Got this one at the Jason’s Market at the foot of the Taipei 101. Asam laksa – possibly a new taste for you. Here’s something from Wikipedia –
Category: * Stars 3.1 – 4.0
Meet The Manufacturer: Re-Review: Sapporo Ichiban Beef Flavor Oriental Noodle Soup
Well, today we’ve got the last of the cup versions. I thought ending up with beef sounded like a good way to go. Why? Oh, I don’t know. Actually, it just sounds nice to sample something beef flavored today to be honest. Let’s give it a try!
Meet The Manufacturer: Re-Review: Sapporo Ichiban Japanese Style Noodles & Chicken Flavored Soup
Here’s the one that everybody’s got – chicken. Very few instant noodle companies don’t have a chicken noodle soup on the market. I can think of a few, but they’re kind of far and few between. Chicken is kind of a universally accessible flavor and meat (well, except for Vegans). I think this probably will be a pretty good one. I gave it 4.0 out of 5.0 in May of 2015 when I re-reviewed it back then. I kind of remember people asking me to give them another look and so I did. Anyways, Let’s get to it!
Meet The Manufacturer: Re-Review: Sapporo Ichiban Original Flavor Oriental Noodle Soup
Here we have the cup version of the flavor we started this Meet The Manufacturer series with – original flavor. This is soy sauce flavor, aka shoyu. Here’s a little about shoyu ramen from Wikipedia –
Meet The Manufacturer: Re-Review: Sapporo Ichiban Japanese Style Noodles & Shrimp Flavored Soup
Today, we head to the second half of this series with the shrimp pack version. Cups and packs, packs and cups. As you may remember, I was pretty impressed by the cup version. I’ve tasted shrimp flavor instant noodles in a few different ways. Sometimes, it’s kind of like as buttery broth which doesn’t taste like shrimp, but one that shrimp may go well in. – kind of the way that oyster sauce doesn’t taste like oysters. The cup version with this brand has a nice sweetness that you find in shrimp. Let’s see how it translates to the pack version.
Meet The Manufacturer: Re-Review: Sapporo Ichiban Japanese Style Noodles Hot & Spicy Chicken Flavored-Soup
Alright, so I reviewed this one back in October of 2011. This was review #529- well over 2000 reviews ago. Just saying 2000 reviews ago seems crazy. Anyways to be blunt, I really didn’t like this one back then., My wife said it smelled like cooked asparagus. I’m curious whether it’s not going to be something I enjoy; about 7 years later. Hope I do! Let’s take a look.
Meet The Manufacturer: Re-Review: Sapporo Ichiban Miso Ramen
Here’s one of the four fancy varieties from Sapporo Ichiban – their miso ramen variety. Miso is a fermented soybean paste. Here’s a little about it from Wikipedia
Meet The Manufacturer: Re-Review: Sapporo Ichiban Shrimp Flavor Oriental Noodle Soup
Sapporo Ichiban offers four standard pillow pack style noodles, four special varieties, and four cup varieties. It makes it easy to do a different one every day during this Meet The Manufacturer series. I have, however, reviewed them all before, but it was a very long, long time ago. I usually don’t like to do re-reviews, but I think in this case I’m very happy to make an exception. I’ve been wanting to do a Meet The Manufacturer with Sanyo Foods America for years and getting the chance to has been a lot of fun!
#2815: Sapporo Ichiban Pokemon Shoyu Ramen
This one comes by way of Japan Ramen Box. Japan Ramen Box is a new subscription box outfit with neat varieties to check out! Go visit their website and have a look!
Meet The Manufacturer: #2813: Little Couples Q Noodle Oyster Sauce Taste
Today it’s an oyster sauce variety. I like oyster sauce – has a nice blend of flavors to it and I’m very curious about how it will meld with a noodle. Let’s find out!
Meet The Manufacturer: #2810: Little Couples Q Noodle Spicy Taste
The place I usually like to start with a dry noodles company is their Sichuan style spicy noodle. They usually have one and so it’s kind of a good baseline. Let’s have a look!
#2805: Maruchan Umaitsuyu Tempura Soba
Today we have a Zenpop.JP variety – so what’s Zenpop? They’re a subscription service for all things Japanese! Definitely, check them out. By the way, use coupon code RAMENRATER to get $2 off! Here’s what they had to say about this variety:
#2804: Acecook Chinese Style Yakisoba
Here’s one I found up in Canada at Osaka Market in Yaohan Centre, which is in Richmond, BC. Sometimes they’ll have a bunch of interesting varieties that are there for a short period and this is one of them./ Let’s see what’s going on here – wasn’t able to find a whole lot about this one. At least I know how to cook it, right? Let’s begin!
