Over 5,000 Instant Ramen Noodle Reviews Since 2002
A week or so ago, I reviewed Mamee Chef Gold Recipe Mi Kari Seribu Rasa. This however is Mamee Chef Gold Recipe Bihun Kari Seribu Rasa. What’s the difference? Well, ‘mi’ means noodles – as in instant wheat flour noodles. Bihun is the Malaysian term for rice vermicelli. Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about bihun:
Here’s another one sent to me by a reader in Sweden – thank you! This is a Swedish brand – Katoz and is manufactured by MAT Kompaniet. Swedish instant noodles are a new thing to me; this is the second review I’ve ever done involving instant noodles from Sweden. One unique thing about Swedish instant noodles – they are really into the metric system. Usually on the instruction for preparation, the amount of water is called for by cups (more Western) or cc (cubic centimeter) or mL (milliliter). Well, in Sweden the go with decaliter, which is 100cc. This one requireds 4 dl of water, or 400cc/400ml. I’ve NEVER seen decaliters used before, and the only reason I knew what was going on was from elementary school. Yes kids, I know it seems ridiculous at the time, but you will use this information later in life – especially when making Swedish instant noodles! But I digress. Let’s check out these Katoz Spicy Chili noodles from Sweden!
Been quite a while since I’ve had some miso ramen, and this will be only my second Sunaoshi review. This one was in my hamper asking to be reviewed today and so I thought why not give it some attention. Ready? Set? Miso.
I figured since I have some cabbage I need to use before it goes bad, yakisoba would be a good call for today. This is one of those interesting ones. The product is from a Hong Kong company called Chewy, made in South Korea, and a Japanese flavor. Yakisoba is great stuff – vegetables and meats fried with noodles and oil and some flavoring. Time to have some breakfast – let’s check out this one from Chewy.
We tried this new grocery store (new to me at least) in Bellevue called Asian Food Center. Thought we’d give it a peek and found they had quite a few neat things. This is one of the noodles I found. I want to send a really big thank you to Bobby Y. up in Canada for help translating this one – mystery solved, thank to you! Now here’s a note on contention between me and the entire country of Taiwan. If you look in the lower right corner, you’ll see a little warning. It reads: This product is not the instant noodles. Please boil the noodles before eating. They can’t be steeped; okay, we got that. What is kind of ridiculous is the fact that they only take 3 minutes to cook. That’s the same amount of time as noodles that can be steeped. Logically, the amount of time needed to cooking something should be relevant to whether it is deemed instant as well, don’t you think? I would call these instant noodles – that require a different cooking method than other instant noodles. But I digress – I don’t think Taiwan is going to get on board with this, and that’s alright with me. I’m thinking next year I might to a split Taiwanese Top Ten list – half the ones that can be steeped and half the ones that can’t, basically a pair of Top Five lists. It seems to really matter to them, and far be it for me to poo-poo any country with such a fervent passion for noodles. Let’s proceed!
It’s kind of hard to tell the size of this little mini Kitsune Udon, so let’s have a look at this.
Today we have a new one from Mamee Chef. Mamee Chef’s products made not only the Top Ten Instant Noodles Of All Time 2014 list, but also topped the Top Ten Instant Noodle Cups Of All Time 2014 list. Really exceptional stuff! They have come out with two varieties in this flavor: one with their ‘mi tarik’ noodles (noodles made in a way to emulate hand-pulled noodles) and a version that comes with bihun (pronounced bee-hoon, it’s a very thin rice noodle). Today I’m reviewing the wheat noodle variety.
This is one I got when by friend Matt B. was kind enough to take us on a trip to a place called Imran’s Market up the road a ways from here. It’s kind of interesting; this will be the third Pakistani instant noodle I’ve reviewed and they were all got within about 5 miles from eachother! I think it does make me want to Shoop, although I’m not exactly sure how to shoop… Regardless, let’s have a look – today we’re going to a new Asian grocery in Bellevue, so I might have a new post about that place tomorrow. Stay tuned, and enjoy the Shoop BBQ!
