garlic oil as well. What’s more, I think both exist concurrently. The spicy one has a five star rating from me and is at the top of the USA top ten. Let’s check this new one out!
Back in 1986, a South Korean company called Nongshim 농심 (which translates to Farmer’s Heart), introduced a product called Shin Ramyun. Since then it has been one of the most popular varieties around the world. In this post, I’ll do a deep dive into the product – a tear down of the package and it’s contents, my tips of preparation, and some things you might not know about it. While not my favorite variety I’ve tried, chances are it may be yours. I run a group called Ramen Junkies on Facebook and the topic and focus of the bulk of posts on there surround this product.
Formerly the Made In The USA list, The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten American Instant Noodles Of All Time still is comprised only of varieties manufactured in the United States. This year’s list is comprised of all the best varieties from the United States in my reviews up to number 3,950. These varieties are mostly easily found as they’re not imports. Lots of great stuff to try here as well as links to find it on Amazon. I’ve also included some announcements at the bottom so make sure to check those out as well. With that, let’s check out The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten American Instant Noodles Of All Time 2022 Edition!
Now I know what you’re thinking. ‘He’s gone mad, The Ramen Rater, he has.’ Not in the slightest. No more than usual, at least. I thought I would try something and see what would happen. Making bread is a lot of fun and I’ve never made any kind of really sweet sugary bread before and kimchi ramen would have a tangy and acidic bump to it, right? Well, so here we are. Tons of candy in the house and a bread machine wanting to make ramen bread. Let’s give it a try!
So. If the noodle is fried, an emulsifier is needed to release the oil from the noodle. However, if they’re air dried… Hmmm. Let’s see, then we… wouldn’t? Let’s make this stuff into bread!
I had a thought – ramen into bread. I was able to do this successfully by creating a bread with cooked noodles as an ingredient in place of some bread flour. But what of a bread where instant noodles are the flour? I mean, it is flour, isn’t it? Today, We’ll look at my initial attempt and see what was learned from it and how it went.
Well look at this! I’ve seen something like this before…
I did a post way back in April of 2013, extolling the virtues of Chapaguri! No clue where I’d heard of it back then – maybe from Nongshim, IDK. I’d long forgotten about it and then I saw this and was like ‘hey – that’s the logo I made!’ It’s a pretty easy conclusion to do something like this from a design perspective and I think it looks nice. If they got the idea from me, I’m honored, but I’m guessing they had the idea of it when it was a popular item back then. Well, let’s see how it tastes!
I hear it already – ‘but it’s from Korea!’ Look. Just humor me. Look. Lower left. Made in USA. Unless you visited South Korea and brought some back from Canada (they’re probably from their Chinese factory if so), then you’ve been eating Korean style instant noodles made in Rancho Cucamonga, California. Their factory is a really neat place – first one I ever had the fortune to visit and it was really neat.
Well, it’s been another year of reviews and these are my favorite bowl varieties out of reviews #1 to #3790. All sorts of bowls from all over the world have been tried. It’s been a crazy year and it seems (at least in this neck of the woods) things are starting to mellow which is truly wonderful. It’s been a crazy month too – today is Memorial Day, May 31st, 2021. I’ve walked over 1 million steps this month, and on Friday did my personal record – 33 miles in a day. Yes, my feet hurt. Anyways, if you have varieties you want to see reviewed whether they be bowls, cups, packs or otherwise, please contact me. With that, let’s check out this Top Ten Instant Noodle Bowls Of All Time 2021 Edition.
Okay so the pack version of this budae jjigae is just all around wonderful. Time for the bowl. Big thanks to Dennis over at Nongshim for shooting this over! Let’s give it a try.
Another expansion of the Soon range. Very curious how this one will be – and I even have some kimchi on hand. I’ve been replacing snacks with kimchi – been enjoyable to say the least! Let’s check this one out.
Recently, Nongshim added some new flavors to their Soon Vegan range and sent them to me (thank you!) – this one has piqued my curiosity in particular. Spicy tomato sounds nice – let’s give it a try! By the way – it’s Vegan!
I’ve long been a fan of the Soon line of products from Nongshim. If asked whether I’d want Shin Ramyun or Soon, I’d hit the Soon. Why? It just has a really nice smooth finish (it sounds like I’m describing a beer but really it does). This time they’ve got a trifecta of new versions – kimchi, a spicy tomato and a miso tofu. Today kimchi is on the menu – let’s check it out.
Well, I thought I had one more of the other brand to do a mukbang of but it turns out I don’t. Hmm.. Well, I do have this one – thanks to The Fat Hipster (check him out n YouTube) – thanks, man!
I was curious about a variety that it turns out has been retired, but happily a few new ones are now in the game – Nongshim sent those over! Thank you very much! Let’s have a look.
Bowls, cups, , trays, packs, and boxes. Well, I haven’t done a list of boxed or tray-style instant noodles – maybe that will come soon. But I think that separating these is important. The experience that a cup is meant for is different than a cup or bowl. Cups are more for a snack on the go, packs for when you’ve got a stove, and bowls are, well, for lunch. Although in the finished shots of these you’ll see them plated here, generally people will be looking at the bowl they came in, possibly using the plastic fork they came with, and tossing everything once they’re done. These are my favorites, current as of review #3545. Let’s have a look at The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Instant Noodle Bowls Of All Time 2020 Edition.
This one was sent by Nongshim America – thanks again! Tonkotsu is a Japanese style ramen, usually a creamy pork rich broth. This one is boasting an added spiciness which sound interesting. Not only that, it’s a microwavable variety. Let’s see how it tastes!
This one is the first I’m reviewing from a ship that Nongshim America was kind enough to send – thank you! I should mention that James from Lakeside California sent one of these – thanks everyone! So from the little word-cloud above the name Soo, I’m guessing perhaps that the word Soo means excellent? I looked it up and it can (as a family name) mean water or shore/riverbank. I’m going to guess water will be the logical one here since these are air-dried noodles and not fried. That has a nice little logic to it, at least in my head. Let’s give them a try.
It’s been quite a while since a new Shin variety came out I think. On the edge of the package it mentions it being ‘Shin Black Class’ but I mean look at the packaging. Clearly, this is Shin White – am I wrong?I’m guessing this is going to be quite different – fried vs non fried noodles are like night and day, and I expect I’m going to like this one to be honest. Let’s find out!
In past years, there were a lot of different varieties of ‘Army Stew’ or Troop Stew’ coming out of South Korea. It’s more commonly known as Budae Jjigae. So, what is it?