Meet The Manufacturer: #2794: Mike’s Mighty Good Craft Ramen Vegetarian Kimchi Ramen Soup
Here’s another vegetarian friendly variety from Mike’s Mighty Good Craft Ramen. This one’s inspired by Korean kimchi. Here’s a little about it from Wikipedia –
Meet The Manufacturer: #2793: Mike’s Mighty Good Craft Ramen Chicken Flavor Ramen Soup
Last time it was fried garlic chicken and this time it’s just chicken. Let’s give it a try!
Meet The Manufacturer: #2792: Mike’s Mighty Good Craft Ramen Spicy Pork Tonkotsu Flavor Ramen Soup
So today’s variety is one I’ve been curious about. This is a pork tonkotsu from the United States – something I don’t usually think is going to be great. But if it does as well as everything else has, I think it’s going to be good. Here’s a little about tonkotsu from Wikipedia-
Meet The Manufacturer: #2790: Mike’s Mighty Good Craft Ramen Savory Miso Ramen Soup
Okay now I’m seeing a pattern. The cups exclaim that they have rich broth while the packaged versions contain insanely rich broth. All I can say is in the last two, I liked the broth. Now to the topic of miso – here’s a little from Wikipedia –
Meet The Manufacturer: #2789: Mike’s Mighty Good Craft Ramen Spicy Beef Flavor Ramen Soup
So Mike’s Mighty Good Craft Ramen also comes in cups. Spicy beef sounds good. I’ve been a spicy fan for a long time. I just noticed on the pack reviewed yesterday it mentioned ‘insanely rich broth’ whereas today we have ‘rich broth.’ With a slightly mellower tone, let’s pop the lid and look within.
#2787: Samyang Foods Mala Buldak Bokkeummyun Bowl
I’ve been kind of on a weird crusade lately. It has come to my attention that the popular Mala variety of Buldak Bokkeummyun is being touted by many people across the Interwebs as 4x Spicy. This is totally untrue – it’s really more like 0.5x. I did an informative video presentation about it – check it out here!
#2784: Samyang Foods Jjajang Buldak Bokkeummyun
Alright, folks! Today I bring you the brand new Samyang Foods Jjajang Buldak Bokkeummyun. 1,920 SHU is the heat level. But wait – what’s jjajang? Let’s find out with some info from Wikipedia!
#2783: Samyang Foods Buldak Bokkeummyun Hot Chicken Flavor Squid
What we have here is a squid snack – what’s that you ask? Well, they dehydrate squid somehow and seasoning it. I read once there was a a package of this kind of thing that said ‘chewing gum of Asians. Here’s some background on this from Wikipedia –
Meet The Manufacturer: #2778: Mr. Noodle Spicy Sesame Paste Noodles
Today, it’s a spicy sesame paste variety. For a long time, I thought anything sesame flavored would be from sesame oil. This most certainly is not the case. Sesame paste is much different – a much different flavor. It’s almost like a peanut flavor. Let’s take a look.
Meet The Manufacturer: #2777: Mr. Noodle Sichuan Flavor Spicy Hot Noodles
Sometimes it’s hard for me to pick what I want to review. I mean, I have quite a few options sitting next to me in the high security noodle vaults… So I took the box of samples over to my wife and opened it. There are six in all and the tops have different colors but no mention of what they are on top. I asked her to simply pick three. Well, here’s the first one.
#2774: Nissin Cup Noodles Yuzu Flavor
Here’s another one I found up in Canada a few months back. The graphics on this one are pretty awesome I think – but wait – what is yuzu? Help, Wikipedia!
#2773: Vedan Minced Pork Noodle
Brought this back from Taiwan. Pretty much everything I brought back came through the rigors of baggage handling unscathed; but not every single thing did. Alas, this was one of them that didn’t. To be quite honest, it did better than some I’ve brought back before from abroad – a little crushing of noodles isn’t bad – I’vbe had ones whose noodle blocks were reduced to crumbs. Let’s have a look at this one – I found it at RT-Mart in Taipei.
#2772: Happy Noodle Noodles With Minced Beef Sauce In Spicy Oil & Pickled Mustard Greens
Here’s the second of the Happy Noodle varieties sent to me from Taiwan. The first one was really quite good and so curious about this second one. The box is interesting – kind of looks like a tissue box in a way but definitely nothing like that inside. There are four packages inside and they are accompanied by four sachets. Let’s take a look at this unique variety from Taiwan!
