
Another from S*Mart! When I opened this pack the smell of garlic was real strong – curiosity has me in its grips… Last time I had a crayfish flavor variety from China it was violently spicy… Let’s give it a whirl!
Over 5,000 Instant Ramen Noodle Reviews Since 2002

Another from S*Mart! When I opened this pack the smell of garlic was real strong – curiosity has me in its grips… Last time I had a crayfish flavor variety from China it was violently spicy… Let’s give it a whirl!

Very rarely have I found instant pho that I’ve enjoyed. Like twice. But maybe this will be a third time. We shall see.

Here’s another one of the Haichijia cups featuring the world renowned Mr. Bobby Yip on the package. I think he’s funny – there’s no way he’s not a comedian! Let’s cook this cup up!

Think I found this at HMart. This one says it has a stewed seafood sachet which sounds interesting. I also find the global top ten mention – not my global top ten though. Interesting. Let’s give it a try!

This one is only the second I’ve tried from this range. It sounds much better than the first I tried which I think was a mushroom variant years ago. Let’s give it a whirl.

Found this one at Evergreen Asian Market in Everett, Washington. I found quite a few Vietnamese varieties there I looked up in my archives, found a bowl version of this which was my fifth review. Those early early reviews are definitely out of order, but it was definitely one of the first 30 I tried back in 2002-2003. Well, let’s give this one a try.

After a hunt for instant noodles, here’s one I found locally at Boo Han Market in Edmonds, Washington. This style of noodle is interesting – while a rice noodle, it’s got a kind of different thing going on. Let’s steep ’em up.

Here’s another one I found at 99 Ranch Market recently. Again, Vietnamese flavor, new Chinese authentic style, and packaged for sale in the United States. It’s almost as if it’s got some kind of flavorful identity crisis! But it sounds interesting so let’s get to it.

Here’s one we found at the Fred Meyer store in Lake City. These are made in the UK – unsure if they’re related to the Naked Noodles line of someone else’s. Either way, it’s something I’ve not seen before, so I’m reviewing it.

This is a gluten free product we found at a local store. My wife does the gluten free thing, so making this for her today. It’s currently 23 degrees outside with a wind chill as low at 15. That’s pretty cold for these parts. I’ve got to go to the store to get some stuff, so I’ll probably be talking about how cold it is. Anyways, let’s cook this one up.

Another one from S*Mart. Let’s hit it.

Detail of the packaging (click to enlarge). Looks to be meat free but check for yourself. To prepare, boil noodle for 60-90 seconds. Drain and in all sachets and 250ml water. Finally, stir and enjoy!

As I’ve mentioned on Instant Noodle Recipe Time episodes lately, I’m running incredibly low on instant noodles to review. Found this one at the local Safeway grocery store today. Mind you, today is May 18th, 2022 and this will be probably posting in late September or early October. Why is that? Well, I do three reviews a day – and done that most days in the last month or so, so I’m not only ahead, I’m way ahead. Today I posted review #4153 – this is review #4294, so that’s 139 reviews ahead – possibly the farthest ahead I’ve been ever. I’ve really found a groove and I’m loathe to mess with it. I get up early, get the kids ready for the day, my wife heads to work, and between 715 and 8am, I do three reviews. After I get my son on the bus around 9am, I then come back and do up the videos and images and save my review. Then I get my daughter on the bus a bit later and go out walking ten miles, get home about a half hour before I have to go pick my daughter up from the bus, then start taking pics of the varieties I’ll be reviewing the next morning. It really works out great! But yeah – I’ve run through a hoard of varieties in the past month or so. This one sounded interesting. I also noticed today that the categories drop-down that has been on the website forever wasn’t there anymore, so I fixed that.

I’ve seen these a few times and luckily, found them a bit cheaper the other day. This is a stir noodle – no broth. Sounds interesting and a lot of sachets to be sure. Let’s check it out!

Here’s one that was sent by James from Lakeside, CA – thanks! I’ve been on a reviewing tear the last week – actually the past couple of weeks. I’m trying to empty bins of varieties I’ve not tried yet. This was in a box above the bins. Anyways, yeah – this is made in South Korea for the US market. Let’s check it out!

Another one I found during sales on Lunar New Year products. Very curious about this one and kind of confused as to how to prepare it, but I’ll figure it out. Let’s give it a look!

Here’s one that came via Exotic Noods – check ’em out and use coupon code THERAMENRATER for a discount!

An apron, glasses, and a sunny demeanor. Yes, this is Uncle Fun. Fun? Foon? I’m guessing it’s pronounced Foon. When I opened this, the aroma was definitely nice. But what was difficult was the cooking part. I found a new way to image translate, but it was through google, so very confusing. Boiling noodles in cold water seems a little strange to me, but they’ve got some mad tech in China, yo… I hope I can figure out how the heck to cook this stuff… UPDATE – big thanks to Kyle K. over at Mom’s Dry Noodle for huge help in cooking instructions!

It’s rice noodles and fish flavor time! Do you have a wristwatch? Does it talk? Does it tell you when it’s rice noodle and fish flavor time? No? Well, why not? Wouldn’t you like that kind of functionality in a wristwatch? Allergies, Benadryl, and about 16 hours since I had my second shot of vaccine and I’m feeling loopy. I’m not sure if the shot is affecting me but man I sure feel weird. Anyways, let’s give this one a try!

