Tag: the

The Ramen Rater Humbly Asks For Your Help

UPDATE – I want to thank everyone who donated – you really helped us out a great deal and made it possible to get through this difficult time! At this point, our heads are pretty much above water, so as far as a pressing need for donations, we’re good. I would say though that if you appreciate what I do and want to say thanks, that’s always truly appreciated, so I’m going to leave this up as an option. Thank you!

I’ve been reviewing instant noodles since 2002, doing episodes of Instant Noodle Recipe Time, The Chocolate Break with my wife, Professional Mukbang, Unboxing Time With The Ramen Rater and more. Right now, we’re in a pretty crummy financial situation and hoping that some of the fans will be able to help out. I really loathe asking like this. I’ve set up a GoFundMe. It really is strange – you hear about statistics like ‘this percentage are one paycheck away from financial ruin.’ I love going to the thrift store and finding some trinket on the cheap. Right now, that’s a luxury I can’t even fathom, really. What’s crummy too is the time of the year that this is happening. Holidays plus my daughter’s birthday is a week before Christmas. Ugh. Here’s the link if you can help out. ...see full post

Meet The Manufacturer: #3039: Fantastic Noodles Spicy Dolar – Taiwan

Meet The Manufacturer: #3039: Fantastic Noodles Spicy Dolar - Taiwan

The first of two varieties for this Fantastic Noodles Meet The Manufacturer series. From what I gather, Spicy Dolar sounds like a Sichuan pepper infused variety with some extras going on. Let’s find out! ...see full post

New Labeling & New Products from Mom’s Dry Noodle – Unboxing Time

New Labeling & New Products from Mom's Dry Noodle - Unboxing Time

Was really looking forward to this one – product samples from Mom’s Dry Noodle. A couple new ones in here – a meat one from Xiao Ban Mian and a new flavor from the Mom’s Dry Noodle line! Let’s get to it and take a look! ...see full post

Unboxing Time: Favorites From CarJEN Foods Of Malaysia!

Unboxing Time: Favorites From CarJEN Foods Of Malaysia!

Usually when there’s a big list coming up, I’ll ask companies to send samples along for re-review. Well, here are a couple from CarJEN Foods of Malaysia! Both of these have graced Top Ten Lists, both past and present. Let’s get to it! ...see full post

Unboxing Time: Simply Shredz Pork

Unboxing Time: Simply Shredz Pork

Was contacted recently about a new product called Simply Shredz. Basically, it’s marinated and shredded pork that you can put on just about everything! Well, probably not breakfast cereal… But your could put it on congee! Anyways, let’s open it up and give it a little test run! ...see full post

New Samples from Choumama of Taiwan

A coompany called Choumama recently reached out to me and asked if I’d try their product. Here’s the box today! ...see full post

Birthday Trip: Instant Noodle Hunting In Canada

Approaching the Canadian border!

A weirdly shaped building; probably full of video cameras pointed at people crossing the border. ...see full post

Re-Review: Maruchan Creamy Chicken Flavor Ramen Noodle Soup

Found these at Walmart yesterday – or wait that was today… We decided to go shopping at 1am – figured we’d beat the crowds… Well, we did beat the crowds but they were restocking – pretty amazing all the pallets they load there at night! Wow… Anyways, creamy chicken sounded good. Here’s the original review and I’ll do a really in-depth re-review soon! ...see full post

The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Weirdest, Funniest, Grossest Instant Noodle Anomalies

Here’s a list of odd instant noodle-isms.

1. Batchelor’s Super Noodles: Bacon Flavour

We have the British to thank for these bacon instant noodles. Pair ’em with eggs and toast and t’s actually pretty great stuff. But, you should know, the rest of the day your burps will taste like bacon. This one was sent to me by a Ramen Rater fan in England who also included about two dozen other fascinating packs with flavors such as Curry, Sweet & Sour, and Southern Fried Chicken. ...see full post

#725: Meet The Manufacturer: Indomie Mi Goreng Instant Cup Noodles

Hey look at this! This came from Michael C. at Eastland Foods a little while back – thanks! What we have here is one of the products that should be available here in the states soon (according to my Indomie interview). It’s exactly what it looks like – Mi Goreng in a cup! Read the interview I did with Indomie here! ...see full post

The Ramen Rater Noodle News #10

Here’s the tenth installment of The Ramen Rater Noodle News! I look around the Internet and bring all sorts of interesting stories and articles about instant ramen noodles here! Enjoy! ...see full post

The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten List: Exclusively On Foodiggity!

