Over 5,000 Instant Ramen Noodle Reviews Since 2002
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!
I woke up today with this song in my head. It’s kind of weird – I got a bunch of hand-me-down audio cassettes from my sister Sue when I was a kid. All sorts of disco and soul stuff – I listened to them over and over and over – lots of Bee Gees and Spinners and O’Jays. It’s kind of like I went through the 70’s pop thing even though I was 5 when 1980 came around. Thought I’d post this one today – my sister and I will be visiting Thailand in May and I’ll have more info about that soon. Some things I can say now is that it’ll have instant noodles, rice, and factory touring involved! Happy Friday to all!
Wow – a big box of stuff from Hao Way of Malaysia! Let’s peek inside!
Looks pretty well packed!
This little box showed up today!
This is their new Vegan Spicy With Sesame flavor, as well as a little brochure and some of their delicious spicy sauce! There’s also a sheet mentioning my Top Ten Taiwanese list from last year – Mom’s Dry Noodle made the first place spot as well as third. Thanks! Looking forward to trying!
In last year’s Top Ten Taiwanese Instant Noodles Of All Time 2014 Edition, Chering Chang was second place with their Curry La-Men – excellent stuff! What is interesting is that that was the only variety they make that I’d tried. I’m very curious how this one fares – vegetarian. Vegetarian instant noodles can be all sorts of different things; bland, bitter, full of vegetables, focused on mushroom; it’s such a broad flavor that can be interpreted masterfully or poorly. I have high hopes that this will be another excellent offering from Chering Chang. Without further adieu, let’s have a look inside.
The Ramen Rater’s top Ten South Korean Instant Noodles Of All Time made it’s debut last January and I thought this would be a good day to release the new one for 2015! South Korean instant noodles (known as ramyun) are characteristically thicker and chewier than most instants. Spiciness is a common trait as well as beef flavors. Here are my top picks of the South Korean varieties I’ve reviewed of my 1,573 reviews to date.
Far and few between are the Master Kong varieties I find locally. This is one of them I got a couple months ago – a real surprise. I don’t know why so many of them aren’t available in the United States; I’m guessing possibly that many of their products contain chicken or beef, and import of chicken or beef into the United States from Asia is very hard if not impossible. Luckily, fish products are generally accepted for import quite easily and here we are. Let’s check out this Master Kong Seafood instant noodle!
I’m sure everyone has been noticing – I’ve been reviewing a LOT of Malaysian instant noodles lately. The reason for this is that I have a ton of different varieties with more on their way – but this one’s a first! This is the first Penang White Curry bowl variant I’ve tried. Let’s have a look!
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!
Lots of boxes lately! This one comes from South Korea from reader Anders E. Thanks! He’s a reddit guy who offered to send me some stuff from South Korea that I’ve been wating to get for a while now!
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!
So today’s Friday Video. This is actually a pretty good one – a few interesting little tidbits of knowledge are gained, so enjoy. Happy Friday!
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!
Saw this brand called Curry Prince on facebook and thought maybe they’d like me to sample their noodles. They did!
Recently, I did a Meet The Manufacturer with Thai President Foods, makers of MAMA brand instant noodles. They’re located in Thailand and have a quite enjoyable range of products. Well, I’m happy to announce that I’ve been invited to visit their factory and visit ThaiFex, a big fhood expo in May! I’ll have more on that soon. Very exciting! I’ll have more info about the trip soon, but for now, let’s check out this cup from Thailand!
I am pleased to annouce that we have a winner! Check it out!
Cindy S. submitted this one of her son – he’s a big fan of Nissin top Ramen Oriental Flavor and his dad’s hooked on Cup Noodles! Congratulations! Check your email! Yay!
My sister got me this for Christmas (thanks, Sue!). She called when she was at a grocery store and asked if I wanted it and of course since it has to do with instant noodles, I said yes. Let’s check it out!
Got a box the other day. I’d been talking with Nissin Foods USA about the photo contest and other things and they wanted to send some samples for one of today’s reviews involving Cup Noodles.
Having an emergency? Well then, hunker down in your shelter and boil some water! This is a fine dinner for two of Nissin Cup Noodle in a neat metal can, sealed for long life.
This one I got at a large Indian grocery in Bellevue a month of so ago. I had a couple from this line waaay back – a Pani Puri and a Manchurian one. This one sounds pretty good to me – also curious how must of the hot sour I’ll enjoy as I’m going to bet this sucks up almost all the liquid. Anyways, let’s see!
In my spare time, I like to search hashtags on Instagram – and one day I decided to look up sambal. Sambal is a spicy mix which is a very popular condiment in Southeast Asia. I found a company I’d never heard of and asked if they could provide a sample for me to use in reviews.
Here’s one of the ones I got when we went up for my annual birthday trip to Canada! So snack noodles are very popular around the world – Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan have quite a few companies making different varieties. They’re usually basically an uncooked instant with a seasoning to add or are pre-seasoned. Let’s check out this one from Japan – Oyatsu Baby Star!
