I received a package with a couple of varieties of Peruvian instant noodles last week, then one with even more the next as well as a TON of Brazilian ones! I have to say, I have the nicest readers and want to thank you for your continued support in sending samples I couldn’t source otherwise!
Today, it’s Gallina Picante, which is spicy chicken. Let’s hit it up!
Aji-no-men Sabor Gallina Picante – Peru
Detail of the packaging (click to enlarge). Contains chicken. To prepare, boil noodles in 500ml water for 3 minutes. Add in soup base. Finally, stir and enjoy!
The noodle block.
A dry sachet of soup base (watch me use this below on Instant Noodle Recipe Time).
Finished (click to enlarge). Added baked chicken with adobo, soft egg, Salad Cosmo mung bean sprouts, fried garlic, and cilantro. Noodles have a nice, standard instant noodle chew to them. Broth is very much the usual salty chicken taste with a little tang and spice to the broth. 3.75 out of 5.0 stars. EAN bar code 7754487001670.
I haven’t seen my friend Matthew Bellah in quite a while and he’s stopping by today to hang out. So he’s a writer (you can read some of his stuff at www.matthewbellah.com) and also an odd sort as far as food goes. He’s a vegetarian, however I’ve known him to enjoy bacon and Jack In The Box tacos regularly. Anyways, I thought this myramen would be a good one to let him try.
myramen is a range of Japanese instant ramen that are Vegan, HALAL, animal free, dairy free, shellfish free, fish free, alcohol free, and dairy free. Matt’s also an accomplished guitar player and is bringing an acoustic over to play for the kids – Miles in particular is really into music so I’m curious to see what he thinks of it. That’s a lot of bases covered. Let’s take a look at this one.
myramen Japanese Vegan Noodle & Soup Soy Sauce – Japan
Here’s the back of the package (click to enlarge). Vegan and HALAL. To prepare, add noodle block to 2 cups boiling water and cook for 3~4 minutes. Take off heat and add sachet contents. Finally, stir and enjoy!
The noodle block.
A soup base sachet.
A lot of powder.
Finished (click to enlarge). Added hard boiled egg, Salad Cosmo mung bean sprouts, spring onion, sesame seeds, and nanami togarashi. The noodles are broad and flat with a nice tooth. The broth has an alright soy sauce flavor however I found it to be overly salty and slightly less so would have been preferable. 3.0 out of 5.0 stars. JAN bar code 4589468000013.
Well, it’s that time again! Every year, I come out with an update to my Bottom Ten list. I’ve got a lot of top ten lists of course, but only one that’s comprised of my least favorite varieties. Many of these will be enjoyed by people – and that’s fine. Just most definitely not by me. Let’s take a look!
The Ramen Rater’s Bottom Ten Instant Noodles Of All Time 2018 Edition
Video Presentation
A video presentation of the list in its entirety.
The Ramen Rater’s Bottom Ten Instant Noodles Of All Time 2018 Edition
A rough go. The noodles were just wrong; they might look like noodles, but they just didn’t hydrate very well and the chew was pure funky. The broth was about as bland as can be – maybe less water? Everything I review is according to what they put on the packaging and well, this just came out horribly. Original review
I’m a little confused by this one. Honestly, I believe the instructions on this bowl must be wrong and that it should be a dry noodle with a broth on the side. But it just goes to show that unless you put the correct directions on the bowl, you’re going to end up with something awry. TRhe other possibility is that the instructions are correct and that it’s still just completely horrible. Chicken flavor? I don’t think so. Noodles? Ultra spongy. No. Original review
#8 – Master Kong Artificial Abalone Crab Flavor Instant Noodle – China
Definitely a knock-off of sorts. Although I see these as Master Kong/Kang Shi Fu often, they most definitely aren’t. Moreover, the broth has an absolutely foul taste to it. I’m sure it’s safe to eat, but I would never want to cross paths with this one again. Original review
#7 – Koyo Reduced Sodium Garlic & Pepper Ramen – United States
The noodles are thick – more like ramyun. They have an alright chew; although they seem almost doughy- and not Hakata style ramen noodle doughy. The broth does taste of garlic and pepper, but it’s so very bland. It really is like you could boil some pepper and a clove of garlic and achieve the same results. Not at all to my liking. Original review
#6 – Urban Noodle Authentic Street Food Black Bean – United Kingdom