#2769: Ottogi Kimchi Ramen
Another one I found in Taiwan. This one is quite interesting as far as the packaging goes. Not only do you see Korean print but Chinese as well. This product is definitely for sale in Taiwan only – an export version. As far as the recipe changing from place to place, I have no clue. Here’s a little about kimchi from Wikipedia –
#2768: Wei Lih Yi Du Zan Beef Instant Noodles
Another big meaty bowl I lugged back from Taiwan in November 2017. A reader on the Facebook page for The Ramen Rater requested I pick this one up and I found it I believe at FamilyMart.
#2766: LeeZen Sesame Oil Angelica & Sinensis Instant Noodles
Found this one up in Canada at a place called FoodyWorld – awesome! Okay so this is an odd variety so let’s hit up Wikipedia for some info on what this is all about:
#2764: Vedan Double Bang Thick Beef Broth Noodle
This one’s got horns and flying saucers on the packaging – something that denotes… Well, horns and flying saucers I suppose. I guess it more likely denotes ‘hey look at me – I’m on the store shelf!’ The double bang is for the two noodle blocks. The other variety I reviewed in this series had two in it as well and called for (like this one) 700ml boiling water. Guess we will see how this one goes as well! I remember seeing these on store shelves – I think I got all but one of the varieties (sniff) but hey – got some pretty fascinating ones. Taiwanese beef noodles, it is your time to shine.
Meet The Manufacturer: #2763: Red Chef Sesame Clear Soup Noodles
Today, we bid adieu to Red Chef with this, the last review. I’ve had quite a few clear soup varieties in my day – and they’ve always kind of confused me, to be honest. The name kind of brings up the thought of something thin and kind of bland to be honest, but they’re generally never that. With what I’ve sampled from Red Chef thus far, I’m going to guess bland isn’t going to be what I find here. Let’s check out this clear soup, the last of the four reviews for this Meet The Manufacturer!
#2759: Nissin Cup Noodles Rasa Gulai Ayam Melayu
Here’s another one I picked up at Osaka Market up in Richmond, BC in Canada. I’d seen this variety on Instagram plenty of times and was pretty stoked to see it available. First, here’s some info from reader Sara Adam de Souza about it – thank you!
#2755: Vedan Wei Wei ‘A’ Seafood XO Sauce Noodle
I’m sure you can guess – I found this one in Taiwan. Got this at RT-Mart, a huge grocery and department store in November of 2017. So XO sauce – here’s a little about it from Wikipedia –
#2754: Acecook Rich Miso Ramen
Here’s another one from Zenpop.JP. Zenpop offers a lot of diverse Japanese boxes – lots of assorted things like ramen and also stationary among other things. Here’s what they have to say about this variety –
#2753: Maruchan Tempura Udon
Today, we have one that was part of Japan Crate’s Umai Crate. So Japan Crate is a subscription service which has all sorts of different options for you. pretty neat stuff from Japan! There’s a coupon code for you too – just use THERAMENRATER to get a special discount at check out.
#2752: Ve Wong Instant Noodles Braised Beef Flavor
Here’s one I dragged back to the United States from Taiwan. I know I’ve seen close to the same thing here in the USA, but I wanted to see if the non-export version could be better. I have a feeling it will be. Here’s a little info about braising from Wikipedia –
#2751: Acecook Pork Wantan Men
This variety comes by way of Japan Ramen Box. Japan Ramen Box is a new subscription box outfit with neat varieties to check out! Go visit their website and have a look! This is wantan men – let’s see what Wikipedia has to say about this variety –
#2747: Nissin Cup Noodles Kyushu White Flavour (Open Sesame)
Okay so I’ve reviewed this one in the past, however they’ve changed the recipe. Nissin Singapore sent me samples for review (thank you!) and so I’ve been going through many of these new version cups.
#2746: Ve Wong Fried Noodles With Mexican Chili Flavor
This was one I couldn’t leave Taiwan without. I saw this at RT Mart during my trip and passed it up since it was a 4 or 5 pack. But when I saw it again at Carrefour, I realized I’d better snag this one.
#2743: Nongshim Korean Clay Pot Ramyun
Here’s one I got up in Canada a few months back. Yeah – lately we go up to Canada almost once a month. It’s fun up there – I’m thinking though we’re going to have to venture outside of just going to Richmond and hitting Vancouver one of these days.