So I did a guest post on Foodiggity! Decided I’d give em’ the exclusive and so The new Top Ten Instant Noodles In The World (according to me) is on their site right now! Don’t worry – it’ll be up here on Saturday, but for now, check it out on Foodiggityhere‘s the link! ...see full post

#547: Lucky Me! Instant Pancit Canton (Chow Mein) Sweet & Spicy Flavor

Hey! Haven’t tried this yet! Pancit Canton is a lot like Indomie’s Mi Goreng – that’s one of my favorites! ...see full post

#546: Yum Yum Oriental Style Instant Noodles Vegetable Flavour

Vegetable flavor huh? Vegetables are supposedly something that makes one healthy. I don’t think they’re present in much of a relevant amount here, but let’s see what we’ve got. ...see full post

#545: Golden Wheat Korean Style Spicy Beef Cooking Noodle

Here’s another one from Nathan up in Vancouver. First off, this one’s BIG. it calls for 700mL of water and to be cooked for 5-6 minutes! Aside from this stuff, there are some oddities I noticed that were kind of interesting. ...see full post

#544: Unox Good Noodles Kip ( Chicken )

Here’s another Dutch noodle from Michael V.N. in Holland! He informed me that kip means chicken – it’s kind of funny as almost every other noodle package that is chicken flavored usually has some kind of image of a chicken on it – this one’s covert! ...see full post

#543: Menraku Japanese Curry “Udon”

One of my favorite things in all the world of cuisine is curry. Hot curry, curry soup, curry beef, curry chicken, curry vindaloo, curry powder, curry paste, green curry, yellow curry, masaman curry, Indian curry and Japanese curry. This sounded good and I’m starving. ...see full post

#542: Wingsfood Mi Sedaap Mi Sup Perisa Ayam Istimewa (Artificial Chicken Special Flavor)

Hey this looks shmancy! Nothing better than an interesting new pack of noodles from Indonesia.

...see full post

From Rolls to Bowls: Genji Sushi Launches Freshly Prepared All-Natural Ramen Noodle Soup at Whole Foods Market

So I found out about this today and thought it sounds rather interesting. I’m hoping I might be able to do an actual review of these soon as they sound quite good! Here’s a press release about it: ...see full post

#541: Yum Yum Oriental Style Instant Noodles Chicken Flavour

Here’s another of the Yum Yum’s that were sent from Holland! Chicken flavor eh? I like chicken as well as chickens! ...see full post

#532: Doll Instant Noodle Spicy Tonkotsu Flavour

Thanks to Nathan R. of Vancouver, Canada, I have this wonderful package of noodles that I will be devouring shortly. Was sure I’d had every variety of the Doll line but apparently I haven’t – I think maybe this one just isn’t distributed in the USA. ...see full post

#531: Yum Yum Oriental Style Instant Noodles Beef Flavour

Here’s some more from Michael V.N. of Holland! Thanks again! This one’s called Yum Yum – had my son choose whether I should have the chicken or the beef and he told me I should have the beef today and the chicken tomorrow. Sounds like a plan! ...see full post

#530: Namchow Mee-Jang Artificial Shrimp Tom Yum Flavor Instant Noodles

This was a neat find at a local market I don’t go to very often. There’s a long aisle of instant noodles and I noticed a single instant noodle cup that didn’t seem to have any place where it would go. So I went around to the other side of the aisle and was hoping there’d be more. Well, there wasn’t a continuation of instant noodle aisle, but I did find this one in a weird spot, again with no correlating spot on the main aisle. With that, once again I bring you what you want. ...see full post

#529: Sapporo Ichiban Japanese Style Noodles Hot & Spicy Chicken Flavored Soup

A new find today at a big Korean supermarket nearby. Been a while since I’ve reviewed anything by Sapporo Ichiban. What’s interesting too is that the packaging proclaims that it’s new! Also on the back it says it’s three servings! Boy, this economy sure is hitting everyone hard! Now instant noodle rationing! ...see full post

#528: Unox Good Noodles Groente (Vegetable)

Check it out! Thanks to Ramen Rater blog follower Michael V.N.’s donation package, we have the first ever noodles to review from Holland! Not only a new country but a new brand – Unox. The package has directions on the back to either make just noodles or noodle soup – I decided for the noodle soup. ...see full post

#527: Little Cook Instant Noodles Wheat Gluten Stewed Duck Flavored

Wow – what an inviting variety! Wheat gluten stewed duck flavored!

