Here’s one sent from Japan by Ichiro Yamoto of Yakantei! Thank you! This one was a little tricky to translate – I want to thank Courtnay N. of Canada and Mari S. of Tennessee! Tan tan men is more widely known as dandanmian. It heralds from China and is named after a pole street vendors would use to carry their wares. It’s usually a spicy broth with oil and minced pork affair. After some research, I figured out who the woman on the lid is. She’s part of AKB48 – here’s what Wikipedia says about them:
AKB48 (read “A.K.B. Forty-eight”, pronounced as eː keː biː ɸɔːti eɪto) is a Japanese idolgirl group. As of September 2013, the group has 88 members.[2] The girls range in age from early teens to mid-20s.[3][4] Produced by Yasushi Akimoto, it is one of the highest-earning musical acts in the world, with 2012 record sales of over US$226 million in Japan.[5] It has achieved such popularity in Japan[6] that it has been characterized as a social phenomenon.[7]
An 88 member Japanese idol group. Whoa. Alright let’s check it out!
Here are the side panels (click to enlarge). One of the panels was so wide it just wasn’t in the cards to do up nicely – sorry about that.
The noodle block.
The powder soup sachet.
Has a curry like scent.
Liquid soup base sachet.
Look at that color!
The solid ingredient sachet.
An interesting melange of things…
Not sure what’s in this sachet.
Chili powder.
Finished (click image to enlarge). Added green onions and minced pork. The noodles are broad and flat. They have a very nice chew to them and are of a premium type. The broth is very rich and oily. It has a strong spiciness and is almost thick – but not in a bad way. A rich pork flavor abounds. The veggies and other bits hydrated quite nicely. This is very good – 5.0 out of 5.0 stars. UPC bar code 4901071234881.
[AMAZONPRODUCTS asin=”B00D9I7JBI”]Here’s an AKB48 album – many more available too..[/AMAZONPRODUCTS]
Here’s an AKB48 music video.
