This one came from Greg B. of Marathon, Florida – thanks, Greg! What the heck is Moo Nam Tok supposed to taste like? From Wikipedia:
In Central Thailand, nam tok is mainly a spicy soup stock enriched with raw cow blood or pig’s blood. Blood is often used in Thailand to enrich regular noodle dishes. One of the most popular variants of the nam tok noodle soup is known as kuai-tiao mu nam tok. It includes broth, blood, noodles, bean sprouts, pieces of liver, pork, dumplings, green vegetables and spices. This type of soup has an intense, rich and pleasant taste and is often served by streetside vendors in small food stalls.
So its a pork soup. Wait – pig’s blood? Well, here we go!
Click image to enlarge. I’m not seeing any pig’s blood. Moving on…
Here’s everything on the back – without the export sticker (click image to enlarge).
Oil on the left and powder on the right.
Everything waiting for the boiling water.
Click image to enlarge. Ok so here we are – I added a fried egg with some garlic salt. I’ve never been a great fan of this kind of noodle, but in this dish it works. They aren’t very clumpy and not too chewy at all. The broth is slightly sweet and has a hint of spiciness. Interesting stuff. 3.25 out of 5.0 stars. UPC barcode 8851876000005.
Am I wrong? No pork blood?
Oh okay check out the color of that stuff – was just like the broth. I wonder if this pack of noodles really tastes of pork blood.
There are two dishes in Thai cuisine called nam tok. One is the blood thickened soup you reference. The other, which I believe the Mama ramen noodles are referring to, is a grilled meat dish (Moo being Thai for Pig, making the soup grilled pork soup). While both dishes are common in Thailand, only one of them is so popular it’s featured on McDonalds menu (and its not the soup with pigs blood).
Really? REALLY?? Aw man I was really hping for pig blood ramen…
– TRR
Sorry to disappoint.
The grilled version is quite tasty. In Thai restaurants in the US it’s usually listed as “Beef Salad” if you want to give it a try. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the pork version at a US Thai restaurant though. Careful though. It can be quite fiery.
Mama is the most famous instant noodle brand in Thailand. Over there the word Mama is equivalent to instant noodle.
After I came back to Malaysia, I tried the Mama available here and it seems like the spiciness has been reduced to fit Malaysian tongues. Like what you said, only “a tinge of spiciness.” The original Mama is much much spicy! 🙂
The other ones I’ve had have been quite spicy though – with chili powder packets. This was kind of a surprise.
– TRR