Alright kiddie, hold onto your butts! So we have something here I had to review the day after I got it; not because it was going to expire but because I was a little wary of storing it. Why’s that? Well, first off I got this up in Canada at Osaka Market at Yaohan Centre in Richmond, BC. I’d just returned from my trip to Taiwan, my jet lag now gone (for the most part). I had some leftover Taiwanese currency and the Kingmark Currency Exchange doesn’t charge for exchanging which is nice. I converted it so I could treat my family to some wheel cake and milk tea at a little Taiwanese shop at the centre.
I had NO INTENTION OF GETTING ANY NOODLES. PERIOD. I have so many noodles at this point and have to pare down my stock on hand as soon as possible because there’s more coming all the time! Well, we wandered into Osaka Market and their usual big display of fancy imports was replaced by Christmastime cookies and treats. We then hit the noodle aisle and I saw some things I didn’t have, but I held back. So far so good. Then my wife Kit spotted a couple things. One was a Yuzu Cup Noodle that was pretty cheap so went for that. The other was this strange bowl.
My first impression: it was heavy. The second was that I noticed something mentioning ‘self-cooking.’ So I thought this is unique so went for it. Let’s look inside and see what’s going on here.
Yumei Instant Spicy Hot Pot – China
First, let’s look at the English instructions (click to enlarge). Here we go:
CONSUME DIRECTION:
1. Open the box, remove the upper layer, tear off the sauce bag and chives bag, and pour them into the upper layer.
2. Tear off the vermicelli bag and vegetable bag, and put them into the upper layer, and stir and mix them together.
3. Add water into the upper layer, but not over the edge of the layer (hot water recommend for the better favor).
4. Open the self-heating package bag, and put the self-heating package into lower layer, add cold water until the self-heating package soaked totally.
5. Put the upper layer on the top, and cover the lid, wait 8 minutes or more and enjoy the hotpot.
CAUTION: THE HOT STEAMING AND PREVENT FROM BURNING HURT.
Okay – a couple interesting things here. I do want to avoid the burning hurt when at all possible. Another is that this has a self-heating package that works via a chemical reaction in the lower level of the packaging. Wow – so this stuff literally cooks itself. Fascinating!
Here’s the distribution/import sticker (click to enlarge). Note the numbers here – 72 calories and over 9000mg of sodium. Judging by the 46% RDA on this, I’m guessing it’s 915.6mg – that’s more logical. But only 72 calories for this thing? That seems a little suspect. But let’s continue on after noting the name of the distributor – JC Bunny Bunny!
The underside of the outer cardboard packaging (click to enlarge).
An included fork!
A napkin.
The package of vermicelli.
A large liquid base sachet.
A huge sachet of vegetables – fresh vegetables.
A sachet of chives.
This is the fascinating item – the heating bag. When cold water is introduced, it starts a chemical reaction which brings the heat – apparently enough to cook this product. I’m really very curious about this – never have I seen such a thing in an instant noodle before. What gets me though is that it recommends using cold water in the lower tray with this and hot water in the upper tray with the food. If you need hot water to make this, why not just cook it with the hot water you’ve already prepared? But hey, this will be fun.
Finished (click to enlarge). This was quite an experience. Definitely, watch the video where I cook this up. As for the vermicelli, it was cooked nicely. The broth was exceedingly spicy and just buzzing of Sichuan pepper. A little too much acidity going on for my taste. The vegetables did alright – all in all definitely a hot pot of noodles! 2.25 out of 5.0 stars. EAN bar code 6952395703353.
Asian Hotpots: How to Cook Simple and Delicious Hot Pot Dishes at Home
