Here’s one from India we found this summer at an Indian grocery in Pleasanton, California. There are a few different varieties of these with different shapes of noodles. Let’s check out this macaroni style one.
Maggi Pazzta Cheese Macaroni – India
Here’s the back of the package (click to enlarge). Looks to be meat free but check for yourself. To prepare, add sachet and noodles to a pot with 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 5 minutes. Finally, stir and enjoy!
The macaroni.
The seasoning base.
Lot sof seasoning powder.
Finished (click to enlarge). The macaroni noodles came out nicely. They have an interesting gauge – rather large and thin walled. They come with a broth which is kind of thin, but the longer it sits, the thicker it gets. Not bad. 3.5 out of 5.0 stars. EAN bar code 8901058847482.
Another one I figured I ought to get to before we move. This one is from Hong Kong and one of a line of interesting flavored macaroni instants by Nissin. Amongst them are seafood, chicken and abalone and many more. Let’s check out this mushroom vegetable flavored Nissin Demae Iccho variant!
Here’s the back of the package (click image to enlarge). Looks to be meat free but check for yourself. To prepare, add macaroni to 500ml boiling water and cook for 3 minutes. Add in sachet contents and stir. Enjoy!
The macaoni noodles.
The soup base sachet.
Has a kind of vegetable scent to it along with soy and salty notes.
Finished (click image to enlarge). Added spring onion. The noodles have thin walls and a light texture. The broth has a mellow mushroom flavor – not deep and musty but gentle with a nice salty taste. 3.5 out of 5.0 stars.EAN bar code 4897878410057.
Thought this would be one my son would like. He’s been keen on trying new things, and I doubt he’s ever had any Filipino soups before. Sopas is basically chicken soup, but has a Filipino twist to it. Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about Sopas in the Philippines:
Western style chicken soup in the Philippines is called sopas. While there are many variations in the recipe, it usually contains chicken strips in broth, onions, vegetables (mainly carrots, cabbage and celery), and macaroni noodles. It is cooked with evaporated milk to give it richer flavor. Sopas is normally associated with the cold, rainy season in the Philippines, and may thus be regarded as local comfort food.
Oriental style chicken soup are generally called mami and normally served with sliced chicken, broth, noodles, chopped vegetables which resembles their East Asian versions.
Other chicken dishes are considered soups. Tinola has chicken cuts in broth, with ginger, chayote, and chili pepper leaves. Sinampalukang manok is basically just a chicken version of sinigang, but here the meat is browned first before being boiled in the water.
Sounds like something he will like – let’s see what’s inside Lucky Me! Instant Sopas!
Here’s the back of the package (click image to enlarge). Looks to be meat free but check for yourself. To prepare, cook noodles in 2 cups briskly boiling water for 3 minutes. Add contents of sachet and cook another minutes. Stir and enjoy!
A package of spiral macaroni – just like in Lucky Me! Baked Mac.
The soup base sachet.
Has a kind of milky chicken scent.
Finished (click image to enlarge) Added grilled chicken, bell pepper and sweet onion with just a sprinkle of Jane’s Krazy Mixed up Pepper on top.. The noodles have a nice chew to them and work well with the broth. The broth is indeed comfort food driven, with a very nice creaminess and good chicken flavor. 3.75 out of 5.0 stars. EAN bar code 4807770272615.
Memories of Philippine Kitchens – In the newly revised and updated Memories of Philippine Kitchens, Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan, owners and chef at the Purple Yam and formerly of Cendrillon in Manhattan, present a fascinating—and very personal—look at Filipino cuisine and culture. From adobo to pancit, lumpia to kinilaw, the authors trace the origins of native Filipino foods and the impact of foreign cultures on the cuisine. More than 100 unique recipes, culled from private kitchens and the acclaimed Purple Yam menu, reflect classic dishes as well as contemporary Filipino food.
A Lucky Me! Special Sopas TV spot. It mentions NAPA (No Artificial Preservatives Added), a seal on much of the Lucky Me! packaging.
