Over 5,000 Instant Ramen Noodle Reviews Since 2002
Today, we start with Forest Noodles’ sweet potato noodles. They’re sun-dried (no sun, no noodles). I think it would be neat to have a sun-dried noodle company here in the Seattle company, but it’s so cloudy around here that it probably wouldn’t work very well! Maybe in the summer months though… anyways, let’s see what we’ve got here!
Mi Goreng Pedas translates to Spicy Fried Noodles. I brought some of this back after my visit to Penang, Malaysia last year. Mi goreng has long been a favorite of mine – a little sweet, a little spicy, a little salty, kind of like an Indonesian yakisoba – sounds good, right? Let’s give this one another try, about 140 reviews later.
One of the standard varieties most instant noodle companies produce is chicken. However when you move east towards Malaysia and Singapore, curry ends up as one that is exceedingly common. Curry is a flavor I have loved since my childhood – in fact I remember at a very young ago really enjoying my mother’s curried chicken liver over rice. There’s something seductive about curry that I can’t quite put my finger on, but perhaps that’s part of it’s charm. It kind of has an earthy and mystical property that just enthralls me. Let’s delve into this pack again, one I originally tried about a hundred reviews ago.
Okay so you might be wondering – plum mayo ramen – that couldn’t possibly mean… Yes – plum and mayonnaise flavor. Where did I get it?
Today, we finish off this trifecta by Zeng Noodles with a straight Sichuan Pepper variety.
Here’s the back of the package (click image to enlarge). Looks to be meat free but check for yourself. To prepare, add noodle block to 800ml boiling water and cook for 5 1/2 minutes. Drain. Add in contents of sachets. Stir and enjoy!
I think when people here in the United States usually think of something sesame flavor, they think immediately of sesame oil. In Taiwan, sesame is something much different; sesame paste like tahini and peanut combine. The first time we found this out was when my wife got some noodles a few years ago that said sesame flavor and were like this – she’s not a fan of peanut butter, so it didn’t work out so well for her. Very curious about this one though – let’s check it out!
In the past year, I’ve tried quite a few varieties with Sichuan Pepper in them and really gotten a feel for this kind of flavor. In a way, Sichuan Pepper has almost a minty taste to it; it’s really quite different and unique. Let’s check it out!
Being a superfan of all things instant noodle, I have newsfeeds I check daily on my phone pertaining to them. I saw an article about Nongshim’s Jjawang in the Korea Times New York edition. It mentioned with it’s release, jjajang variants are flying off the shelves in NY and NJ. I figured hey – I better find this stuff!
It’s always awesome when I go to the store with my poor vision and my wife sees something and asks me if I’ve tried it. Sure enough, this was one of those occasions. I recently had the Sichuan Baijia Artificial Spicy Fei Chang a couple of weeks ago – it had been on my bottom ten list for years and really kind of one of the main reasons I wasn’t reviewing Baijia stuff so much. After not trying it in 5 years, I found that my tastebuds had done a bit of a metamorphosis. Where I found this more traditional Chinese flavor horrible before, I found it much more to my liking. So now at the store, I’m looking at Baijia in a different way. Today, I’ll try something I’ve not seen before – a broad noodle. I’ve seen broad noodles before, but not this broad – you’ll see what I mean. I want to thank Bobby Y. for helping me decipher the cooking instructions – hope the Blue Jays did good in the ALCS and won the World Series!
So every product MyKuali has come up with so far had made it into the big annual Top Ten Instant Noodles Of All Time list. It’s pretty mind-blowing; their products are so good, diverse and high quality. Well, today I’m going to check out a new one – a mee goreng offering. During our trip, I got to try some local hawker mee goreng last October in Penang.
This is one I found at 7-11 in Bankok, Thailand dur the trip in May. I wish there were instant noodle tie-ins with 7-11 here in the United States – it would be really awesome! I think if you’re lucky, you might find 3 or 4 instant noodle variants by the same brand in 7-11’s here. Anyways, this one looks interesting. I read that this is sukiyaki flavor, however the Thai have a twist on the Japanese version. Thai Suki as it is known has more flavor closely knit to Thai traditional tastes. Let’s have a look!
Here’s another one that was sent to me by Javier over at Box From Japan – thanks! Box From Japan is a subscription service – you can get a box sent to you every month with some great noodles within! This one says got Chinese cabbage with a sweet soup and a deep flavor which is from something called ‘rajan,’ a strong and spicy red pepper seasoning fermented with rice koji. Let’s check it out!
