
It’s been a heck of a long time since I had one of these – over three years! Shin Ramyun is Nongshim’s most well known product – let’s see how it goes now, after trying over 600 varieties since I last tried it!
Over 5,000 Instant Ramen Noodle Reviews Since 2002

It’s been a heck of a long time since I had one of these – over three years! Shin Ramyun is Nongshim’s most well known product – let’s see how it goes now, after trying over 600 varieties since I last tried it!

I figured for Meet The Manufacturer Week: Nongshim, I would start with a Bowl Noodles I saw get made while I was at their plant! They were cranking them out en masse! I’ve reviewed the old packaging / version in the past and these new ones are very different. They’re made to be cooked in the microwave, so that’s how I’ll cook them.
Here we go with another Meet The Manufacturer week! This one’s a little different of course since my wife and I actually took a trip and met the people who are Nongshim America! It was an amazing and fun visit – so without further adieu, here’s what happened. By the way, if you click on the images they get much bigger.

We were at 99 Ranch Market yesterday and I noticed that Sapporo Ichiban Chow Mein has a new packaging. Wondering if it’s got a different flavor as well.

Okay I know – I don’t usually review restaurant food but I thought I would this time. After our trip to Nongshim and learning about Korean food and culture, we were curious about this local restaurant. I looked through the menu and decided I should give their noodles a try! I found Naengmyeon combo and thought that might be good. I had no idea what it would be about, except that noodles were involved and that it was ‘good in the Summer.’ Here’s what Wikipedia says about Naengmyeon:

Been busy lately so decided it’s time to do this one up! If you’re new to The Ramen Rater’s Show Your Noodles, every week you can email me a picture of some noodles you’ve made. include your name and location and I’ll post it on the weekly roundup! Fancy or functional, it doesn’t matter. I mean, you could do literally anything you want with some instant noodles – use your imagination! Want to be part of next week’s Show Your Noodles? Just email me at hans@theramenrater.com. Let me know you first name, last initial, and city/state or country!

Here’s the last of the Spoon it’s that I received from the folks at Nissin Foods, USA. Sounded like something good for lunch. Anyways, let’s get to it!

Welcome to the 12th installment of The Ramen Rater Noodle News!
Here’s a slew of stories I found online in the past week or two – enjoy!

Here’s another one of the big JML bowls sent by Michelle L. of Tarrytown, New York. Mushroom chicken eh? Alright, let’s give this a try.

The nice folks at Nongshim were kind enough to send some samples of this new beef variety recently. Haven’t tried any of them since they’ve gone with the new outer packaging! Let’s give it a try!

Last evening, my wife and I both started really getting attacked by an insidious enemy. One that doesn’t show itself but just occurs without warning. Allergies. Eyes, nose throat; everything just seemed to be very busy making us miserable. At this point, I would usually turn to an old standby my mother used to make for me when my face’s innards went awry like this – Mrs. Grass Chicken Soup Mix. Wonderful stuff – it has a little rubbery golden egg shaped thing called (I’m totally not kidding about this) ‘The Golden Flavor Nugget.’ Lots and lots of noodles and chickenny goodness. Well, we don’t have any, so I thought I’d go ahead and hit up this one. Creamy chicken flavor is one of my favorites – and Nissin doesn’t make creamy chicken Top Ramen anymore so I wonder how this stuff is. So off we go intgo noodle land!

Here’s another Nissin – had to make something quick today – it’s my wife’s birthday! Happy birthday, Kitten!

Well folks, this is the last one I’ll be reviewing for Meet The Manufacturer: Nissin week. There will be more Nissin reviews coming of course so don’t worry. The ramen hamper runneth over with new varieties to try! So this is a very old one – old as in I reviewed it was back at number #85 – over 600 reviews ago. I think it’s due.

Here’s another of the new Spoon it line of noodle soups from Nissin! Beef stew sounds tasty…

Here’s a new flavor of chow mein to check out! Sounds pretty good – I like orange chicken.

Here’s a new one from Nissin – Spicy Chicken Big Cup Noodles. Let’s give it a try!

I’ve been waiting for everything to be all set up to post about this, but I have excellent news! Nong Shim America has invited my wife and I to come and tour their plant in Rancho Cucamonga, California! They’re going to fly us down for a weekend in late May where we will take a tour, sample their products and do an interview! This is about as cool as it gets! Want to say thanks to Nong Shim America for this wonderful opportunity for us to see a real instant noodle factory and to be able to bring it to everyone who enjoys the website! I’ll mention this again as time draws nearer. We’re very excited!

Today seemed like a good day to have some Kimchi noodle bowl action. Here we are and here we go!

It’s really funny; someone just emailed me asking if I had noticed that Nong Shim’s Bowl Noodle had changed since they repackaged – I haven’t tried it yet. One thing they also said was they couldn’t find the Hot & Spicy variety anywhere anymore. I picked up a few of these Nissin Ramen Bowls at H Mart the other day. 99 cents apiece and they’re very much like the size of the Nong Shim – and lo and behold, Hot & Spicy! Let’s see if it’s a good one.

Assorted seasfood eh? Trout and octopus? Sardine and shrimp? Crab and sea cucumber? Not sure but Let’s find out.

Mr. Udon, I presume? I was looking in the fridge yesterday putting groceries away. A couple sodas wouldn’t fit – something was blocking them. Two packs of Mr. Udon noodles that I got early lasrt year. Hmmm… I wondered if they were still good – May 2012 exclaimed the expiration date! So let’s give this stuff a try before it goes bad!

Such a classic – almost as American as it is Japanese! Actually, this packet was made in California. Just like rival Nissin, Maruchan has a huge southern California factory. Here’s a re-review of this standard that probably everyone has had once in their lifetime.

Here we go with review 600! Yep – this is why there were all the re-reviews last week! Thanks go to Mike M. of Staten Island, NY for pointing out that I’d reviewed the Roast Beef but not the regular beef flavor!

Been awhile since I’ve had a domestic Maruchan Yakisoba! This one was purchased on our drive back from our honeymoon this summer in mid-July. Got it and another one at a Chevron in northern Oregon of all places!

Here’s one of the new ones that Greg B. from Florida sent my way. Never heard of this brand – says its from Los Angeles but it took someone from the east coast to clue me in about it!

Thought this looked worth trying. Vegetables and noodles. Sure why not.

Here’s the flavoring packet if you want to call it that. It says Vegetables and Eggs though… I am truly unhappy – I didn’t take a picture of this and I’m really bummed and truly sorry. It looked like a brick of freeze-dried vegetable omelet. When I poured boiling water on it, it disintegrated and started fluffing up almost immediately.

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!

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…

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!

9/28/2024 – Update – Back on September 9th, 2011, I published this post – it was an early time in my reviewing – many things have changed since then; I used to use a phone to take pictures of products – I think it was a Blackberry Curve at the time. As I’m only a handful of reviews to #5000, it’s really weird to look at this compared to how I present reviews now. Anyways, there’s a video at the bottom I made at the time.

Got this one at Walmart. Was pretty sure I hadn’t tried it and was right so here goes.


So I noticed that the previous review of the Mushroom flavor was a rice noodle soup bowl as opposed to a rice noodle bowl. Interesting. Anyways, here’s another Thai Kitchen bowl.

Tried the Spring Onion last week and thought it was good so thought I ought to see if I can find more of these. Sure enough, found a couple at Safeway.