Here’s something you wouldn’t find in the United States usually! Macaroni and cheese is a common thing here; almost a national dish! But macaroni and chicken and abalone – in a broth? Nope – not something most would even consider. One thing’s for sure: macaroni is almost always accompanied by cheese here. Let’s see what it’s like cheese free!
Here’s the import/distributor’s sticker (click image to enlarge). Contains egg and chicken powder.
Here’s the back of the package (click image to enlarge). To prepare, boil 530ml water. Add macaroni and return to boil. Cook for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and add contents of sachet. Stir well and enjoy!
Macaroni noodles.
The seasoning sachet.
Has a very well balanced abalone and chicken scent that is interesting.
Finished (click image to enlarge). Added red, yellow and orange bell pepper, coriander, sweet onion and grilled chicken. The noodles came out pretty well; they had a slight al-dente chew to them which was alright. The broth has a definite chicken abalone hit to it. Not overwhelming either. 3.0 out of 5.0 stars.EAN bar code 4898828052815.
Here’s a Knorr advert from Hong Kong. They also make quick serve rotini and penne it seems!
The other day we headed south to check out Ikea. I’d never been there before – wow pretty crazy place! I even tried the meatballs – not bad. Nearby Ikea is Seafood City, a big grocery store that sells mostly Filipino stuff. I have only been there once before and found lots of great instant noodles I’d not reviewed before. Sadly, I only found one – and this is it. Actually, my wife Kit found it! Thanks, Kit! I like the name; it looks like Panama and my spellcheck is insisting is should be spelled Panama, but it’s Pamana. One thing to note – so by the time this is posted, we”ll have moved. I’m quite a few reviews ahead which is nice. No time today to do the pics of sachet contents (actually I packed my little bowls already). Let’s see what’s inside!
Here’s the back of the package (click image to enlarge). Looks to be meat free but check for yourself. To prepare, empty everything into the cup. Add boiling water to the fill line and stir. Let steep for 5 minutes, stir and enjoy!
A sachet full of macaroni.
The soup base sachet.
Interesting sachet of bits and pieces.
Finished (click image to enlarge). Added chicken, sweet onion, green onion, bell pepper, carrot and Jane’s Krazy Mixed Up Pepper. The macaroni noodles came out perfectly – they were all cooked and have a decent size and texture. The broth is a little on the bland side, but has a nice creamy chicken flavor to it with some nice little bits going on. Not bad! 3.5 out of 5.0 stars.UPC bar code 795981230095.
Here’s a recipe for Chicken Sopas from ABS/CBN, a big Filipino TV network.
Here’s another one my lovely wife got for me on our trip to Canada for my birthday last year – thanks! Interesting – tube shaped ramen? A couple of brands make these – kind of a neat twist on it. Let’s check it out!
The distributor’s sticker (click image to enlarge). Contains crustacean.
The back of the package (click image to enlarge). To prepare, add macaroni to 530ml water and cook for 3 minutes. Add contents of sachet, stir and enjoy.
Macaroni noodles.
Soup base sachet.
A lot of fine powder.
Finished (click image to enlarge). Added sweet onions, shrimp and fish ball with shrimp eggs. The macaroni noodles are pretty good – pretty big and seem to have thinner walls than most. The broth has a very strong shrimp scent and flavor. 3.25 out of 5.0 stars. UPC bar code 4898828051313.
I’ve had other macaroni quick serve products before by a different brand. I always thought these were interesting. Usually the only thing you’d find in the United States coupled with macaroni would be cheese, but elsewhere, the options are much different. Let’s check it out.
Distributor sticker (click image to enlarge).
Back of the package (click to enlarge).
Usually I put the noodle block on my table and take a pic, but I figured that could be messy with these.
The seasoning packet.
Has a salty smell.
Finished (click image to enlarge). Added green onion, black forest ham and Urashima Sesame & Salt furikake. The macaroni is pretty good – a little crumbly but nicely sized with thin walls that hold broth. The broth is quite salty and has a familiar yet odd taste. Kind of like if you boiled a ton of hot dogs in a small sauce pan with the same water for a few weeks with a slight smoky flavor. It’s a weirdness I both find fascinating yet dissatisfying. 3.0 out of 5.0 stars.UPC bar code 4898829052648.