It’s ben years since I’ve tried this – back in August of 2015 to be exact. I rarely see it around so I thought perhaps it was worth another try. Here’s a little from Wikipedia –

I don’t I’ve mentioned lately how absolutely wonderful my wife is. I should just do a standalone post every week saying that and extolling the reasons why, but here’s one thing she did that was absolutely wonderful. We had a car accident in mid January (as I write this it’s early March) and we’ve had a loaner as it gets fixed. Yeah – early March. Since mid January, I haven’t been in a car. We’ve got two kids, two car seats, and one just won’t get in there right and so someone has to stay at home and since I don’t drive, that’s me. Well, the local grocery store I walk to had some sad mung bean sprouts and it’s Sunday – a week without mung bean sprouts is a sad ordeal for me. She drove to the 99 Rach Market out of town, got my veggies and then proceeded to send me individual photos of different instant noodles in hopes of finding some I’ve not reviewed. I’m super low on varieties I’ve not tried which is serious no bueno. She did find a few though and this is one of them. So I say thank you to my kind and wonderful wife. Let’s have a look at this rice noodle variety!

Here’s a big noodle cup I found at the 99 Ranch Market in Edmonds, WA. You might wonder – what’s Luosi mean? Here’s something from Wikipedia –

These came by way of James from Lakeside California and looks like Snapdragon has dressed up their packaging yet again. I will admit I’ve never been exceedingly enthralled with their range, save a couple of varieties. Not only that, I’m rarely enthused about any pho instants I’ve tried. But I’m in the mood so these at least have that going for them. Let’s give them a try!

Here’s a pho bowl that came by way of the folks at Exotic Noods – use coupon code RAMENRATER15 for a discount over there! South Korean pho – I’ve come across this before and it was good. Let’s give it a go!

MAMA of Thailand recently sent a big box of noodles – thank you! Lots of neat new varieties to sample including this one. I like curry and crab so I think this will be pretty good. Let’s check it out!

To start things off, I grabbed something randomly ou of the massive pile of samples I have here. These are ho fan rice noodles – thin and flat. Wikipedia had this to say –

Today, we come to the next-to-last variety from Mr Lee’s and the only one devoted to seafood. Freeze dried shrimp inside? Let’s see!

Hey look – something totally new and different from MyKuali! They told me that fish noodle is a hawker stall staple over in Penang. Very curious about this one, as this isn’t supposed to be spicy which is a departure from all their other varieties which do have a strong spiciness. Let’s give it a go!

This is an interesting one and took a little research. Is a plant based diet same as a Vegan diet? Well this video explains that they’re two different things. This is a fresh bowl which requires refrigeration. I really like green curry – let’s give it a try!

Here’s another one I found over at Boo Han Market in Edmonds, Washington. This new O’Taste brand seems to be cropping up a lot lately. It’s interesting as it’s not exactly a Nongshim variety, but it’s Taekyung Food & Processing, and I’m unsure exactly how they fit in with the Nongshim corporate structure. Maybe I should find out.

Here’s one I found over at Waroeng Jajanan, the amazing Indonesian store on 99 in Edmonds. If you’re in Washington state and interested in anything Indonesian entering your stomach, go there. Trust me on this.

Alright so when I found this up at China World in Richmond, BC, I was curious. ‘What’s this torpid all about, anyway?’ Well, Thanks to my friend Kyle, that’s been cleared up. It’s a really bad translation. This really should be Sichuan Spicy Flavor. As far as torpid goes, here’s the definition –

Here’s one I found at PriceSmart Foods up in Richmond, BC in July 2017. They had a ton of these and they sounded interesting. These are from Hong Kong – not a place I would think of when it comes to laksa. Here’s a little about laksa from Wikipedia –

First off, special thanks to a reader from Malaysia who helped with translation. This one just says ‘spicy rice noodle’ on the distributor label, but it seems to be a non-spicy variety and it mentions snail. I don’t know if it actually is but hey you never know.But I’m pretty sure this is the regular version and not the spicy I reviewed previously by the same company. Actually after getting some comment from a couple friends in Canada and Taiwan, indeed it is snail! Here’s a little from Wikipedia about this variety –

Here’s something the guys over at ExoticNoods.com sent over – thanks! Okay – guava noodles? I really enjoy guava juice, but never seen a guava noodle before. Better to tear into this pack and see what’s what.

So today it’s the fifth annual The Ramen Rater’s Bottom Ten Instant Noodles Of All Time. On my other lists, I exclude varieties that no longer are on the market. On this list, everything’s fair game for the bottom ten. As I say in the video presentation, if you like some of these, there’s nothing wrong with you – I just find these detestable personally. These are my least favorite varieties of the over 2400 varieties posted to date. Without gurther ado, the bottom ten.

Today we have a rice noodle variety. Pho is a noodle soup that hails originally from Vietnam – here’s a little about it from Wikipedia –

I reviewed this probably over 1000 reviews or more ago, but I noticed on this one it says it’s got a new formula. So bihun is rice vermicelli. But baso sapi – what’s that? Wikipedia, if you please:

Hey awesome! So I’ve been trying to get my hands on the full range of MyKuali rice vermicelli bowls for a while now. Indeed, they are only sold in Southeast Asia which can make it difficult. However, the kind folks at MyKuali sent me quite a few of their newer varieties and so I’ve got them all including a couple others! So today, it’s Penang Red Tom Yum goong. So, what does this mean? Wikipedia, if you please:

So here’s yet another variety from Nissin Foods Hong Kong. Indeed, they sent a massive amount of varieties for Meet The Manufacturer! This one’s a rice vermicelli for the health conscious. Here’s a little info about rice vermicelli from wikipedia:

Today we have a variety I found locally. Specifically,I got them at Asian Food Center on 130th & Aurora in Seattle. In any event, this store is actually kind of new and pretty awesome. What’s more, we got to see a shoplifter try to escape a security guard and slink out of her coat and backpack to make a getaway! Exciting, yes – but stupid. I don’t understand why people go and do this. Understandably, many people are poor, but this kind of action will result in more problems. In fact, stealing drives up prices for everyone. Hence, let’s crack open this Liu Quan bowl and see it’s innards!