The noodles in this one were flat instead of round. They came out very nicely. The flavoring however was just strange. I expected maybe something of a Korean-Chinese fusion dish, but those are hearty and rich and not savory and sweet. In fact, this one was a little too sweet for me. The thinly sliced bamboo shoots don’t work for me either; leaving them whole would be nicer I think. What’s more, it has a kind of chemically aftertaste; like chlorine or soap. Original review
#3 – One Dish Asia Japanese Ramen Noodle – United States
This one comes with a fresh noodle pouch. They didn’t have a very fresh texture; more mushy. The bamboo shoots (which more resembled overcooked carrot and I had to consult the ingredients to figure what they were) were mushy as well. The broth had an acidic and a flavor reminiscent of the teriyaki flavor I’ve encountered in bad teriyaki instant flavors. A hot mess. Original review
#4 – Isoyama Shoji 18 Prohibited / Restricted / Only La-Men Curry Taste – Japan
First, this is a lot of food. There’s reason for the warning on this pack. 700cc water and a few minutes cooking brings you a huge bowl of noodles. While in general that’s not a complaint, the flavor is. It’s violently spicy for starters. It does have a curry flavor, which at first glance is great. Then you have to taste it. You’d think all that water would dilute the sachet that comes with it but no dice here. Too much flavor and heat are the theme here, and it’s a bitter song to swallow. Original review
#3 – Baijia Single Noble Black Bone Chicken Flavor Instant Sweet Potato Noodles – China
I was told by a guy from the company that this indeed was believed to be medicinal and helpful to women having their ‘time of the month.’ I’ve also been told by a reader that people generally don’t like black bone chicken soup even in China. Very slimy sweet potato noodles, thick, greasy broth and horrid veggies that didn’t hydrate well was just a flavor, texture, and complete food hole nightmare for me. This was just horrible stuff that I couldn’t stand. Original review
#2 – Maruchan Bariuma Goboten Udon – Japan
Do you like earthy things? Like dirt? Maybe throw a ton of salt on it – does that do the trick for you? This one has just huge amount of burdock root. Burdock is great in small amounts, but this much just turns this variety into a bowl of something that just screams salty dirt. A full frontal assault on the taste buds that leaves me wondering if when they made this if they tasted it. Original review
#1 – Dr. McDougall’s Vegan Pad Thai Noodle Soup – United States
Wow – where do it begin. Well, first off when one in the United States thinks of Pad Thai, they think of what they might find at a domestic Thai restaurant. Okay so the rice noodles came out nicely – short, flat and broad and well hydrated. Now for the broth. Thin. Nothing like pad thai. Has a little lime taste and a kind of herbed taste. The floating bits of tofu are a lot like the marshmallows you get in the hot chocolate that comes with marshmallows. This is as far from pad thai as I can even express in words. It’s like someone gave a broken description of pad thai to someone who has short term memory problems and no taste buds a week prior and told them to make it. I kind of feel personally violated and offended. A new #1 on the Bottom Ten. Original review
Here’s one that’s new to me – my ramen. my ramen is a range of Japanese instant ramen that are Vegan, HALAL, animal free, dairy free, shellfish free, fish free, alcohol free, and dairy free. That’s a lot of bases covered. But of course the question is: is it good? Well, let’s find out!
myramen Japanese Vegan Noodle & Soup Miso – Japan
Here’s the back of the package (click to enlarge). Says that it is Vegan. To prepare, add noodle block to 2 cups boiling water and cook for 3~4 minutes. Take off heat and add sachet contents. Finally, stir and enjoy!
The noodle block (this one got a little squished).
The soup base sachet.
A granular mixture.
Finished (click to enlarge). Added Salad Cosmo mung bean sprouts, corn, spring onion and shichimi togarashi. The noodles were interesting – much wider than I expected – almost an udon gauge but just not quite. The broth at first made me think red miso, but the more I tasted it the more I liked it. This was honestly a hard one to put down and I’m really impressed. 5.0 out of 5.0 stars. JAN bar code 4589468000020.
Hey look – Top Ramen got a facelift! They’ve been changing recipes all over their ranges – getting rid of artificial flavoring and MSG. They’ve also been changing names. This used to be picante beef. To be honest, I haven’t had the first variety in years and it’s nice to be able to have it again fresh. Let’s give it a look!