My friend Moses over at Paldo America offered to send some new snacks my way to try. I figure hey – I like South Korean snacks as well as noodles – why not!
This is one of my favorite videos about instant noodles – it’s long and goes in depth. From Momofuku Ando to the science behind the fried noodle. Check it out! Monday is Momofuku Ando Day!
Last spring, I remember my son and I took a walk to the local Asian grocery when we were living in Edmonds, WA. We were getting something for my wife for Mother’s Day I believe! Anyways, as always I like to take a stroll down the instant noodle aisle (no big shock, right?). I found a few different varieties of these A-One cups and got them. This is a pork flavored one – from Vietnam. Let’s check out what’s inside!
Before you go crazy and say ‘what you’ve never reviewed Shin Ramyun before,’ just listen for a second. So this is the new packaging they rolled out recently. I thought it was worth as whole new review as they’be had the old packaging on this one for eons and eons.
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!
Developed by Mike Koval, a reader of the blog for a long time, this app will let you browse and search the site easily. What’s more, by using the bar code scan option, you can scan the bar code of an instant noodle at the grocery store and get results (provided I’ve reviewed it of course). Enhancements will be coming soon as well! best of all, it’s free! Check it out now!
Most of the instant noodles from Malaysia have been just that – sent to me FROM Malaysia by manufacturers. What’s kind of cool is that now I’m seeing more of them start showing up in the United States. I found this Uncle Sun White Curry a few miles north of here in Everett at a newer Asian grocery simply called Asian Grocery (great name). It’s actually a great place – they have two varieties of this one – the one you see here and one that looks identical but says it’s extra hot! They also had Milo, a popular drink from Malaysia – kind of like chocolate milk, but like dark chocolate milk. Anyways – sweet – more white curry! Let’s check it out!
Well, here it is! I have been waiting for this package for a while now and it’s here! Check it out!
Got another package from Hao Way this week!
They’ve adapted their Penang White Curry and Penang Laksa varieties into bowl form! I’ll be reviewing these soon – thanks!
Here’s one I got up in Canada. Been kind of a spicy week and so spicy seafood fits the bill. In my last post, I mentioned having a sore tooth. Let me say that it got bad – really bad! The only relief I could find was to keep something cold next to it – my wife went out and got a bag of ice and I kept a little piece of ice in my cheek last night. I ended up pulling the tooth myself after taking a pain pill – take that, dentist bills! Anyways, your humble instant noodle reviewer is doing much better today! On with the show!
Another one sent to me by a nice reader in Sweden – thanks! I thought today would be great for some spicy beef noodles from China. It just sounded good for some reason. I’ve got a sore tooth which is driving me crazy… Dunno why but spicy beef noodles from China just sound nice. Anyways, let’s dig in!
Takeru Kobayashi is one of the most famous competitive eaters in the world. For those who’ve never heard of competitive eating, yes – there’s such a thing! In this episode of a popular Taiwanese TV show, watch him scarf down what looks to be ten bowls of A-Sha noodles! Very impressive! He’s doing some special stuff with A-Sha Dry Noodle right now, and I will have more on that soon! For now, enjoy and Happy Friday!
Here’s one I got from Justin M. from Winfield, BC up north of here in Canada! Thanks! This one’s rather fascinating to me as the brand name is literally ‘no name.’ It’s made in China for Loblaw’s, a Canadian grocery store chain. I’m crossing my fingers here; Canadian instant noodles haven’t really been my favorites – but this is a new one so we’ll have to see. With an open mind, let’s delve into No Name Beef Flavour Oriental Noodles And Soup Mix!
Hey everyone! I’d like to announce the 4th Momofuku Ando Day here at The Ramen Rater will be on Monday, January 19th 2015. For those of you who aren’t aware, Momofuku Ando was the inventor of The instant noodle and he also started Nissin Foods. His first product, Chikin Ramen was sold in 1958. This year, I’m doing something a little different, and I’ll be featuring a couple video reviews dealing with Cup Noodles, which leads me to this year’s Momofuku Ando Day Photo contest! Here are the rules:
I thought it was about time to re-review this one. When people ask me about hot and spicy instant noodles that they can possibly find at a local Asian grocery, I usually steer them towards Teumsae Ramyun. Many consider this one to be the ultimate spiciest, although I have had one or two I think that have been hotter. That’s not to say that this stuff won’t challenge even the staunchest of spicy fans. This is mean. Real mean. If you ate a spicy pepper, the best thing to get rid of the heat would be a crunchy chip – when you chew, it scrapes the heat off your palate. Or milk, or sugar. The last thing would be beer or water. Well, this is soup. It sinks that spicy heat right down into your taste buds even deeper! Let’s revisit this spicy Paldo Teumsae Ramyun again and see why it’s been on the Top Ten Spicy List since the list’s inception.
I got some samples the other day to try! This is Hao Way’s new Penang Laksa. They’re very excited about it, purporting it to the the very first instant Penang Laksa whose paste contains grilled fish in the mixture. Sounds pretty good to me! Let’s give it a try.
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.
