My sister got me this for Christmas (thanks, Sue!). She called when she was at a grocery store and asked if I wanted it and of course since it has to do with instant noodles, I said yes. Let’s check it out!
As part of Momofuku Ando Day, I thought doing a review of this thing would be interesting. Check out the video, and more pictures below.
There has been a lot of hub bub about instant noodle cups and their tendencey to tip over and burn people. My thought is that this is a flawed argument. You know the contents are hot, and you should be careful – and definitely don’t put one in front of a small child! A couple thoughts behind this device deal with this, and also the correct way to make a instant noodle cup. You’re not supposed to put these cups directly into the microwave, but fill them with boiling water and steep them like tea. Rarely will you find one that says that it’s okay to microwave. To use this product, add water to the fill line, microwave 2-4 minutes, open up a cup of instant noodles and remove the paper lid. Add the hot water you just microwaved to the fill line (discard leftover water) and then put the noodle cup into the device. Cover with the supplied lid and wait three minutes. Remove lid, stir, and enjoy!
Finished (click image to enlarge). Impressions: I found that when pouring the hot water into the noodle cup, I spilled some. Now, realize that I didn’t remove the paper lid as it mentions, although I don’t know if that’s the only reason I spilled (other than being a clumsy oaf). The noodles steeped just fine in this thing. After 3 minutes, noodles were hot and hydrated well. I ate the rest of them after I did the video and had put all my video making junk away; about ten minutes. The noodles were still hot – very hot. Some may look at this as a negative or positive, depending on the side of the field you’re on. Staying hot for a long period is mostly the foam’s job and it does it’s job well. So, you could enjoy some, set it down, have more in a few etc. Great for when you’re busy. Some may find this as a negative, since they want to enjoy it quickly and don’t want to wait for it to cool. Looks like you have to blow on your noodles to cool them. Another idea would be to drop in an ice cube or a little cold water to even things out perhaps. Now, this makes it so you don’t have a way to microwave your noodles directly in the microwave, which is a good thing. But for those who really like to do this although not the way you’re supposed to, you could dump the contents of the noodle cup into the thing and then fill to the line and microwave. It is possible though that it could boil over – not sure. Also, without the foam, the noodles will lose the heat quicker as it dissipates. As for the design, it works well in most respects. This thing isn’t going to tip over with a good knock, and the handle is a nice addition. On either side there are little divets that are for sipping the soup. I found them to be of a good size, although some people with bigger mouths might find them cumbersome. Also I found on the last slurp of soup, it tended to dribble and go between the cup and device. Long story short, it does what it’s supposed to do just fine; water heats in the microwave in it and it hold the cup like a can cozy. I would still caution parents from serving these to small children, even in this device and use a bowl and let the noodles sit a couple minutes. For a kitchen gadget, I’d give this 5.0 out of 5.0 stars. UPC bar code 076753101820.
Get an Instant Noodle Maker by Good Cook here.