Nissin Top Ramen Hot & Spicy Beef Flavor Ramen Noodle Soup – United States
Here’s the back of the package (click to enlarge). Contains beef. To prepare, add noodle block to 2 cups boiling water and cook for 3 minutes. Add sachet contents. Finally, stir and enjoy!
The noodle block.
The soup base sachet.
A light powder.
Finished (click to enlarge). Added cilantro, hard boiled egg and shichimi togarashi. The noodles are decent – very standard instant variety with a good gauge and soft chew. The broth has a very thin character however a pleasant salty beef and spicy taste to it. 3.0 out of 5.0 stars. UPC bar code 070662010129.
I was recently contacted by a company asking if I’d like to try their noodles. I get a lot of noodles – but I always want to try them all! These noodles were supposed to be Vegan, HALAL certified, 100% natural and a few other tags like no MSG. Pretty impressive! Let’s take a look at this interesting variety.
Unboxing Time: MYRAMEN Vegan/HALAL/Natural Japanese Ramen – Japan
A lot of you have been asking me to do a vegetarian top ten list. I think the only way to do such a thing would be to do a Vegan top ten. This would be hard because not a lot of brands are emblazoned with a logo stating they’re Vegan. Well, these are. They come in classic Japanese ramen flavors – shoyu, miso and shio. You can find them here. Thanks! Looking forward to giving them a try!
Well, this is it. Right now, I’m listening to the inauguration of Donald J. Trump. It’s January 20th, 2017 and kind of a weird day. I thought it would be fitting to review something from the United States today. Finally, after decades of sticking with the same recipe, Nissin has decided to go with something new. On Cup Noodles’ 45th anniversary here in the USA, they’ve changed it to make it healthier. Some changes are no added MSG and no artificial flavors. Furthermore they’ve lowered the amount of sodium in these cups from the previous versions using potassium chloride. So, let’s give this Hot & Spicy Shrimp a try!
Nissin Cup Noodles Hot & Spicy Shrimp Flavor Ramen Noodle Soup (New Recipe) – United States
Detail of the back of the package (click to enlarge). Contains shrimp. To prepare, open lid halfway and add boiling water to fill line. Cover for 3 minutes. Stir and enjoy!
The iconic cup! Although the recipe has changed, the cup hasn’t.
Some of the loose ingredients. In spite of being a shrimp variety, I couldn’t find any shrimp. Perhaps they are hiding out in the noodle block.
Finished (click to enlarge). Added Salad Cosmo mung bean sprouts, shrimp and Cholula Original hot sauce. The noodles are of the standard Cup Noodles gauge and softness that are found in the domestic United States varieties. A good quantity as well. The broth had a hint of spiciness and a shrimp taste. What was a letdown here was that there were no shrimp. Zero. Zilch. Nada. I’m guessing maybe they just missed this cup or they don’t put the little shrimp in these. 2.5 out of 5.0 stars. UPC bar code 070662030127.
7/31/2013 – UPDATE – I’ve been getting quite a few comments about wax in noodles again, so I thought it would be a good idea to repost this. Recently, an article outlining reasons not to eat instant noodles came out which perpetuates these rumors and false claims.
3/19/2013 – UPDATE – Check this new article out – I was published on consumeraffairs.com
8/31/2012 – UPDATE – Thanks to everyone checking out this article and for the nice words! Thought I’d also mention I have an article about cup noodle rumors you might like – check it out HERE.
At first, I found it laughable, but now it’s gotten to the point where I feel something should be said. I’ve been seeing more and more posts going up on blogs from around the world about the dangers of instant noodles. They claim some ridiculous things that are just plain untrue. I think the people who might really bear the brunt of this are those among us who eat instant noodles because they can’t afford more expensive foods. Here are some of the issues I’ve seen mentioned and some facts and supporting info.
UPDATE Sept 5, 2012: Saw this picture as I was looking for articles to put on the Noodle News and
figure it’s got to be the culprit for a lot of the worries people have had.
Heating MSG (Found In Instant Noodles) Changes It Into A Toxic, Deadly Form
FALSE
This one is kind of obvious. If heating MSG made it deadly toxic, wouldn’t everyone be dead by now? Here’s a great post about this and other things from a blog called The Butcher Of Kuala Lumpur:
You’re kidding, right? One of the reasons they’re saying is that the wax ‘keeps the noodles separated.’ Anyone with an ounce of reason will know that instant noodles that are coated in wax aren’t going to stay separated from the wax. Wax melts and relatively moderate temperatures. They mention boiling the noodles, draining them and putting them in fresh water. The only thing you’ll get by doing this is would be that you’d get rid of some of the gluten.
