Author: Hans "The Ramen Rater" Lienesch

A Package From Genji!

I got an email a while back mentioning how Whole Foods Market and Genji were teaming up to have a kind of ‘grab’n’go’ ramen at their stores. I posted about it and was eager to try it, but there aren’t any locations nearby – San Francisco’s about 14 hours away by car. So our of kindness, they sent me some tasty stuff! I’ve tried the Tokyo Snack Mix and it was really good – I’m looking forward to the Wasabi Peanuts and the Miso Teriyaki sauce too – I’ll add what I thought of those to this post in the future. So thanks Naomi S. for sending these out for my family to try! Visit Genji @ www.genjiweb.com. ...see full post

#560: Myojo Soy Sauce Flavor Ippei-Chan Japanese Style Soup Noodles

Had a hell of a day today. Tried my bus card but it didn’t beep (figured the reader was at fault) so hopped the bus. Well, the fare cops had me get off the bus and checked out my card and it was screwed up. The fare cop said don’t worry just hop back on and get a new one at the bus station. Thinking ‘hey that went well ,” a different fare cop pulls me off the bus further down the line! Ugh. Long story short, I eventually got to the bus sttion and got a new card that won’t work for 24-48 hours… But I got to and from work and now I’m home – and hungry. This sounded especially good. ...see full post

#558: Long Kow’s Crystal Noodle Soup Vegetables ( and Eggs )

Thought this looked worth trying. Vegetables and noodles. Sure why not.

Here’s the flavoring packet if you want to call it that. It says Vegetables and Eggs though… I am truly unhappy – I didn’t take a picture of this and I’m really bummed and truly sorry. It looked like a brick of freeze-dried vegetable omelet. When I poured boiling water on it, it disintegrated and started fluffing up almost immediately. ...see full post

#557: Batchelor’s Super Noodles Southern Fried Chicken Flavour

No way, really? Way. Southern fried chicken. It’s funny because it took the British to come up with a fried chicken flavor of instant noodles! I don’t have a clue why Nissin or Maruchan picks up on this kind of thing and markets it in the US – it’d be so popular here. Alas, I fear they travel the safe road and ‘crazy’ is cheese flavored noodles. I should note though that Maruchan has made a Yakisoba bowl here that is Taco flavored – wish I could get my hands on it! ...see full post

Indigestion: Reader’s Digest Article Way Off The Mark

This was found, given to my sister and passed along to me. This is from a Reader’s Digest. I haven’t seen the Lucky Peach yet but boy is this stuff screwed up. I really liked how Nong Shim was just a Californian company – no mention of the fact that it’s Korean.  The Myojo Chukazanmai is a line of noodles by Myojo and has such an array of types (some are even to be served cold) that this broad review makes no sense. I think everyone knows how I feel about the GreeNoodle – try and try again I find them detestable. The Kamfen was the kicker for me though. Which one was reviewed? There’s a ton of varieties… Finally the article’s name kind of peeves me, but at least someone might go ahead and see f people review instant noodles online. The kicker? Not any mentions of anything from Indonesia, Thailand or Vietnam. Shameful! ...see full post

Massive Donation From The U.K.

Recently, I got an email from in the UK named Cindy C. offering to send me some instant noodles. I said sure! Well, she really came through and I want to say thanks! Here’s the box they came in, a Dell laptop box! When I picked it up and carried it back to my apartment, I was really curious why it was so heavy – surely she didn’t send me a laptop! ...see full post

Want To Help The Ramen Rater?

Every day, I’m trying to get more and more people involved in this website, whether through comments or recommendations, criticisms or donations. So I’m going to go out on a limb and ask if some of you could help out. If there’s a review or particular page or just the whole site you enjoy, talk about it on Facebook or Twitter or Reddit. StumbleUpon (www.stumbleupon.com) is a great spot to thumbs up pages and write reviews – This month a ton of people checked out the site’s recipes pages because someone wrote a one-line review on StumbleUpon! ...see full post

An Accounting Error

I’ve been wondering something for awhile: is the number of reviews I have
listed exactly accurate? The issue was that there were a few re-reviews
and also that I hadn’t numbered reviews done before #200, so it was a somewhat
imprecise ‘guesstimate.’ Well, the wondering about it is over and the result
is that I had shorted myself on counting eight reviews! What I did was
added numbers to the titles of the reviews starting at the first until
I got to about #120 and then started at the #199th review and went backward
in hopes of them meeting at the middle. So the ones that ended up between
where #117 and #118 should have met are these, which I have numbered up
from the current last review. So the next review will be #541. Here’s the
links to the ones that were renumbered. ...see full post

#530: Namchow Mee-Jang Artificial Shrimp Tom Yum Flavor Instant Noodles

This was a neat find at a local market I don’t go to very often. There’s a long aisle of instant noodles and I noticed a single instant noodle cup that didn’t seem to have any place where it would go. So I went around to the other side of the aisle and was hoping there’d be more. Well, there wasn’t a continuation of instant noodle aisle, but I did find this one in a weird spot, again with no correlating spot on the main aisle. With that, once again I bring you what you want. ...see full post

#529: Sapporo Ichiban Japanese Style Noodles Hot & Spicy Chicken Flavored Soup

A new find today at a big Korean supermarket nearby. Been a while since I’ve reviewed anything by Sapporo Ichiban. What’s interesting too is that the packaging proclaims that it’s new! Also on the back it says it’s three servings! Boy, this economy sure is hitting everyone hard! Now instant noodle rationing! ...see full post

#528: Unox Good Noodles Groente (Vegetable)

Check it out! Thanks to Ramen Rater blog follower Michael V.N.’s donation package, we have the first ever noodles to review from Holland! Not only a new country but a new brand – Unox. The package has directions on the back to either make just noodles or noodle soup – I decided for the noodle soup. ...see full post