
Found this at the Target in Lynnwood, WA by the Alderwood Mall. I tried the cup version a few days ago and was rather disappointed. I’m hoping this is more pleasing. Let’s cook it up.
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Found this at the Target in Lynnwood, WA by the Alderwood Mall. I tried the cup version a few days ago and was rather disappointed. I’m hoping this is more pleasing. Let’s cook it up.

The video for this one came out of Christmas Day, 2025 – you can see it at the bottom. I think there’s probably a lot of you that don’t know about my show Instant Noodle Recipe Time – it’s on pretty much every single day at 9am Pacific Time (Vancouver/Los Angeles). I’ve been doing the show for years and I think a lot of YouTube don’t know about me on www.theramenrater.com. Didn’t know I’d find this one over at HMart. I tried the pack version recently… Let’s try the bowl!

I’m very excited about this one – so first off, it is looking like you can only get it from Albertson’s chain store like Safeway, Von’s, Jewel Osco, etc. Second, my son Miles spotted it in our local Safeway. He’s been really keen on doing mukbang lately and trying these variants. What’s a surprise is that he’s autistic and always been very particular about what he eats – never eating hot food, nothing squishy and chewy… That all changed – he’s actually eating this stuff – he even voiced interest in Cheetos mac and cheese. While not the most healthy stuff out there, he’s exploring new foods and that’s a big deal. Anyways, this is new and so I’m rushing it out. It should be noted that birria is primarily beef, goat, or sheep meat and the idea of chicken birria tends to be pretty unheard of in research I’ve done. Let’s go! There will be a cooking video below as well as a mukbang with Miles.

Found this at 99 Ranch Market and really stoked. I am not a huge fan of the flavor of the ol’ Volcano Curry, and expecting great things from this one. Let’s give it a try!

Another from James from Lakeside, California – thanks! This is a four pack and one in pretty good condition. I have a feeling this is gonna be spicy! Let’s find out.

Here’s another form factor of the Jin range – cups. I’ve reviewed the mild as well. Let hit the spicy!

Note – I prepared this incorrectly, however in an upcoming review it is prepared correctly.

Ah its a day for beef. I went to the grocery store to get some. I got my second shingles vax yesterday and today feel like death warmed over. Anyways, I tell the guy at the meat counter I need 1oz of their cheapest ground beef. He tried to give me 0.4lbs which is way too much, then a much smaller amount that was perfect, but when he tried to weigh it it wouldn’t register so he said it was on the house. So shout out to butcher at our local Safeway. But yeah I feel worse than crummy. Let’s see if I can cook a Cup Noodles this morning…

I tried another one of these recently – found at S*Mart in Bellevue, Washington. Anyways, they’re thick things. Red oil? Sounds ominous – let’s do it.

I’ve had golden pea variants and they’ve been good – but mashed pea? Maybe this is liked the mashed potato one I reviewed recently. Let’s give it a try!

Okay, so I don’t live under a rock so I know about these things. In fact, I saw an advert for this awhile back and thought ‘oh – the kids might like this.’ So, I let them check it out and I watched a bit of the movie. I hated it. More than I hate slicing a bagel incorrectly. Well, maybe not that much, but I’m really annoyed by this film. I know that a lot of people really like it and that’s fine. However, I do not. It’s K-Pop’s version of Frozen. I went through that Frozen crap when the kids were really little, so another take on it really isn’t something I can embrace. Plus, the animation is awful. The music is catchy, but not the catchy K-Pop I really like; this is so… Commercial. But I do enjoy a tie-in product and this one’s pretty cool. I should mention that the Korean local version of this (yes, this is made in the United States in a great factory in Rancho Cucamonga, California) came with stickers, and I did hear chatter that people over there were buying tons of Shin, taking out the stickers, then selling sets of those stickers on eBay or their equivalent.

Well, here it is – the spiciest one as well as the one I’m most curious about – tonkotsu. I’m hoping for a rich, creamy and savory base with a ruthless beatdown of heat. Let’s give it a whirl.

