Woo-hoo! I’ve been looking for a couple varieties by Maruchan for a while and this is one of them. I want to thank Craig Y. and all the nice folks at Maruchan for getting this one in my hands! I’m sure someone out there is going to say ‘Hard to find? It’s at every store around me!’ One thing though is that not every product is marketed or distributed to every area. One example of this kind of thing is a soda called Cheerwine. It’s quite popular and easily found in the southern United States, but it’s relatively unknown on the west coast. Anyways, Jalapeno Cheddar noodles sounds pretty neat! Let’s have a look at this one.
Here’s the detail from the cardboard outer (click image to enlarge). Contains chicken. To prepare, add boiling water to inside fill line. Cover and let sit for 3 minutes. Stir and enjoy!
The noodle cup, sans cardboard outer.
Detail of the lid (click image to enlarge).
The noodle block. All seasonings are infused into the block.
Finished (click image to enlarge). Added bell peppers and beef sauteed in a little Worcestershire and some sliced green onion. The noodles are broad and flat – which lent well to the flavor I think. The noodles are just chewy and crumbly enough – definitely in the comfort food range of texture. The broth is of a creamy jalapeno cheese flavor. After 3 minutes of steeping, the broth is, well, brothy. After a stir and another minute to cool, the broth gained more of a sauce kind of thickening. The jalapeno flavor is there, however the heat is very, very mild. so if you like the flavor of jalapeno but not the heat, you’ll like this one. 3.5 out of 5.0 stars.UPC bar code 041789001673.
I think this is my favorite Maruchan commercial – it’s kind of fascinating to see the melding of such divergent cultures – Japanese ramen absorbed into Mexican culture. Besides, I think Mariachi bands are pretty awesome.
Would love to be able to buy these, sadly no stores in my area carry them.
More specifically, the suppliers seemingly can’t be bothered to add it to their list of available products… something about if X number of units doesn’t sell in Y period of time then they can’t justify having in their product lineup, so stores cannot order it even if they want to.
I could buy this on amazon I suppose. I’m sure it would be a bit more expensive than a grocery store (even before the shipping charges).
PS: before I forget, “my area” is east central MN, if it matters.
Jim –
Actually, it does matter. There’s another variety of Maruchan Instant Lunch – California Vegetable. There is absolutly no way to get it here in Washington State except Amazon. Period. Distribution will not do it. You’ll have to do Amazon as far as I know.
I could ask the Maruchan folks where that one is distributed, but if you can’t get it, chances are it’s far away.
– TRR
Hi, love reading your intro on all the ramen around the world.
Chance upon this and would like to recommend you a similar local food in Singapore we many people will eat them as lunch or dinner.
This dish can be find in most places and almost every coffee shop sell it.
Its call “Bah Chor Mee”, or in English minced meat noodles.
Usually most people eat it dry, of course there a soup version of it too.
Mainly the ingredient consist of minced meat, lean meat,pork liver, seasoned mushroom, fish cakes and sometime either fish ball, or pork meat ball and with pork lard.
And normally there is 2 kind of noodles for it, 1 is mee kia, and the other one is mee pok.
Mee kia is thin noodles, while mee pok is flat noodles, which is similar to the one you are introducing in this post.
And the sauce for this dish consist of black vinegar and either chili sauce or tomato sauce.
Actually there a kind of instant noodle selling in Singapore which is mee pok, you can try to get it and use it to make this dish.
Picture of instant noodle as below
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VA9Rkz5W9KU/Uu-KdIh9-fI/AAAAAAAAjhk/4bPVyg22Afo/s1600/DSC_0002jk.jpg
And there’s a blog which I found showing how to cook this dish.
http://tummytroll.wordpress.com/2013/11/12/step-by-step-recipe-minced-meat-noodle-bak-chor-mee-%E8%82%89%E8%84%9E%E9%9D%A2/
Maybe you would like to try and whipped up this dish as its really tasty.
If you like sour taste can add abit more black vinegar as its really nice too!
Cheers and have a good day!
Dada –
Wow thanks for the info – would love to try that dish and those noodles! I’m sure some will arrive here someday!
Thanks for your kind words!
– TRR