Here’s another poor cup noodle that got beaten up a bit on the flights back from Malaysia. Could’ve been between Penang and Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur and Taipei, or Taipei and Seattle – probably a combo of all three. Poor foam cup! There was a lot of turbulence last Sunday morning over Japan. Luckily, this is a noodle that gets drained anyways, and so it’ll come out fine. What’s funny is that the cup got banged up, but the noodle block is almost completely intact! Got this one at Econsave in Butterworth! Let’s check this mee goreng out! By the way – you may have also seen ‘mi’ goreng. Mi Goreng and Mee Goreng are the same thing; they both mean fried noodles – there’s also Mie Goreng you may see as well.
Thanks to Yuji Hashimoto over at Takamori Kosan of Japan for helping me to translate this one! Today’s review is one that I think I found up in Canada. It looks to be similar to Maruchan’s regular Kitsune Udon bowl – the red one.Kitsune means ‘fox’ in Japanese. Here’s a little something about the ‘kitsune myth’ from wikipedia –
Woot woot – potatoes! These sounded good today – potato ramen… I really like the little Ms. Potato Head on the packaging. Ottogi makes some interesting varieties – I reviewd many of them waaaay back when I moved to Edmonds, WA. I would walk every day and pick up a single pack and bring it home, cook and review. Those were in the #100-#300’s. Seems like forever ago! These noodles are made primarily with potatoes, which give them an extra chewiness. Let’s check out Ottogi Potato Ramen!
Haven’t had one from India in a while! These Maggi noodles were found at a little market here on Highway 99 called Imran’s Market. I had wanted to check it out for a couple years, but when I used to ride the bus I would see it, and when riding in the car I couldn’t. It’s kind of weird. Perhaps the height of the bus? I dunno. But finally made it there a couple months back thanks to my pal Matt B. and found some interesting stuff. Let’s have a look at these Maggi Multigrainz noodles!
After trying the other Mom’s Dry Noodle variety a few days ago, I decided I really wanted to give their Sichuan Spicy one a try too. As I researched videos to add to their Onion Oil & Shrimp variety, I kept seeing this one mentioned. I also have been curious because they also sent a couple little jars of the paste – the spicy paste! Thought maybe I’d saute my garnish in it today. Well, let’s get this one started!
Here’s one that Annie T. of MyKuali sent me a while back from Malaysia – thank you again! I’ve been very curious about this Ibumie Mee Baa..Gus, mainly from the packaging and name. So first off let’s translate a little. Mi Goreng is fried noodle (mi being noodle, goreng being fried). Perisa Asli Pedas is spicy original flavor. But – what about Mee Baa.gus? Well, mee is also noodle, and bagus would be gorgeous or wonderful. So they’re going for something like ‘wonnnnderful!’ with the little extra punctuation in the middle of bagus. Another term on the front of this pack is ‘Shiok.’ Shiok basically is an exclamation – you might have a really great bowl of noodles and say ‘wow – these noodles are really shiok!’ Urban Dictionary said it is a way to express pleasure and happiness. So! Now that we’ve had a little language lesson, let’s see how this mi goreng variety comes out!
I think this is the last of these I got when I went up to Canada last year. Shoyu translates to soy sauce, so these are soy sauce flavor ramen noodles. Shoyu is one of the standard flavors of ramen from Japan, such as miso and tonkotsu. Sounds pretty good to me – let’s have a look inside and give ’em a try!
Here’s a new variety of Paldo’s Bibim Men line to come out recently. Jjol means ‘chewy.’ Bibim Men – now this is slightly trickier but isn’t that hard. Bibimbap is a mix of vegetables, meat and an egg topped with gochujang (a spicy sauce) over rice. It’s one of my favorite Korean dishes, often served in a stone bowl and sizzling like nothing else! Well, the ‘bap is rice. In Jjol Bibim Men, the Men is the same as -myun or myeon, which means noodles. So what you have here is a cold, spicy, chewy noodle dish. I’m hungry – let’s get to it! Bring on the Jjol Bibim Men!
