Today we kick things off on this interesting Meet The Manufacturer series with Vite Ramen’s Vegan option. If you didn’t know, there are three varieties from Vite Ramen – at least initially. Also, just so you know at the outset of this and the following reviews, these are prototypes. From what I’ve been told, this is what you’ll be getting, however the sachets in the final iteration will look different. So let’s give this first one a try!
Here’s one sent by Daniel in Brazil – thanks again! The characters on the package are from a popular series for children called ‘Monica’s Gang’ in Brazil. This one’s tomato flavor – curious where it’s a fresh tomato, or what I’m guessing – a creamy kind of tomato taste. Let’s find out!
Oh yeah are you ready? Are you? Man, you’re going to think I’m nuts, but I’m a huge fan of store brand instant noodles. Why? Simple – I love the hunt. I really like to go somewhere and say ‘ah ha – I haven’t tried this one,’ put it in the handbasket and move on. Well a few weeks ago we went to Lansdowne Centre, a neat mall in Richmond, BC. We keep finding different places to visit up there which totally rocks. In the mall, there’s a bunch of store of course. The mall really is kind of a blast from the past – very Canadian and looks like it was built in the 70’s – lots of mirrored things abound. What got us there was that we saw this sign saying ‘Dollarama’ when we’d go up to Richmond every time and I thought ‘hmmm… A Canadian dollar store sounds interesting…’ So we check it out and they had their own store brand. They’re made in China for the chain of Dollarama stores and called Bowlfull. Sounds interesting. Yeah – if it sounds interesting, I’, all in. I don’t care if I like it or not – it’s something new, and that’s what my whole instant noodle journey has been about. Let’s crack open this 25 cent pack of noodles and see how things turn out.
#2949:
This one was sent by the Butlers of Illinois – thanks again! This one was made in Germany but they found it in Italy. This is yet another brand I’ve never heard of which I’m really happy about – love noodles I’m thoroughly unfamiliar with. Alrighty then – let’s give it a go!
When the Very Veggie line came out, my first thought was that it would just be varieties for Vegans and Vegetarians. Surprisingly, there was no option for this crowd. Well, it seems that that has changed! This one was sent to me by Robert Z. from Kentucky – thanks man – go check out his cooking blog www.dadbert.com! He found this at a local grocery store – nothing about this and the other new Cup Noodles he found and sent on their site or mentioned on Instagram. This has led me to think that perhaps he’s in what’s called a ‘test market.’ In some areas, a product will be introduced to meter how it’s received by the public – if it sells really well, it’ll go nationwide. If not, it might be pulled. Let’s pop the lid and look under the hood.
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!
Alright so today it’s a Vegetarian variety. To be honest, I used to enjoy a lot of condensed soup and this was my favorite flavor. So, I suppose it has a bit to live up to as far as the name. Let’s have a look inside this cup and see what lurks within!
This one sounds interesting. While not a big fan of mushrooms, I do find that the onion is probably my favorite vegetable next to bell peppers. Well, maybe at par with bell pepper. I really like onions and bell peppers, let’s just leave it at that. Let’s take a look inside and see how it is.
To start things off, we have a tomato variety from Meimen. Just as a reminder, all of the Meimen products are Vegan.
Alright kiddie, hold onto your butts! So we have something here I had to review the day after I got it; not because it was going to expire but because I was a little wary of storing it. Why’s that? Well, first off I got this up in Canada at Osaka Market at Yaohan Centre in Richmond, BC. I’d just returned from my trip to Taiwan, my jet lag now gone (for the most part). I had some leftover Taiwanese currency and the Kingmark Currency Exchange doesn’t charge for exchanging which is nice. I converted it so I could treat my family to some wheel cake and milk tea at a little Taiwanese shop at the centre.
So this is one that the company sent to me – thanks! So this is one of the new Taste Of Asia series, a range that has some really great varieties. I really liked the Sukiyaki Beef from their first three kinds and then they came out with this one and also a Tom Yum which I would say is my favorite so far.
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