Not sure if this is the ‘official’ commercial or done by film students, but it’s interesting either way.
My wife was under the weather last month and I thought I’d make her something special. She liked some Saimin I made recently and she really likes udon. Another of her favorites is cheese. Well, I decided to bring all of that together and make cheesy udon with SPAM in it. Here for you is the method to the madness.
Kit’s Cheesy Mac ‘N’ Udon
Ingredients
1 Box any brand Macaroni and Cheese
1 portion of fresh Udon noodles (again, any brand)
1 can of SPAM
Milk
Butter or Margarine
Directions
First, you have to prepare things…
Yep – pull out the cheese flavoring and toss the elbow macaroni, unless you have a use for it such as making artistic renderings or even eating it later.
Cut up some SPAM. There’s no fixed amount – just go with as much as you think you’d like.
Next, take your udon noodles and add them to a boiling pot of water. Cook until they are all loose and floating about. The great thing about udon like this is that its extremely quick – about a minute.
Drain the udon. Add SPAM. Add a little milk – maybe 1/4 cup. Add 3/4 tablespoon of butter. Add powdered cheese packet. Stir with vigor!
The finished dish (click to enlarge). My wife really likes it and we hope you do, too!
My sister brought these back for me from Canada a while back and I’ve been coveting them for a special occasion. I thought closing in on the 500th review would be a good time to break out the tippy macaroni! So here we go!
On the left we have a liquid packet and on the right some powdered seasoning.
Certainly looks just like regular macaroni doesn’t it? Seafood and abalone sure aren’t flavors you’d expect to have with macaroni over here in the states! Maybe cheese or white cheese or a casserole or something. Predominately cheese for sure – but seafood? Awesome!
The sauce packet was what looked like oil and soy sauce. The powder was simply a powder base.
Click image to enlarge. Here’s the finished, unadulterated product. The macaroni took only four minutes to cook and seemed like there was no way it would suck up 500cc of water, but it did! The flavor was very nice – not too salty, not too seafoody. A very tasty meal indeed, although kind of tough to keep on the fork – perhaps because of the oil? Anyways, I really liked this alot! 4.0 out of 5.0 stars!
Lucky Me! brand is a brand of Monde Nissin (Nissin Worldwide) and since I couldn’t find anything else, went with this commercial.
I can’t resist adding a short about BBSes… I ran one for quite a few years back in the late 80’s early 90’s…
Since I did my first radio interview today, I thought I’d review something equally interesting – Japanese macaroni weirdness!
Powder on the left, an oil/sauce on the right.
Yup – here’s what it looks like inside the bag! It’s really macaroni!
So the sauce is oil and other things – including cooking wine!
Click image to enlarge. Amazing – this stuff took 3 minutes to cook. I had my doubts; they weren’t getting any bigger at two minutes and thirty seconds, and then when the timer beeped at three minutes, boom – they were done. The noodles are really really light – not chewy really at all – they almost dissolve in your mouth. If teeth aren’t your thing, these are definitely for you! The flavoring is great – was expecting it to be really soupy as it called for 500ml of water, but the noodles sucked almost all of that up. It tasted like Nissin Demae Tonkotsu flavor noodles! Very strange stuff; it just seems wrong for it to be macaroni. It’s got some weird charm to it. I’m giving it 3.5 out of 5.0 stars – its good and weird.
Before anyone gets their panties in a proverbial ruffle, look at the lower right hand corner. It says ramen noodles.
So fill to the line, microwave for 5 minutes. Easy enough!
So this is one pretty big packet of powdered seasoning. I’m guessing cheese powder…
Click image to enlarge. Holy mother! Indeed it was cheese powder and after a vibrant stir, we end up with this. So I am rather impressed. I found the noodles to be perfect and the cheese powder made it all rich and creamy almost exactly like that blue tall box of mac’n’cheese we’re all used to. I like it. 4.0 out of 5.0 stars – very surprised here. Get it right here. UPC bar code 070662087435.
47.788492-122.337945
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