Frank over at 5am Ramen sent me this in a box of varieties – thanks! He’s got some really premium stuff like this for sale – and he does guides and tours over in Japan as well! This a spicy dandan variety, so should be thick stuff! Let’s give it a try.

This is the third review of the day and this is a fingers crossed situation of saving the best for last. I love rapokki – ramyun is paired with tteokbokki with a sweet and spicy sauce. This can go awry though, especially if the cooking instructions are iffy. I’m hoping we’re gonna make something rad. Let’s start.

This is another new packaging variety from Prima Taste of Singapore. Different package and size – possibly different flavorings? Let’s find out.

Here’s a variety that I found in one of MiauMall’s Nakama Noodles subscription boxes! These are discontinued, however you can find their stuff at MiauMall – here is what they said about this one – “Let’s start the season of love with this sweet and spicy ramen! This collab with Mode Gakuen features a tasty yukgaejang-style broth with a beef base and plenty of red chili and garlic. And with the honey butter oil, this cup is lovely from start to finish”

Here’s a variety that I found in one of MiauMall’s Nakama Noodles subscription boxes! These are discontinued, however you can find their stuff at MiauMall – here is what they said about this one – “We had to end our list with more Pokémon fun! This tasty ramen pack features ramen noodle in a spicy soup with a spicy miso-based soup. This soup has great spice with chili paste and chili powder and tons of umami with hints of beef and gochujang in the broth!”

Big thanks to Pher Engi for sending this along! These are really neat varieties and they come with braised egg or braised quail egg! Let’s see what is in there!

You may have seen this before – on my top ten global noodles list. It’s incredibly good and the folks at A-Sha sent me the new packaged version. Read the review and I’ll go over changes if any to the product. Hope they haven’t as it was great.

A busy week so only got a couple done. Found this at Fred Meyer and though I ought to review it, so here I am. This will mean I’ve tried the pack, the tray, and the bowl. Okay let’s hit it.

Here’s another cup from the big advent calendar box! I was tepid on reviewing these as I did awhile back, but the chicken one I did the other day was excellent, so I’m wondering if they’ve redone these. I’m excited to try this one – so let us begin.

We were at HMart and saw these – couldn’t resist. Who could resist a nice plate of tteokbokki in between watching people get slaughtered while playing children’s games? I’m hopeful on this one; I really like tteokbokki. I should also mention – this is my 2,500th episode of Instant Noodle recipe Time – it’s down at the bottom. I forgot about that, so episode 2,501 will have a little more about that. Let’s give it a try.

Thanks again to Noodle Journey for sending these! This Toowoomba version I reviewed recently from this range really reminded me of their Tangle versions here in the US as far as the noodle is concerned. Let’s give this a try!

This little square tray caught my attention at a local grocery store recently. I though it looked interesting, so we shall see. I must say the microwaved noodle usually is quite good in Nongshim stuff.

This one came by way of Noodle Journey – thanks! Yes, this is made in South Korea, but everything on here points to being an export variety for the Indonesian market. Very curious… Let’s give it a go, and don’t forget to check out the mukbang below!

Big thanks to Noodle Journey for this one! This is a new variety and it’s all in Korean. What might confuse people here is that they may have thought this would be the flavor of it the whole time. This is not. The flavor of Buldak is the flavor of the sauce that goes on Korean Fried Chicken. Original Buldak doesn’t taste like chicken. I have fought with people over this misconception. ‘But there’s chicken seasoning in it!’ Yes, perhaps in some, however in another Korean variety – a beef flavor, there’s pollock (fish) and no beef. Is it fish flavor? In Pumpkin Spice cup noodle, there’s garlic. Is it garlic flavored? No. These different ingredients are part of the arsenal of food scientist ingredients used to approximate different flavors. Anyways, let’s give this a try!

Time for something prawny! It’s prawn o’clock! Prawn o’yeah! Let’s prawn it up!

When I got the big Nissin Deutschland Advent Calendar, I figured I’d reviewed most things, but that was not the case to my chagrin. Lots of Demae Ramen in there with new packaging as well as new flavors! Let’s do spicy first!

