
These came by way of Snackoo – a company that supplies you with great snack boxes, containing all sorts of fascinating things as well as ramen noodles. Why not check them out?
Over 5,000 Instant Ramen Noodle Reviews Since 2002

These came by way of Snackoo – a company that supplies you with great snack boxes, containing all sorts of fascinating things as well as ramen noodles. Why not check them out?

Alright – now if this isn’t something that doesn’t make you wanna check your head… So we went up to Canada yesterday. What was up there? This, the second one I’ve reviewed that has a little sachet that actually heats the bowl of noodles and cooks it. Where did I find it? I’m sure you’re thinking ‘oh some neat Asian grocery store.’ No. Hold onto your butts. My wife saw this one. At Walmart. Yeah. Walmart. The Walmart locations both in Richmond, BC and Vancouver, BC have decent noodle aisles with varieties from all over. It should be noted though that there’s a huge Asian population in this area – and so kind of makes sense in a demographic way. I mean, you certainly won’t see this near Walmart HQ in Bentonville, Arkansas…I thought it would be really cool if my son Andy got a chance to try and cook one of these. It should be fun! Glad we found it at Walmart – it was our last stop before heading back home. We go to Walmart every time we go to Canada. It’s really nice up there. Let’s cook this sucker up!

Here’s another one I dragged back from Taiwan. I’ve tried a lot of these noodle snacks, but ones with Mexican flavor kind of have a special place in my heart. You see, the day my daughter Miri was born, I was up early in the morning and I thought I’d do a review. It was a Mexican snack noodle. My plan is to attempt to review something somewhat like it every year on her birthday. I can already see the confused look on her face as a teenager… Well, let’s crack this one open – by the way it’s a long ways until she has her birthday.

Here’s another one I hauled back from the wonderful land called Taiwan. God, I love it there. It’s generally hot and sticky humid, but I don’t care – I would happily acclimate to live there. Anyways enough emoting over that wonderful place. This is a variety I found in RT-Mart, which is a gigantic grocery store I visited in Taipei. In fact, it’s an everything store. Let’s crack this open and see what we have in here.

This one was sent to me by YumYum in December of 2017 – thank you! Nothing I like more than getting non-export versions of products. Why? Well, they’re more exotic to begin with. The non export varieties are the ones that can be found on store shelves in the country of origin. It’s not like I can walk down the street and go to a Thai grocery store in Thailand, so this is very helpful for me. Here’s a little about tom yum from Wikipedia –

Hey look at this! This came by way of Hobby Link Japan, a great site that has all sorts of amazing Japanese things including instant noodles! Thank you very much! Three chillis! Here’s what they had to say about this unique variety on their website

Here’s another one I found at the Jason’s Market at the foot of the Taipei 101. So I remember reading that the QTTA range was a more premium one with more inclusions. Sounds nice to me. Let’s find out what in here!

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 –

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!

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!

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 –

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.

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.

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

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!

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!

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!

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!

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:

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!

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 –

Last time it was fried garlic chicken and this time it’s just chicken. Let’s give it a try!

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-

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 –

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.

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!

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!

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 –

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!

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 –

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.

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:

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.

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!

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!

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 –