Here’s a good one – it’s on The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Instant Noodles Of All Time 2014 Edition! Seriously good. One thing that will confuse many is the name – it certainly did confuse me. Yentafo? Mohfai? Tom Yum – that I knew, but the others… Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about yentafo:
Soon as I saw this one in the box, I was instantly curious. Spicy cheese flavor from Thailand? I didn’t know they liked cheese in Thailand! Ah, well everyone likes cheese I suppose. Spicy cheese is even better in my book – spicy and tasty’s where it’s at. Well, let’s see what we have here inside this fascinating new cup from MAMA!
To start things off, I’m sure you have all heard of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. What it is for those of you who haven’t, is a campaign to increase awareness of ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), a motor neuron disease which causes the connections between the mind and muscles to degrade. The challenge involves a person having a ton of icewater dumped on them, and then nominating three people to do the same. Yesterday, my sister nominated me after she was nominated. Usually, you have 24 hours to accept and carry out the challenge. Today, I’m going to be getting a lot of icewater dumped on me! At the bottom of this review will be my sister’s challenge, and tomorrow’s review will feature me getting drenched! If you want to help, please consider donating to ALSA.org.
Woke up today to see on the news that there was a big earthquake down in North California near where a large portion of my wife’s side of the family live. Hope everyone in the Bay Area is doing well!
Many of you familiar with the sight of this package may say – hey waitta minute – what are you calling this? In fact, this is known by a few names! Here in the United States, it’s called Nissin Demae Ramen. In Japan, the four characters in big print translate to Demae Iccho. In Singapore however, Chinese is often spoken, and they translate to Chu Qian Yi Ding. I’m pretty sure it means something like delivery boy’ or something – the little guy on the package. Anyways, this is pretty easily gotten the world over, however this is the Singaporean made one! Let’s check it out!
Toiday, I’m reviewing another new one from Nissin Singapore – Kyushu Black. Kyushu style ramen is different in that it features broth with a cloudy nature and rich flavor. Nissin Singapore’s Kyushu Black looks from the package to feature this. The black part? Black garlic oil! Looks interesting! What to add…
Here’s a new line from Nissin Singapore – their premium Japanese ramen. There are two of them – this Tokyo Shoyu and one called Kyushu Black which I will be reviewing in the few days. So what is Tokyo Shoyu? Well, let’s start with some Wikipedia info on shoyu ramen:
To start off, thanks to Raissa T. and Andre L. for their help on translating! Today feels like a yakisoba day. I really like yakisoba! It’s a pretty versatile dish; you can add anything to it and it’s still good! Well, strawberry jelly probably isn’t the best add-in… Then again, with that mention perhaps someone will try it and make it the new craze? The latest weird add-in craze was adding those little pudding cups or flan into a Cup Noodle. Bizarre… Well, let’s see how this comes out – looks good on the package! Especially with the amazingly cool little recommendation to…
Woo-hoo! I’ve been looking for a couple varieties by Maruchan for a while and this is one of them. I want to thank Craig Y. and all the nice folks at Maruchan for getting this one in my hands! I’m sure someone out there is going to say ‘Hard to find? It’s at every store around me!’ One thing though is that not every product is marketed or distributed to every area. One example of this kind of thing is a soda called Cheerwine. It’s quite popular and easily found in the southern United States, but it’s relatively unknown on the west coast. Anyways, Jalapeno Cheddar noodles sounds pretty neat! Let’s have a look at this one.
Here’s a new one from Nongshim, and it’s definitely unique. It’s a stir noodle, which means that there’s no broth, but a sauce that it stirred in to coat the noodles. Another unique thing is that it can be served hot OR cold! I was thinking of using a special divided bowl I have, but one side is bigger than the other and so I came up with an idea: since they sent a few packs, I’ll make one hot, sample it and then make one cold and sample it – easy enough. Something else I found interesting was on the right and left sides of the package. It says “NONGSHIM BLACK CLASS NOODLE DISH.” The final interesting this about this one is the inclusion of chipotle. Chipotle? Now that’s different – don’t think I’ve come across that being used in an instant before. Well, let’s open this one up and see what’s inside!