Here’s what I found on a page by Monde Nissin:
Instant noodles do not contain any wax. Noodle strands do not stick together as a natural consequence of the process of slitting or cutting the noodle dough into strands, steaming, and then frying in normal cooking oil.
Here is a video I made at the Wheat Marketing Center in Portland, Oregon. This is called a ‘pilot line’ – they test recipes and fine-tune them for mass production on larger equipment. You can see here there is no phase of creating instant noodles that involves wax.
Instant Noodle Cups Are Lined With Wax
FALSE
Another strange one that’s circulated quite a bit lately. Supposedly, this would be so the cup wouldn’t leak. I dunno – weird reasoning there. I found two things that logically supported that this is a false claim.
First, there’s a page on Snopes.com. Snopes is renowned for shedding the light of reason on rumors that go from implausable to fact in minutes in our information based world.
Second, again you can hit up the Monde Nissin page – they have a really great list of Facts vs Myths that should answer most questions asbout the safety of instant noodles.
I was very interested in finding out what this ‘Chinese Restaurant Syndrome’ was that’s mentioned at the end. Well, This article about it mentions how MSG has never been directly proven to correlate with it.
So much hype and so much fear don’t seem very healthy – I’m pretty sure hypertension has been proven to be unhealthy. Anyways, take everything you read with a grain of salt (I’m even groaning at that one – sorry) and use common sense when you read scary food articles online. Do your research – don’t let someone with an agenda decide what’s good for you.
Here’s the original review. It’s cold today so I thought it sounded good. I figure I should mention – there will be some new reviews very soon! I am working on a huge project that’s been taking so much time. A hint – it has to do with upgrading this blog! I’ve been editing every post and image. A lot of work let me tell you! It will definitely be worth it in the end!
Finished (click image to enlarge). Added kamaboko, stir fry vegetables, an egg, sweet onion and processed cheese. Awesome – just as good as last time – 4.75 out of 4.0 stars! UPC bar code 648436100705 .
It’s the day after Thanksgiving and I thought this would be nice to have. I’ve reviewed the Korean version in the past – this is the version for sale in the US.
Back of the package (click image to enlarge). From the ingredients, you can see the beef, chicken and garlic components.
The noodle block.
Seasoning powder packet.
Ahhh look at all of the powder – should be hot’n’spicy!
Veggie packet.
A nice little melange.
Finished (click image to enlarge). Added sweet onion, some processed cheese, fresh Thanksgiving turkey, French’s French Fried Onions, a hard boiled egg and Krazy Mixed Up Salt. The noodles are great – nice and plump and plentiful. The broth has a great flavor – a strong spiciness too. Excellent red broth! The veggies are very nice too – good amount of garlic in there! Great stuff! 5.0 out of 5.0 stars! UPC bar code 648436100729 – get it here.
Here’s the commercial for Namja Ramyun
Hey sweet – I live just a couple minutes south of Lynwood!
After this one, I think I have only four new ones to review! Egad! Hoping the mailman brings some new things to review soon! So here’s a cup of noodles for breakfast…
Here’s the back of the cardboard outer (click image to enlarge).
The iconic cup. I must say I dig on the font and the colors; very 70’s / early 80’s look and feel to it.
A scan of the lid (click image to enlarge).
The noodle block. If you notice, the noodles are bespeckled in a layer of powder – that being the seasoning. There are no packets here – everything is ready to go.
Here are some of the veggies I picked out of the cup.
Finished (click image to enlarge). Drained broth, added stir fry veggies, sweet onion, kizami shoga (pickled ginger), minced garlic, and an egg. Fried in a small skilled for a while and added a pinch of Urashima Sesame & Salt furikake and Dua Belibis chili sauce on top. Before this as usual I did the sampling. The noodles were good – nice texture and chew. The broth was lighter than usual, but had a nice beef flavor I enjoyed. The veggies hydrated well. 3.5 out of 5.0 stars. UPC bar code 041789001727 – get it here.
Absolutely awesome – why don’t any noodle companies give away stuff with their noodles in the USA? I call for an instant noodle rennaisance – marketing blitz and social hipness explosion!
Looks fancy and tasty.
47.810652-122.377355
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