Meet The Manufacturer: #2183: MAMA Instant Rice Noodles Moo Nam Tok Flavour

I thought the first thing to do would be to look this up on Wikipedia. I found an entry for nam tok and here’s some of what it said:

Nam tok can refer to two different kinds of preparation:

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.^[1]
Nam tok can be also an Isan and Lao meat dish which is similar to lap (larb). This dish is known in Lao as ping sin nam tok (Lao: ປິ້ງຊິ້ນນ້ຳຕົກ) and in Thai as nuea yang nam tok (Thai: เนื้อย่างน้ำตก, “waterfall grilled beef”), if made with beef, and as mu nam tok (Thai: หมูน้ำตก, “waterfall pork”), if made with pork. The name supposedly refers to the fact that there is still “water”, or liquid, in the meat, that is, blood. The “dressing” of this meat-based salad is made with ground roasted rice, ground dried chillies, fish sauce, lime juice, shallots and mint leaves. It can also feature spring onions. It is traditionally eaten with sticky rice and comes with raw vegetables such asthua fak yao (Thai: ถั่วฝักยาว, yardlong beans) and kalam pli (Thai: กะหล่ำปลี, cabbage).^[2]

Ah ha – so from the second bullet point it looks as though this is a pork variety. Let’s check it out!

Here’s the back of the package (click to enlarge). Looks to be meat free but check for yourself. To prepare, add everything to a bowl and add 300ml boiling water. Cover for 3 minutes. Stir and enjoy!

The rice noodles.

A large sachet.

Has a rich scent.

A liquid sachet.

A dark, oily paste.

Finished (click to enlarge). Added Salad Cosmo mung bean sprouts, fried garlic, thin sliced chashu pork, coriander and chilli flake. Really like the gauge of these noodles yet again – good stuff! Hydrated well in the time allotted. The broth has a kind of mysteriousness to it; dark in color with a sour and spicy taste and other tastes lingering about. 3.5 out of 5.0 stars. EAN bar code 8851876001132.