Today, Kit & I walked to 99 Ranch Market together which was a lot of fun. I wanted to pick an interesting instant noodle to review, so I went with this one – Sapporo Ichiban Kitsune Udon.
Okay so soup base sure but what the heck is that weird looking rectangular thing? Fried bean curd (tofu)! Weird looking isn’t it?
Here’s the soup base – there’s lot of it too.
Okay so here we go. First off, udon is a reference to the type of noodles here. Udon is a heavier gauge noodle. These were chewier, thicker and flat. The fried tofu came out nicely; much like meat. I like this stuff – it has some character to it to be sure – not your every day stuff. I give it a 3.25 out of 5 stars. It’s not the best stuff ever; it is very salty and doesn’t seem to have enough noodles to deal with the 2.5 cups of liquid.I really did enjoy the tofu though and the noodles themselves tasted great. Find it here.
Sad news, after searching high and low, a call to the Sanyo Foods in Garden Grove, CA. confirmed that they’ve discontinued Kitsune Udon. 🙁
I have one mwahahaha!
whyyyyyy whyyyyyy!!!!!? D:
this makes me so sad ;__;
No worries – try the Maruchan kitsune udon bowl – works in a pinch!
This is a great noodle soup. The first time I tried it was over 15 years ago, in NYC. Now, I moved to Europe and I miss it – can’t find it here.
As a word of advice – 2,5 cups of water is a bit too much, usually just 2 cups would suffice and the taste is quite intensive then.
Don’t cook the curd, just drop it when you take it off the range.
That curd is the “icing on the cake”, no one else does it this way.
Actually, Maruchan makes a bowl that has the akai kitsune in it too!
]- The Ramen Rater
Dude i find myself buying lots of this ramen so i could get that slice! I have also been trying to find these slices both online and in my Asian market but with no luck, any suggestions?
Hmmm well upon searching, I think its just a piece of dried fried bean curd. So here’s some possibilities…
http://www.edenfoods.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=109995
http://www.mitoku.com/products/driedtofu/index.html
http://www.justhungry.com/handbook/just-hungry-reference-handbooks/kouya-dofu-or-kohya-dofu-freeze-dried-tofu
Yup – freeze dried tofu. The second link says it rehydrates and sucks up seasonings from a broth quite well. I think the ones we get in the Sapporo Ichiban are preseasoned and then freeze dried though and that’s the clincher… Hmm…
This is currently on my top 5 list, idk why but i am addicted to this one!
In the lazt dozen or so reviews I’ve done, I did a maruchan bowl noodle that was much like this but even better with a bigger slice of happiness.
thanks for doing these reviews! I like this udon too. the one with the kitsune. i ate it all the time in Japan. my son and i wish that your site could list the top rated ramens all in one place. this would be really convenient. maybe you do list them some where but we didnt see. if you could tell us your top favorites, we’d appreciate it. thanks again.
Hey thanks for your comments! I will be doing some kind of upgrade to the site soon – when I reach 100 instant noodle types rated. I think I could add some form of this – like having an additional category or stars. That little drop down will let you search for report by star rating. Shouldn’t be too hard to implement. Also thinking of adding a little bit of history and links to the instant noodle corporate sites and weights and meaurement pages soon. Again, thanks for your comments! Right now I’m trying to get people following on facebook and getting the word out. Its a lot more fun for me to get nice comments and seeing people checking out the site!
Again, thank you!
Hans Lienesch
The Ramen Rater
Go to categories drop down on the right side. I think you’ll like what you see…