Over 5,000 Instant Ramen Noodle Reviews Since 2002
Here’s a new one from Paldo – Namja. Namja translates to “man” or “guy” – I think they’re saying this is very hot and spicy. I wonder if there will be a product that is made for women as well? Well, let’s see if I’m man enough for this bowl of noodles!
Usually when asked ‘what was your first noodle product,’ the answer I get from a company is chicken flavored instant noodles. Well, chicken flavor instant noodles are these and they look like a nice big bag of noodles! Been awhile – last time I had this is was review #88!
How often do you see Korean instant noodles that aren’t spicy? Well, here’s one of those rare times. Pronounced Gohm-tahng (thanks Moses from Paldo America!), this is a traditional beef noodle soup.
Here’s something different – Cucumber Bibim Men! Bibimbap is a common Korean dish involving a sauce with mixed vegetables and rice. The ‘Men’ here is pronounced ‘main’ as in chow mein as in noodles. So what this is is a cold noodle deal – you boil the noodles and veggies, drain and rinse with cold water a few times, add the liquid packet and stir it together. Curious if I’m going to like this – I’ve had Bibim Men a long time ago, but my tastes have changed so we’ll see.
Wow check this out! Paldo sent me this prototype of a new product – a bowl of instant noodles that only takes a minute and thirty seconds to cook. Pretty amazing – but how does it taste?
I asked my wife Kit to pick which pack of noodles to begin Meet The Manufacturer: Paldo week and she picked this one. Sounds like a great place to start!
Good news and bad news. Bad news: no reviews for about a week (we’re going on vacation). The good news: I will leave you with the first ever bacon monstrosity!
I’ve wanted to re-review this one for a while. Just has a kind of weird name, ya’know? Here’s what the Nongshim site says about it:
* UPDATE * See here.
A couple of days ago, I received an email from a man who was angry. He was angry that the instant noodles he bought said that they were spicy Chicken flavor but weren’t spicy whatsoever and that I needed to change the seasonings ASAP. Every once in a while, I get a comment or email from someone who thinks that I make instant noodles or am affiliated with an instant noodle company. I decided to reply and do a review of the product he had problems with, adding some hot spices, sauces and peppers from around the world to really heat it up. It then occurred to me that a lot of people really like spicy instant noodles and that there’s really no list of the hottest ones out there. I figured I’d better do something about that, and so here’s the Top Ten Spiciest Instant Noodles Of All Time!
Here’s another one that Moo Hee-Wi from Korea sent me. she was the one who wrote the JoongAng Ilbo article about The Ramen Rater last month! Thanks again! So this is what you would find in the Korean superkarket if you wanted to get some Mild Neoguri. A while back I reviewed the US version. Let’s give this one a try!
Here’s one the folks at Ramen Place sent a while back. Sounded good today to have somethin’ spicy! Soy peptide eh? Here’s some info. Let’s see how it goes.
Today Andy wanted to try something new. Knowing he’s a little timid of things that are too far off the map, I went with this. I’m pretty sure he’ll like it.
The 200th review I did was the old version of this stuff! Over 500 reviews later, we come to the new version. So far, these new ones have been quite good.
So I saw this recipe here and I thought hmmm… What a great idea! But I thought it might go better a little done differently…
Today I received a big box full of instant noodles from South Korea! These are made by emart. If you can imagine a Korean version of Walmart, you’re on the right track – these are super huge superstores over there. Anyways, a fellow from emart contacted me about reviewing this new product of theirs and of course I said yes. They sent a box with some nice hats and 8 of these 6 pakcs – yep – 48 packages of noodles! Wow!
My son wanted to try this one today, so I will have a bite and a slurp too.
Outer packaging detail (click image to enlarge).
Here’s one that was sent to me by Moon Hee Wi, the journalist who wrote the article in the JoongAng Ilbo a couple weeks ago! Thanks! Let’s give it a try!
I’m pretty jazzed – got a couple things this last trip to the Asian grocery and going to try one of them today. Here’s another one of the new version Nongshim Bowl Noodle varieties.
There’s quite a few of these to review since the new design and flavors! Was surprised that my son (who by the way has his own blog at www.AndysLEGOStuff.com ) was up for trying some Lobster flavor noodles! I’ll steal a bite and a slurp and see how they are.