Here’s the last of the Adabi varieties I received from Annie T. of MyKuali in Malaysia – thank you! It’s a wet and rainy day outside this morning. It started raining just before 7am and has been ever since! In northwest Washington state, we sometimes get a big dump of rain in the summertime – even got some thunder! You can see how easily amused I am! Anyways, spicy mi goreng sounds like a nice accompaniment for the day’s weather. Let’s have a look at this one.
Most of us in the United States are familiar with Maruchan’s ramen packs and ‘Instant Lunch’ cups. However, most of us aren’t familiar with Maruchan’s popular products overseas in Japan. Miso is a fermented soybean paste – it’s good stuff, with a kind of musty scent. Notice on the front of this one: it’s also saying that it’s lower calorie. Let’s have a look inside.
Here’s one I’ve been most eager to try. The Ramen Rater is also on Instagram, and I peruse for instant noodle related things. I’ve seen these cups quite a few times and people seem to enjoy them! They come in other varieties such as chicken and tom yam aside from this curry one. This Hot Cup was sent by Maggi Singapore, but made in Malaysia by Maggi Malaysia. Let’s have a look at this one and see what’s inside!
More curry! Man, I really like curry – a lot. This is one people refer to as ‘Maggi Mee’ an awful lot. ‘Mee’ or ‘Mi’ means noodles in many Southeast Asian countries. Sounds good to me – let’s check it out!
Well this looks like a fancy one. This is a new premium laksa from Maggi that’s supposed to be really special. Their goal was to make a laksa with a great ‘just like from home’ kind of feel and flavor. Sounds interesting!
Two of my favorite things are well represented on the front of this pack: spiciness and curry. I’ve been really curious about trying Maggi Extra Spicy Curry ever since I received some samples – how spicy is it? On a signed poster they sent, the marketing team at Maggi sent the dare ‘can you handle the hotness?’ I’m definitely keen on finding out today!
This is the first bowl of instant noodles I’m having since our California vacation last week and I must say it’s good to be back to reviewing! This is one I picked up while in Canada a while back. Let’s take a look!
I thought I’d make one for my wife today. Kit loves cheese. I mean she really loves cheese! I don’t know anyone who gets happier when cheese is mentioned! I thought this would be a perfect one for her. Cheese noodles for a cheese lover. Let’s check it out!
Here’s one that Joe B. and Sarah B. sent me from Nottingham, UK – thanks! I think I’ve only got one more they sent – been fun doing these British varieties! Curry is a really popular British flavor. I’m calling it a British flavor, because there are so many interpretations of curry; the British make curry powders and cook with them – they’re usually less spicy and exotic than something you’d find in Southeast Asia. Anyways, I thought I’d make some chicken to go along with this and use some of the curry leaf that’s growing in my wife’s garden. What’s interesting is that curry leaf isn’t used in curry! It smells like curry powder though. Should be interesting! Let’s check it out.
I like the title of this one, because to be honest, I do want to eat Shio ramen today! Shio translates to salt in Japanese, but it’s not like you get a block of noodles and a packet of table salt. There are four main variants of Japanese ramen, with Shio being one of them. Here’s what wikipedia has to say about Shio:
Here’s an interesting one. Myojo does this premium Chukazanmai line and there are quite a few different varieties! This one has me a little worried though. I haven’t really liked Szechuan style much of anything in the past. Hopefully this will turn the tide! Let’s check it out.
I’ll admit, I have a problem. I have a TON of noodles waiting to be reviewed. Today, I went and put them all on the floor as sorted them by expiration date. No small task, that’s for sure! It took a little while, but everything’s all sorted out and ready to go in the most efficient way I can figure. Today I’m going to review this Chewy variety from Hong Kong. I got it up in Canada a while back – let’s have a look.
Found this one at Uwajimaya in Bellevue. What I found particularly interesting was that it was a curry variant from Taiwan. I think I’ve only had one curry instant from Taiwan before and it was truly excellent. I thought maybe I’d try some of the new stuff my wife is growing with it!
Woot – snack noodles! This is one of the last ones I got at my old apartment. Really looking forward to seeing new stuff arrive at our new place! Anyways, this is a big bag with twenty little bags inside of it. That’s a lot of snacking! Let’s check it out!
