We tried this new grocery store (new to me at least) in Bellevue called Asian Food Center. Thought we’d give it a peek and found they had quite a few neat things. This is one of the noodles I found. I want to send a really big thank you to Bobby Y. up in Canada for help translating this one – mystery solved, thank to you! Now here’s a note on contention between me and the entire country of Taiwan. If you look in the lower right corner, you’ll see a little warning. It reads: This product is not the instant noodles. Please boil the noodles before eating. They can’t be steeped; okay, we got that. What is kind of ridiculous is the fact that they only take 3 minutes to cook. That’s the same amount of time as noodles that can be steeped. Logically, the amount of time needed to cooking something should be relevant to whether it is deemed instant as well, don’t you think? I would call these instant noodles – that require a different cooking method than other instant noodles. But I digress – I don’t think Taiwan is going to get on board with this, and that’s alright with me. I’m thinking next year I might to a split Taiwanese Top Ten list – half the ones that can be steeped and half the ones that can’t, basically a pair of Top Five lists. It seems to really matter to them, and far be it for me to poo-poo any country with such a fervent passion for noodles. Let’s proceed!
Here’s the back of the package (click image to enlarge). I was hoping to solve the mystery with the website on the back, but I figured out from a link Bobby sent that the URL is incorrect – it’s http://www.zi-ran.com.tw. Looks to be meat free but check for yourself. To prepare, boil a pot of water and cook noodles for 3 minutes. Drain. Add in contents of liquide sachet and stir. Enjoy!
The noodle block.
The liquid sachet.
Has a sesame and soy scent.
Finished (click image to enlarge). Added boiled dumpling and cabbage. The noodles aren’t bad – very elastic with a light chew. The flavor is mostly soy and a little sesame. 3.25 out of 5.0 stars.
You can get these Taiwanese noodles here!
Here’s a documentary about Tainan with a host who seems to drink a lot of caffeine.Really hope some day I get to see Taiwan – the airport was interesting but I know it’s much more interesting outside!