Here’s another well-known Nongshim pack – Chapagetti. Basically, you take spaghetti and combine it with Chajang, which is a black bean sauce – now you have Chapagetti!
Here’s the interview that I did with Nongshim America. This was a lot of fun!
THE RAMEN RATER> Thank you for the opportunity to do this interview! For those not familiar, can you tell us about some of your most popular instant noodle products?
Since my last review of this product, I found out that I made it wrong! Yup… I suppose if I could read Korean I would’ve made it right. It turns out that the red packet goes in first with the noodles and cooks, and the peanut and veggies go in last after everything’s cooked! I’m hungry – gonna do it exactly as I’m supposed to this time! Here’s the old review.
During my trip to Nongshim America, I was interviewed – here’s what they aired on TV! This is the first time I’ve ever been on television! Pretty exciting! If someone would like to translate this, I would be very appreciative.
Okay so I thought this was interesting. Look at the noodle block in this one – very different isn’t it? Well, Let’s give this one a try – this one was made in the USA in Rancho Cucamonga, California.
Here’s some more seafoodiness! Red broth heat and seafood comes together!
Here’s the back of the package (click image to enlarge).
It’s funny how much my wife and I enjoy saying ‘HooRooRook!’ I wonder what it means though… Well, after some research, it came to my attention that it is the sound of slurping noodles.
This is a re-review – the last time I had this was probably in 2003 – when it was review #21. For some reason, I thought that it (Neoguri as well) had octopus in it. Clearly, that’s a squid holding chopstick and wearing clothing. I should note that these days, I know that’s a squid – and that squids don’t wear clothing. Moving on…
Hey this isn’t something I’ve seen before – dipping sauce? This is a cold noodle – something I’m not usually a big fan of but we’ll see. The dipping sauce concept has me enthralled…
Here’s a new one in the Bowl Noodle line. Let’s give it a try.
The lid.
Side and bottom of cardboard outer (click image to enlarge).
Here we go with the last of the Shin Ramyun varieties I’ll be doing for Nongshim Meet The Manufacturer week. Shin Ramyun Black!
Here’s another of the Nongshim Shin Ramyun variants – shrimp flavor! This one was picked up for me by my sister in Canada. So far, I’ve been reviewing packs and cups from Korea and the United States by Nongshim. This one was made in China. I liked it a lot before – let’s have it again! Yay!
Check it out – the new Shin Black cup! Onion flavor! I’ve had one of these chilling on my shelf for a while now – been wanting to review it and now that it’s out on the market, I can! Let’s check it out!
It’s been a heck of a long time since I had one of these – over three years! Shin Ramyun is Nongshim’s most well known product – let’s see how it goes now, after trying over 600 varieties since I last tried it!
Here we go with another Meet The Manufacturer week! This one’s a little different of course since my wife and I actually took a trip and met the people who are Nongshim America! It was an amazing and fun visit – so without further adieu, here’s what happened. By the way, if you click on the images they get much bigger.
Okay I know – I don’t usually review restaurant food but I thought I would this time. After our trip to Nongshim and learning about Korean food and culture, we were curious about this local restaurant. I looked through the menu and decided I should give their noodles a try! I found Naengmyeon combo and thought that might be good. I had no idea what it would be about, except that noodles were involved and that it was ‘good in the Summer.’ Here’s what Wikipedia says about Naengmyeon:
I’ve got to just say it – wow! They sent us a huge box of neat noodle knick knacks and other Ningshim niceties! This is pretty epic – check it out! By the way – I think this has to be the coolest packing tape in existence!
Here’s something really new and very different from a lot of the instant noodles I’ve reviewed before. Jinjja Jinjja translates to “Really Really” (Spicy Spicy) – and I suppose in this review we’re going to find out how really really spicy Jinjja is! I should say that I sampled this one at Nongshim America while I was down there, so I have tried it before – but not a while bowl of it. I found out that the flavor comes from boiling pork bones for a long time, black beans and peanuts! It also turns out that the wheat flour used to make these has some red pepper powder added to them – heat in the noodle as well as from the dry seasonings! Let’s give this a try!
I got two shipments today – one from Nongshim America, which I visited last week (there’ll be a lot of stuff all about the visit, the plant tour and the people very soon!). Here’s the first one from Nongshim America!