This is a huge unboxing! Big thanks to A-Sha for sending these along! There’s a whole lot to unpack – let’s check ’em out!!

Here’s a variety that I found in one of MiauMall’s Nakama Noodles subscription boxes! These boxes are discontinued, however you can find their stuff at MiauMall – here is what they said about this one – “We’re keeping it hot with this next choice! Nissin created a tasty cup of spicy ramen with plenty of hot chili. But don’t worry—it’s not just spicy! It combines shoyu with miso, garlic and kimchi vinegar to create a flavor profile with tons of depth for an addictive taste!”

A couple of years ago, I found out about Lao Gan Ma Spicy Chili Crisp. A crunch, oil, and a little spiciness. I dubbed it ‘Love Sludge’ – it was so good that I evangelized it to all my friends. Since then, the enamor has most certainly worn off. I don’t know if they changed the recipe, but the last couple of times I’ve gotten some, it’s ended up in the bin, not completely used. Well, I thought a list of alternatives to Lao Gan Ma that are out there that not everyone’s heard of (nor I myself) would be neat. So, I started sending a few emails, asking for samples, and here’s The Ramen Rater’s Chili Crisp Roundup & Buyer’s Guide. I figure 14 varieties is more than enough to show a landscape of flavor and textures that are out in the wild – and I’m sure there are many more. With holidays coming up, if you’ve got a ramen junkie or chilehead to get something for, there’s a lot of different things here that will work that they might not have tried. These are in order of when I received/bought them. Each one has a link to where you can get them. If I end up with more, I will be happy to add them at the bottom. With that, let’s get oily!

Well, this is the last of all the big trays I have currently, and this gets drained off. A massive jjahangmyeon! Spicy jjajangmyeon isn’t usually my cup of tea, but we shall see. Let’s cook up a monster.

This is the second of three and yup – will be a mukbang. I think I’m in the mood for a mukbang today – last night was Halloween and it rained – poured – and so something hot sounds good. Still raining today. Let’s give it a go.

Here’s a new one from Myojo – sounds good and definitely in the mood – let’s give it a try!

My last review was a Japanese cold noodle, and now we have a Korean style cold noodle from the United States. The sweet spicy gochujang sounds kind of like bibimmyeon. Let’s give it a try – it’s summer right now as I type this, by the way.

A big thanks to Daniel over at www.exoticnoods.com for sending this one! I’ve been wanting to try it and mukbang it up for a while now (mukbang vid at bottom of the page), and here it is. I love tom yum. I’m curious though as the Buldak base has the heat, but it also imparts some sweetness as well. Interesting. I guess the correct route is to give it a try.

Here’s a variety that I found in one of MiauMall’s Nakama Noodles subscription boxes! Inside, they have 8-10 different varieties from Japan! If you’d like to get one, don’t forget to use the coupon code THERAMENRATER for a discount! Let’s see what they had to say about this one – “Nissin Donbei is back in spicy form! This tasty bowl of udon with fried tofu combines pork, shoyu (soy sauce), katsuo dashi and plenty of spice for a red hot soup. We hope this bowl feels like a whole fireworks show going on in your mouth in the tastiest way possible!’

Here’s a variety that I found in one of MiauMall’s Nakama Noodles subscription boxes! Inside, they have 8-10 different varieties from Japan! If you’d like to get one, don’t forget to use the coupon code THERAMENRATER for a discount! Let’s see what they had to say about this one – “Here’s another selection that will set your mouth aflame in a great way! This ramen features a tasty miso base with the addition of beef and gochujang to create a soup that is nutty, full of umami and deliciously spicy!”

This one came out of a Zenpop box a while back. I didn’t get any explanation of what we have here, but the research I did via bar code came up with the title. Sounds good to me – let’s check it out!

Here’s one found at S*Mart a couple of months ago. It looks like the fellow on the cup is Tan Xiao Ai, maybe a drama actor, or a professional go player, but I’m guessing the former. Lots of sachets in this one – let’s get to it.