This one came from Shinichi over at Ramen Mania, a new monthly subscription box you can check out! They have special regional Japanese ramen varieties – good stuff so far! Thanks! So today it’s a special shio ramen. What’s shio you ask? Shio translates to salt. Here’s a little more on shio from Wikipedia:
Here’s another one James B. sent me from The Netherlands – thanks again! I’ve reviewed these varieties in cup form, but not the packs and I’m really pleased to be able to. These come from Nissin Germary! Let’s have a look!
So this is the last one that I got during my trip last October to meet the folks at MyKuali in Malaysia. We took a ferry from Georgetown, Penang over to Butterworth, Penang and went to an Econsave where I got to get a ton of instant noodles! It was a real blast for sure. Almost exactly a year ago today we were on our way home – probably was over the pacific at this point! Wow – truly was an amazing trip. I want to thank them for their kindness and for showing us such a good time! Let’s check out this last one that I brought back.
Wow – review #1800. I must admit my surprise on how quickly I’m closing in on #2000. I haven’t reviewed one of these Crystal Noodle varieties in quite a while. I was talking to a friend of mine about instant noodles we weren’t particularly fond of and he mentioned his wife really liked these. We both agreed that Crystal Noodle was one of our least favorites. I figure though hey, you never know. This might be the one I really like! Let’s have a look.
This one came from Shinichi over at Ramen Mania, a new monthly subscription box you can check out! They have special regional Japanese ramen varieties – good stuff so far! Thanks! So today it’s a very interesting looking shio variety! What’s shio? Here’s what wikipedia has to say:
Another one got in Penang on my Malaysia trip last year I want to get reviewed before expiry. So from looking around, this sounds to be bah kut teh flavor. What’s that? Wikipedia, if you please…
Another one from last year’s Malaysia trip. Turns out I still have a few more I haven’t gotten to so it’s time to run through them before they expire. Curry. Malaysia. Super. Let’s check it out.
Another I picked up in Butterworth, Penang during my Malaysia trip last year. That Econsave was really great – so many varieties! Trying to run through them before they expire! Not this one’s a little interesting – you might say the logo kind of looks familiar… Well, it’s made in Thailand for the Malaysian market by President Rice Products. They make all of the MAMA branded rice vermicelli – and in Malaysia their products go under the name PAMA. Simple really. Anyways, let’s check this one out!
Here’s a new one from Nissin Foods USA – Sriracha flavor Chow Mein! Sriracha is kind of interesting. First, the way to pronounce is ‘sir-racha’ drove me nuts for the longest time, but I finally have conformed (under protest). Also, Sriracha is a place in Thailand (went there in May), however the Sriracha sauce me know here in the states isn’t a popular condiment there. It’s a bit of a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Wikipedia had this to say:
As we come close to the end of this Meet The Manufacturer, we have the third bowl that includes an egg: the spicy flavor bowl. Let’s check it out!
Close to 50 reviews ago I checked out Mamee Chef’s Longtong Flavour cup version and today I thought it was a good time to try their pack version. I would say that generally, I like packs better than cups. To me, a noodle that’s boiled for a little while tastes better than steeped. Of course there are exception out there, but it generally seems that way.Today is the first review since my wife and I got back from the hospital when my son was born. I uusally am quite a few reviews ahead of the game.
Here’s another one that was sent to me by Javier over at Box From Japan – thanks! Box From Japan is a subscription service – you can get a box sent to you every month with some great noodles within! From what I’m reading, it sounds like this one has a lot of garlic, green onion and leek influence on it. Sounds really good – let’s check it out!
Here’s another new one from Mom’s Dry Noodle. This one’s got something inside none of the others do – FIVE sachets. Five. That’s a lot! Let’s crack the bag open and see what’s inside.
Here’s another one we found at BigLots in Lynnwood, WA. So Pad Thai is as most folks probably already know, a Thai dish. This bowl is made in China and definitely for the US market. Let’s give it a whirl!
I’m always in a quandry when it comes to duck and here’s why: it’s tough to find duck around here. I mean, why can’t we just go to the grocery store and get a couple slices of cooked duck at the deli counter? Chicken? Sure, no prolem. Turkey, pork, beef? Again, no problem. So on this one, I unfortunately have no duck to go with it, which is unfortunate – I really like duck! Well, let’s check out this one from Malaysia!
