So after years of reviewing instant ramen noodles, here it is. Finally. Hold onto your coiffure taming device: oriental flavor. I have always considered this to be the most boring of all flavors as it really isn’t that adventurous. We’ll see if it stays in that realm of blandness as I review the latest instant noodles for ramenrater.com.
Hmm – sideways… No matter; this isn’t rocket science here. A very standard well-known cake of ramen and its nefarious counterpart, the standard oriental flavor packet. I have seen these packets residing in drawers of many kitchens waiting for a future usage that never comes. I suspect this is generally due to usage of the ramen cake in some different application. One could make bastardized spaghetti or a bizarre form of macaroni and cheese with. Here it will be used for its intended purpose. Packet is brimming with soup base.
Enough water was added to make the cake float and the soup base was put atop. After boiling, noodles and base were stirred and cooked about three or four minutes.
A steaming bowl of instant ramen noodles of the oriental persuasion (click image to enlarge). As usual, I am eating these noodles right now to provide the most instantaneous of thoughts upon their worth and quality.
At first try, I found them to be salty and uninteresting; then a little more eating and I found a slight appeal. The noodles came out a slight bit firmer and actually seemed slightly more plentiful than other ramen varieties. The broth was a different story. It was a bit greasy and had a bit of consistency to it. I can see the tiny pearls of oil floating around the top like glistening gems of invitation. The broth tasted very salty and had a soy like taste to it with a hint of mushroom.
My final ramenrater.com rating is two and a half out of five stars. I am left wanting more – much more. Some dehydrated ginger or lemon grass would be nice, perhaps some dehydrated vegetables of any type. This, however, is a lot to ask of this variety of ramen. What we call Top Ramen in the states is mirrored in Japan as Nissin Demae Ramen. That stuff is quite good with more exotic flavors such as curry, however they as well only feature a ramen cake and a flavor packet. All in all, a bowl of noodles that ranks exactly average to me. Nothing nasty but nothing to write home about. This is truly the baseline. Get it here. UPC bar code 070662010013.
