Over 5,000 Instant Ramen Noodle Reviews Since 2002
As I’ve said before, some companies will make products for different markets. Shoyu isn’t really a variety you’d generally see in South Korea, however Samyang Foods is making this one for the Japanese market. Shoyu is a very common variety of ramen in Japan – here’s a little about it from wikipedia:
Another one I got during our trip to Malaysia in October! I’ve heard Cintan was the first instant noodle company in Malaysia. This one looks to be fortified with protein – something I think is pretty cool. Adding some vitamins and protein to instant noodles can help make instants a little more healthy. Let’s check out this curry by Cintan!
It might be hard to tell from this image, but this is a very small bowl from Nissin’s Donbei line. I’d say it’s about 1/3 the size of a normal bowl. Kinda cool – a mini bowl! Let’s have a look.
I woke up this morning in the mood for something curry. I was looking in my stores of instant noodles today and found this Mamee Chef Gold Recipe. I’ve reviewed it before, but I thought it would make a good breakfast and would be neat to re-review. I really liked the name of this one – seribu rasa means a thousand flavors, which immediately makes me think of thousand island dressing. Of course, this isn’t anything like thousand island dressing. Let’s have a look inside and see what makes this instant noodle tick.
This is one you probably won’t find in the United States (I got it up in Canada). It’s made by Nongshim’s Chinese plant in Shaghai. I’ve found that sometimes the same product can taste a little different in different regions. This one’s interesting in that the packaging look is very much like Nongshim Ansungtangmyun, but the characters are very different. Let’s have a look at this Nongshim Korean Clay Pot Ramyun!
Here’s one I got from Justin M. from Winfield, BC up north of here in Canada! Thanks! Let’s see here: the instant noodle cup was invented in Japan. This one is sold in Canada under the name Azami and sold by Loblaw’s, a supermarket chain. It’s manufactured in China. The flavor is of kimchi, which is South Korean. Wow. I’ve got hopes that this will be a good one! Let’s check these Azami noodles.
I thought it was about time to review this one again. Prima Taste Simgapore Curry La Mian has been on my top ten lists for the last couple of years – it’s really great stuff! I remember when I first tried it tell my friends and colleagues that it was ‘a real game changer.’ I hadn’t seen but sachets like the ones found within before and though it was really neat stuff. I just found out about a couple new videos Prima Taste has made to prepare them as well – check them out here! Let’s have another look at Prima Taste Singapore Curry La Mian!
I thought today I would try this interesting variety. A lot of people are very health conscious these days and are looking for something that is also ‘Earth friendly.’ Well, here’s an option. This is a new brand I’ve never heard of before. There’s really no information about them online and their packaging has no information about where it’s made, nor a website to check out their company. Hmmm… Well, let’s have a look at this one – I’m really curious!
This is another of the Gonbuto bowls. Nissin Gonbuto Kitsune Udon has a unique preparation regime which was quite hard to figure out – I figured it out after a lot of research (to be honest, I read the side numbers). Let’s have a look at this Nissin Gonbuto Kitsune Udon bowl!
Quick2 is a new one from Nongshim America. The 2 has to do with the cooking time of two minutes. I find this one interesting; kind of a departure from their more premium lines and if you notice the color and lines, it more resembles a pack version of a Nongshim Bowl Noodle in graphic design. Let’s have a look at Nongshim Quick2 and see what’s inside!
Got this one on last year’s birthday trip to Canada. Since my trip is coming very soon this year, I figured it was time. So, what is maitake? Wikipedia had this to say:
Here’s a flavor I’ve never had before – spicy lemon. I think the only comparable thing would be tom yum flavored products, but then again this is from Pakistan, so not sure how Thai it’s going to taste. Very curious! Let’s check it out.
I’ve always heard good things about ginseng for vitality, etcetera. But vitality noodles? Hmm. I’ll admit I know little about ginseng, so here’s what wikipedia has on it:
Just finishing up packing for our move. By the time this one’s posted though, it’ll all be done (I’ve been doing a couple reviews every day. One thing that’ll be vexing about the move is the fact that the Internet won’t be up until a few days after we’re there. Gonna be tough to get posts out but rest assured, I will! Today I’m reviewing this Mitoku variety from Japan. It looks to be packaged for sale here in the USA – you can really tell by the bar code being 12 as opposed to 13 digits, as well as the distributor. I don’t know much of anything about this one, so I guess we’ll see how brown rice noodles compare shortly. Let’s check out these Mitoku noodles!
This is one got last year on my birthday trip to Canada! Really excited that the next trip is coming up very quickly! My wife, son and sister will be coming this time, so it should be a lot of fun. Today’s review is on Myojo Desse Nyumen. So, what’s nyumen? Wikipedia had this to say:
Another one I got during my trip to Malaysia! This looks like a really spicy curry, that’s for sure. All those little peppers on the package! Plus the guy on the package seems to be aghast at the level of spiciness as well! But what does kari letup mean? Well, the Google translation says ‘curry explosion.’ I gotta say I like the sounds of that! Let’s see if Maggi Kari Letup lives up to its name!