So this is a big bowl of the Little Cook stuff – Namchow makes it. These are always interesting. ...see full post

#526: Annie Chun’s All Natural Asian Cuisine Ramen House Soy Ginger Ramen

Well here we go with some domesticated ramen. This is a fresh pack by a supermarket available brand. ...see full post

#525: JML Instant Noodle Artificial Spicy Hot Beef Flavour

Here’s the last of the JML brand noodles from Greg B. of Florida. Looks like it will be hot and spicy! ...see full post

#524: Nissin Cup Noodles Spicy Seafood Flavor Instant Ramen Noodles ( Hong Kong )

Whilst digging through my bin of packages of instant noodles for a particular one I was sent to review tomorrow, I realized I wasn’t hungry for a big pack tonight so went for the cup noodle you see here. Spicy seafood sounds relaxing. ...see full post

#523: Dragonfly Artificial Hot & Sour Shrimp Flavor Instant Noodles

Hate to say it but this is the last of the Dragonfly brand bowls I found at H-Mart… Bummer! I guess there’s a pork flavor out there in this line so hopefully I’ll end up scoring that one next time I go to H-Mart. Hot & sour shrimp… Sounds like Tom Yum flavor… I guess we’ll see… ...see full post

#522: Samyang Hot Beef Flavor Ramen

Was very happy to see this one at the store today! I really like Samyang stuff. I liked their regular bowl, cup, big bowl, pack, beef flavor… It’s good, spicy and straightforward Korean noodles. ...see full post

#521: Menraku Japanese Ramen “Soy Sauce” Authentic Ramen Soup

Here’s another Menraku coming atcha. Been weird the last two days; gotten over 10,000 visits to the blog from people using StumbleUpon and ending up on the ‘Recipes’ page… Pretty cool! Anyways, this looks like an interesting bowl of noodles and should be tasty. Let’s dig in. ...see full post

#520: Nan Hsing Vegetarian Rice Noodles

This one seems a little unique. I never have seen something like a swastika on a bowl of noodles before – its somewhat foreboding to be honest! Taiwanese noodles with swastikas…  Well, I figured I’d better look this up and got this nice piece of information from Wikipedia: ...see full post

#519: Snapdragon Pan-Asian Cuisine Beijing Vegetable Rice Noodle Soup

Sheesh – almost 20% through the 500’s – didn’t expect that to happen so quickly! So here we have the Snapdragon cup, Beijing Vegetable. I got it locally but if you want to try it you can get it here. These have been pretty good so far – let’s see how the veggies do… ...see full post

#518: Dragonfly Artificial Chicken Flavor Instant Noodles

This is a big bowl of noodles from China. So far, I’ve tried Dragonfly’s Onion, Seafood and Beef flavors. I’m really happy with how nice those have been and eager to try this one! ...see full post

#517: Thai Kitchen Thai Ginger Instant Rice Noodle Soup

So I let my wife pick between two packs of noodles and she picked this as the one I should eat today! Thai Ginger sounds really good to me – I like Thai flavors and I like ginger a lot. Let’s see how this tastes! ...see full post

#516: Wang Champong Spicy Seafood Noodles

Here’s a new one – Wang brand. It’s a fresh noodle big bowl from Korea.

As you can see, big and from Korea. ...see full post

#515: Tradition Instant Noodle Soup Imitation Beef Flavor

Here’s some more kosher aisle ramen. This stuff was previously purchased but never reviewed. Why? ...see full post

#514: Shirakiku Sanukiya Fresh Spicy Ramen Japanese Style Fresh Noodle

Haven’t had a fresh noodle bowl in a while. This one comes from Shirakiku and claims to be a hot one. It definitely looks nice on the packaging. I’m still under the weather so the spicy stuff helps with the sinuses! ...see full post

#513: Dragonfly Artificial Onion Flavor Instant Noodles

I was kind of tripped out by this bowl of noodles: artificial onion? Why would they need to go the artificial route on this one?  Well, why don’t I look at the ingredients. Oh look! Onion powder and onion oil. I’m confused… Anyways, here we go… ...see full post