Here’s another neat one that I saw during my trip to Thailand and the kind folks at Thai President Foods sent me a sample of! This one’s made in Bangladesh. Hot and spicy sounds good – let’s check it out!
Here’s an interesting one I hadn’t seen before. First off, the pull tab is at the top of the bowl. My wife saw this one at a local Korean grocery called GMart. It’s funny; GMart used to be KSMart and before that it was Paldo World. A Mile or so away from GMart is Hmart. The #1 on my spicy list is by a grocery chain in South Korea Called EMart. As if that all wasn’t confusing enough, there’s a new Asian Food Center store in 130th and Aurora – where the old KMart used to be! Anyways, let’s check out this one from Paldo.
Here’s a new one that just was released! These varieties by Mom’s Dry Noodle have been pretty impressive. This one’s spicy and sour – sounds quite interesting. I’ve tried such flavors from Malaysia before – kind of a description of Laksa, but being from Taiwan I think this is going to be a lot different. Like curry, spicy and sour flavors are different whever you go. Let’s check out this new one from Mom’s Dry Noodle!
It’s been really nice having some Indonesian varieties to review again! Seemed like it almost went a whole year without any until recently! This one might confuse Westerners that see it on the shelf so I’ll help you out. Let’s break down Mi Kuah Rasa Soto. It directly translates to noodle soup, soto flavor. Now, soto is a popular Indonesian soup and seems to usually have a lime aspect to it which is very nice. This cup has a lot of stuff going on inside – let’s walk through it.
Got this one at the Econsave in Butterworth, Penang, Malaysia last year. Curry noodles! Let’s check ’em out!
Here’s one that was sent to me by James B. from The Netherlands – thanks! I’ve had a couple of this brand’s varieties before; they were sent to me by some folks at a Dutch tech magazine after I did an interview for them. That was waaaay back, so it’s pretty cool to be able to review new one! Let’s check ’em out!
I’m happy to report that this is the first post I’m doing using my new computer setup. Took a while to get everything all happy but now it’s quite happy as am I. Anyways, we found these in Lynnwood, WA at a store called BigLots. I’ve found varieties there in the past – kind of like a liquidation place. This one seems to definitely be for the western market although made in Thailand. Let’s check it out.
So my sister got me a neat plate a couple weeks ago at Shipwreck Day. Shipwreck Day is like a big citywide garage sale up in Anacortes, Washington – my hometown. The plate was part of a set and the lady didn’t want to break up the set, but my sister came back a little later and the lady gave in and let her buy one after she mentioned what I would use it for. The lady was originally from the Philippines and was a travel agent. I decided maybe I ought to do a review of something from the Philippines in honor of her relenting, and that’s what today’s review is about. Bihon is like bihun – it’s rice noodles. I reviewed this one originally almost 5 years ago – and really didn’t like it. Wondering if my palate might be a little more interested, I thought it’d be nice to try again, and so here we are – let’s check it out.
It’s been really hard to find new varieties from Indonesia lately and I was really stoked to find a total of four of them the other day! I always try to keep things mixed up – reviewing a different product from a different country every day if possible. It can be tough sometimes but lately I’ve been ending up with quite a range of varieties which is great. Anyways, let’s check out this one from Indonesia!
The last time I got samples from Mamee Doubledecker, they sent quite a few things along. They sent two of these ten packs of Mamee Monster as well! This is a new flavor – Pedas. Pefas means spicy! Let’s have a look at this one – and look – there’s a prize inside!
Here’s another one that was sent to me by the folks at Exotic Noods – thanks! This looks to be a somen served hot,m which would make it along the lines of nyumen which is served in Winter.I must admit, when I see low sodium and low calorie I usually don’t shudder with delight; I’ve had some pretty bad ones that have these tags. But, you never know! Let’s have a look at this one!
Well lookie what we have here. This is the ubiquitous Taiwanese Wei Lih Men bowl. In fact, it’s two bowls. Let me demonstrate.
This year, Taiwan made The Ramen Rater’s top Ten Instant Noodles Of All Time 2015 edition for the first time with A-Sha’s Veggie Noodle Tomato variety. This one is part of the same line, which also includes carrot and ‘baby grass’ flavors which I’m also hoping to try soon! Let’s have a look at this interesting variety.