Got this one during my trip to Malaysia at the Chain Ferry Econsave in Butterworth, Penang. Today is March 5th, 2015 and Momofuku Ando would have been 105 years old today! It’s fascinating to me to think that I wouldn’t be doing any of this if he didn’t invent the instant noodle. Happy Birthday, Mr. Andi! This one however is an Indonesian brand called Salam Mie. The flavor translates to original spicy sambal. Let’s have a look at this variety by Salam Mie!
Found this one at Uwajimaya, a Japanese grocery store chain up here in the Pacific Northwest. I’m always keen on trying a new yakisoba; I usually enjoy them with a little karashi mayo! So this variety is dashi shoyu flavor. Dashi is used to make broth for traditional Japanese ramen, and shoyu is soy sauce. Let’s have a look at this one from Japanese company Acecook.
In general, I don’t review plain noodles. I usually require instant noodles to have a seasoning with them or have seasoning infused into them. Well, I hadn’t told this to CarJEN and they sent lots of them – I figured it only fair to do up a recipe with them! The picture on the front of the package certainly looks like mee goreng, so I figured I’d round some things up and make some for Kit for breakfast today. Let’s check it out!
Instant noodles are usually served cooked, but there are other methods as well. These are ‘snack noodles,’ which are eaten without any cooking straight from the bag. Although not well known in the United Staes, they indeed are very popular around the world – there are multiples brands and varieties spanning Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan to name a few. Today we’ll look at an individual pack (the picture above is a ten pack). Let’s check out these J.J. Snek Mi from CarJEN!
To start things off, I felt it would be great to try this Mi E-Zee Kari. Kari (curry in english) is one of my favorite flavors since I was a kid. My mom used to make curried chicken liver over rice and it was some seriously delectable stuff. Over the years, I’ve experienced a great many kinds of curry: Japanese curry which is usually sweet, Indian curry, Thai curry and my current favorite, Malaysian curry. Let’s see how this Mi E-Zee Kari measures up!
This was sent to me by Anders E. from South Korea – thank you very much! For some time new, eMart’s Dare You! Habanero Ramen has topped The Ramen Rater’s Spiciest Instant Noodle Of All Time lists. There’s a really good reason for this too – it’s violently hot. Heat is measure in SHU – Scoville Heat Units. Here’s what wikipedia has to say about the Scoville test:
I’ve seen Maggi Vegetable Atta noodles in a variety of forms throughout the years. This one’s a little different; usually there are import stickers and other things on them, but this looks to be for export. So, what’s masala? Here’s what wikipedia has to say:
It’s still winter, so I thought something hearty would be a nice touch today. Jjajangmen is a Chinese-South Korean fusion dish. Ramyun noodles and Chajang sauce, rich and thick with black beans. Let’s have a look at this new bowl from Paldo!
One thing that tends to baffle a lot of my readers is my fascination with ‘store brands.’ I often get ‘it nothing special’ and thoughts like that. To me however, any instant noodle I’ve not reviewed before is definitely fair game and believe it or not, store brands tend to be much harder for me to source than any others. The reason for this is that large supermarket chains are mostly regional and don’t distribute their instant noodle varieties to anywhere other than their own stores. This one is particularly special – I got this one on my trip to Malaysia, and got it at the Econsave grocery store in Butterworth, Penang!
Once in a while, I get something a little different – something that contains something I’ve not seen before. This is one of those times. So it was kind of difficult to translate this one – it’s basically salt Butter and Corn flavor, although the translation I ended up with didn’t mention the corn. I decided to go ahead and add corn in the title anyways. Also, I saw lots of translations mention the word circle, although I’m not sure if that was just Google translate being weird.Anyways, this is a big bowl of noodles and I’m very curious to try them. Without any further adieu, let’s open this thing up and look inside!
The last of the batch of different Malaysian noodles sent to me by Annie T. over at MyKuali a while back – thank you again! This sounds good – curry mi goreng. I know that’s it’s curry from the word ‘kari,’ but I can’t figure out the ‘ori’ word. If anyone knows, please impart your fine wisdom! Let’s give these a try!
I must admit that in the past I haven’t been entirely fond of noodles with different colors. Not because I dislike the color (actually I find that fascinating), but because they tend to have an off taste to them and just seem kind of ‘gimmicky.’ It’s been about 300 or so reviews since I tried the Aglio Olio variety of this line. Let’s see how this Soy & Vinegar one goes!
Have you ever taken a clove of garlic and eaten it straight? I would have to say that I’ve done it with a few different varieties. Some types of garlic are extremely hot and spicy, rivaling chilli peppers. They’re no joke and they burn like fire! I had a bite of this tiny little one once – I think it was a Himalayan variant – and it was so freaking hot! Well, I like spicy things and I like garlic, so this one really piques my interest. Let’s check out this Ching’s Secret Hot Garlic and see if we can find out if the secret is hot or not.
On my last trip to the Asian grocery store, I had a though. I thought maybe I ought to toss in some of the varieties I’ve not reviewed in a while that I’ve recommended quite a bit to people since they’re relatively easy to source and quite good. This one’s a perfect example. My first favorite instant growing up was the Japanese Nissin Chickin Ramen. After trying a few varieties, I found Indomie Mi Goreng line and was all about it. When we’d go to Seattle we’d come back with a couple bags full of them, and I don’t think my parents minded too much since it was around 25 cents a pack. I tried many different varieties in the Indomie Mi Goreng line – there are quite a few. I used to go for the Satay flavor mostly, but then found the Barbecue Chicken one to my liking. Then there’s the Rendang which is a really great one, gracing the top ten list a couple times I think. This one today is the original version. If you’ve not tried this stuff, you’ve got to; it’s a real treat and easily modified to taste. There’s five sachets ioncluded- quite a few in an instant noodle pack and I’ll explain them all here. Anyways, let’s bring on the Indomie Mi Goreng!
Still got some duck left from our special anniversary lunch the other day! It’s pretty rare that I have any duck at all! Let’s check out this Perisa Itik (duck flavor) instant noodle from Mamee!
Duck! What’s awesome is that we went out for a special dinner the other day and got some braised duck. Leftovers! i can actually make duck instant noodles accompanied by the duck! Awesome. Let’s do this! I think there’ll be a couple ducky reviews for the next couple of days!
Here’s another one my wife got me during my annual birthday trip to Canada this year – thank, Kit! So this is the Canadian version of Sapporo Ichiban Chow Mein. There are a couple differences between this and the version for sale in the United States packaging wise, but does it taste different? I’m guessing it’s going to be about the same but it could be different. Let’s find out as I tear into the Canadian version of Sapporo Ichiban Chow Mein!
Here’s one my wife got me during my birthday trip to Canada earlier this year! Thanks, Kit! This is a neat one. First, it’s a South Korean brand, but it is definitely for thye Japanese market; everything on the label is in Japanese for the most part, and a curry cup falls in line as well. This line also has a Shoyu cup, another Japanese ramen flavor. As I’m sure all who follow my blog know, I’m a big fan of curry, and so my hopes here are high! Japanese curry is much different from Indian or Malaysian curries; it’s usually not spicy and has a sweetness to it. Let’s see what’s under the hood of this Samyang Curry Noodle!
I believe my wife got me this one for Christmas last year – thanks sweetie! What’s so nice about instant noodles is that they have such a long shelf life, and so they can sit in my noodle hamper for a while before I have to get to them. Anyways, here’s one that sounds good today – Thai Pavilion Pad Thai. This one is made in Thailand but made for the US market. Let’s check it out!
Hungrooo! This is great – a new noodle word! It evokes a thought of a big monster that’s really hungry, or what a stomach might say. It’s fun to say too – Hungrooo! I recently did a Meet The Manufacturer with Maggi Singapore and have reviewed many varieties from Maggi Malaysia as well. Maggi is a brand from Nestle, a Swiss brand and seems to have many instant noodle varieties catering to the local flavors seen around the world. This one’s from India, and since not everyone’s familiar with Indian food, I thought I’d grab a snippet from Wikipedia about masala:
One thing that really surprised me during our trip was seeing that a lot of the fast food chains that are popular here in the United States are also popular in Malaysia. Burgers, fried chicken and even pizza were well represented by popular chain restaurants over there (I will say that there was no sign of the ubiquitous taco chain here). They all had different ways of serving things to fit with the local taste; like spicy fried chicken with rice or seafood pizza. This got me thinking that maybe a fusion of pizza and MyKuali White Curry might work in some way. I thought about it for a while and decided today was the day. We got the ingredients together and The Ramen Rater’s MyKuali White Curry Pizza was born! Check it out!
Okay so first off, I want to thank the person at the company who made the decision to use paper as the material for the outer packaging. One of the big tasks I have for the reviews is to do a lot of editing in Photoshop, mostly removing glare from packaging. Since they’re plastic wraps usually, they pick up the lighting and so angling the packs to get the least glare and reflection is key, but then sometimes it’s just not possible to get rid of all of it. Then I have to scan the packages and there’s always a good amount of glare there. This will be the first review I’ve ever done of Miliket instant noodles, so let’s check therm out!
Today, we say farewell to the Monde Nissin Meet The Manufacturer! It’s been really neat to try all of these different varieties one right after the other – this is the 15th review! I do up to 15 in a row during an MTM. I thought today would definitely be fitting for something hot and spicy. Why you ask?
Rice vvermicelli isknown by many names in the world; bihun, beehoon, bihon – it’s all the same thing! One thing though – these noodles are made with corn starch! But pancit – let’s see what wikipedia has to say:
