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First it was in packs. Then, rice vermicelli bowls and now cups! I’m really curious about a couple things in this one. How well will it translate to a ‘steeped cooking’ form? Also, what kind of noodles are in here? Easiest way to find out is to give it a try! Let’s tear this one open!
Today, we have the last of this Meet The Manufacturer. I’ve really enjoyed most of these quite a bit – I’ll say one thing – they’re not bland like some UK products I’ve had in the past! Today it’s chow mein – let’s give it a try!
Okay so here we go. Pad Thai. In an instant and quick prep scenario, pad thai has gone through the ringer. I’ve had pad thai that comes this way be pretty decent, however many I’ve had taste like peanut butter and black vinegar with some chopped nuts on top. It’s not a real tricky one to translate to a processed food, but it seems a lot of the time that companies will draw on certain flavorings and try to mimic the flavor but end up with something completely different. Let’s hit up this one and see how it goes!
I’m a little curious on this one. See, Jjajang is really popular in China and South Korea; basically noodles with a black bean sauce. I’m curious as to if this is leaning in that direction, or whether it’s something on the Caribbean side; maybe a little citrus going on? Well, one way to find out – let’s crack it open and cook it up!
This sounds like a good one! Red curry i sone I thoroughly enjoy; although I can’t think of a curry I’ve met that I’ve not enjoyed. When I think of curry and the UK, my thoughts immediately wander towards Red Dwarf episodes with Rimmer complaining about Lister reeking of last night’s vindaloo and stale lager. It also wanders to something I saw a couple years ago – in Britain, you can get takeaway boxes full of fried odd and ends – it looks like pure gut bomb amazingness. But I digress – red curry sounds good – let’s dig in!
To kick things off, we have the Satay variety. Satay is hugely popular, but I have a feeling most people don’t know the whole story – here’s what Wikipedia has to say about Satay:
Behold! The postman comes bearing gifts! Let’s see what’s inside, shall we?
All five varieties of Urban Noodle (click to enlarge)! I think this will be a fun Meet The Manufacturer!
After quite a few years, its looking more and more like Kang Shi Fu (Master Kong) is definitely getting their products distributed into the United States. This one was sent to me by a reader named Colin (thanks again!) and is definitely different from most of the Mang Shiu Fu stuff I’ve seen. First, there’s a lot of English on the package; something very new to me. Stewed beef sounds good – let’s have a look inside.
Here’s another one that was sent to me by Javier over at Box From Japan – thanks! Box From Japan is a subscription service – you can get a box sent to you every month with some great noodles within! Today, we have a nice little cup – pork tonkotsu! Let’s crack it open and see what is inside!
A couple days after The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Instant Noodles Of All Time 2015 Edition came out, I got to thinking. Every year, a lot of people enjoy my list, a lot also complain. They’ll say things like ‘how can this not be on here,’ or ‘you have no clue of what youre talking about’ – you can guess the rest but it sometimes gets downright rude. I usually tell people to go and review as many instant noodles as I have and make their own list and we can compare notes, but nobody’s ever taken me up on that. At the same time I thought of this, I came to the realization that although they might not agree with me, they’re still people who love their varieties of instant noodles. I thought that they (you) should have a voice. So, I started a poll. I didn’t want to make a list of varieties for people to pick from – that would sway things in those varieties’ favor. I told people to just write in the flavor they liked and what brand made them. A week or so ago, I ended up with a difficult task. See, a lot of them were listed as the brand name but no variety (six people put Maggi, but Maggi what? From India, From Malaysia? Which one?). Some got cut, but most got counted. There were almost 300 votes and here are the results. I’m going to start a new poll tomorrow and this will be an annual thing! Let’s begin!
Another one from Colin – thanks again! So Pulmuone is considered a ‘healthful’ brand in South Korea. As you can see, these are non-fried noodles. Let’s look within and see what else we find.
Here’s one sent by Colin from back east – thanks again! I’ve seen this a couple times online and though it sounded fascinating. Honey and cheese? What an interesting combination… Let’s tear open the lid and see what we have here!
Another one my sister picked up for me in Canada – thanks again! Today, my boy Andy’s feeling a little under the weather, so I thought some Canadian chicken noodles would do him good. Well, I should say my sister sourced them in Canada; the package says they are a product of the United States. I really wonder who private labels these for Walmart. I’m sure someone will let me know! Anyways, let’s see what’s up with this cup.
For a while now, Javier over at BoxFromJapan.com has been sending me sample boxes and they’ve been really out of this world. Box From Japan is a subscription service – you can get a new box every month to your door – it’s reasonably priced I think since you can’t find any of these in the USA, plus I’ve NEVER gotten a single instant ramen from him that I’ve ever reviewed before – and that’s definitely saying something. Not only that, he also has a candy box – all sorts of neat treats from Japan as well! Let’s look inside!
I heard about this from a post by a colleague in the noodle review crowd (yeah, there are more of us) and thought I’d see if I could give it a review. I got an affirmative, and this is what they sent. First – Washoku Explorer appears to be a website with offerings that aren’t only about being tasty food, but educating you on the foods from Japan. It looks like a really neat thing – click here to check it out.This will be a special upcoming review! For now, let’s have a look at what we have here.
A while back, I did a Meet The Manufacturer with CarJEN Foods. I tried their E-Zee Curry and thought it was quite good. It got 4 stars and CarJEN asked about putting my logo on their packaging. We made a deal and there it is! Now, they’ve changed the recipe. It seems this is a trend in the Malaysian market right now – kind of fun since it’s like a re-review but a second shot for these companies for a better score with a new recipe. Let’s check this one out!
Okay so it’s been a while since I’ve gotten anything that’s supposed to be really spicy. Well, This one claims to have ghost pepper in it – that’s the Bhut Jolokia, a pepper that’ll rip your head off and then kick it down the road. This one hails from Oni Hot Pot, a chain of restaurants in Taiwan. Never heard of them before – although I have had Taiwanese hot pot here in the US before. Let’s crack this one open and see what’s inside.
We were out doing grocery shopping and thought ‘hey there’s that Red Robin over there – wonder if they have those Red Ramen Burgers.’ Well, after a quick phone call to make sure they did, we swooped in to give them a try.
My sister got these for my birthday up in Canada – thank you! I’ve wanted to review some Walmart branded instant noodles for years; just seems fitting that Walmart would have instant noodles. These were bought in Canada, however they’re made in the United States. However, I’ve never seen instant noodles with the Great Value brand inside the United States… Anyways, let’s crack this open and see how this one fares.
The last of four varieties especially made for the Nine Emporer Gods festival time of year. During the festival, people take only vegetarian dishes – no meat! Let’s have a look in this one and give it a try, eh?
Here’s another one sent by Jen from Australia! Thank you very much! So I though hey – laksa! Sounds good to me! Such a safe looking package too – why not check it out?
Here’s another one of these interesting snack noodles from Myanmar! This pack is very small – 15g actually! Let’s see what’s within!
Okay, I think this is the very last of the ones that were sent to me by James B. of the Netherlands – thanks again! Let’s crack it open and have a look.
I’m pretty sure this is the first Baijia bowl I’ve reviewed. For the longest time, I was extremely leery of these; I have a couple Baijia products I really disliked. However, after some time, I found that my tastes have really changed (especially after tring different things overseas and reviewing hundreds of instant noodles) and now I’m keen on giving them a new look. Well, let’s check this one out!
Found this one at Uwajimaya the other day. We thought it sounded interesting – a fettucine alfredo made in South Korea? Hey – why not. I thought the idea of it being made with rice noodles was enthralling as well. Let’s have a look!
Being low on instant noodles to review, I went to 99 Ranch to see if I could find anything I’d not reviewed yet. I ended up at the bottom end of the noodle aisle and found a ton of Kamfen stuff I haven’t gotten to yet. I always knew it was there, just didn’t get to the point of checking it out really. So being at that point, we’ll start trying these here and there. This one’s beef flavor wonton. Let’s give it a looksie.
Here’s one the folks at A-Sha sent recently. Hakka noodles from Taiwan are on the broad side and use very few ingredients. This one should pack some heat! Let’s check it out!
It’s been quite a year for The Ramen Rater. I’ve reviewed 357 new instant noodle varieties. I got to visit an instant noodle company in Thailand. I just hit my 2000th review. Since the beginning of this ‘noodle journey,’ I’ve wanted to try flavors from around the world and have been able to do just that. This new list is a compilation of the best of the best; the most memorable and most wonderful of the 2,004 varieties I’ve sampled thus far. If you are an instant noodle company and I haven’t reviewed your products, please contact me – I would love to review them. I decided to include what I added to them this year – however note the products are scored before anything is added. With that, let’s have a look at The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Instant Noodles Of all Time 2016 Edition.
Well, here we are with the last of this Meet The Manufacturer. It’s been a lot of fun and I hope it;s been a neat one for everyone to see! I want to personally thank Mr. Okabayashi for all of his help throughout this process! Many were hard for me to figure out the names on and he was very quick to help. Not only that, he made sure there was a great variety to choose from for Meet The Manufacturer. So again, thank you very much! Today’s review will be this large bowl – the same shape as the Nissin UFO bowls. This is part of their Donbei line. You might wonder – so what’s yakiudon? Well, simply put yaki means fried. So, these are thicker noodles than what you would find in yakisoba. Let’s check this out!
So this one confused me a little; I was sure I’d reviewed it before. In fact, here is review #1069. I’m noticing a couple of differences though. First, different bar code. Second, different water amount. Notice this one says 400ml for 5 minutes whereas the other says 430ml for 5 minutes. Curious. Let’s take a look and see what makes this big fancy bowl tick.
This is one of Nissin Japan’s ethnic series – this one being Thai in origin, they also have a Singaporean Laksa and an Indonesian Mi Goreng. This one looks a lot like the Nissin Cup Noodles that come from Thailand – usually there’s the guys from Manchester United on there as well. Let’s have a look inside and see what’s what.
What – you thought I’d quit at #2000? Surely you jest. The beat goes on and on and on and on, folks. What’s crazy is I’ve never reviewed the regular Nissin Seafood Cup Noodle – however one has come into my possesion recently thanks to a reader, so I will be very soon. This is a very new one from Nissin – let’s check it out!
Well folks, here we are. Review #2000! I recommend that you all start by reading the interview I conducted with Nissin Japan before proceeding.
Wow – the cusp of history with this review, folks. The next post will be #2000. That’s a LOT of reviews. It’s funny though; it’s such a regular part of my day that it doesn’t seem too insanely crazy to me anymore. But then again, yeah – most people think I’m pretty nutty, but hey it’s a fun hobby and it’s unique – I dig my niche. Anyways, one of my favorite flavors is curry. Since I was a kid and my mom would make curried chicken livers for dinner (she hasn’t made that in years; she questions the quality of chicken livers these days), I’ve enjoyed it a lot. Well, this is Japanese curry; usually not super spicy and leaning towards the sweet side which is always nice. Let’s have a look at this cup.
For those wondering, this looks to be a very premium looking bowl. Shoyu is one of the classic ramen varieties of Japan – it translates to soy sauce flavor. Let’s have a look inside and see what makes this bowl special.
This is a very yellow Cup Noodle! It’s a pork and cabbage tonkotsu andc I noticed that it mentions ‘1/3’ in a few spots. I believe this is denoting that this contains 1/3 of the daily intake of vegetables one should get. That’s great – I really like it when lots of vegetables are included in a variety! As for tonkotsy, tonkotsu is a pork bone milky broth ramen – one of my favorites. Let’s take a look!
This is the third one from this line that I’ve tried. I have had the vongole variety as well as the bolognese in the past – really liked that bolognese. This one is made with cod roe – basically cod eggs. It’s a very common addition over in Japan. Let’s give this a try.
This looks absolutely awesome. Chili cheese Cup Noodle? Not only that, it’s big – and it has the Mexican wrestler guy on it! I wonder how it would go with corn chips… Anyways, let’s crack it open and have a look!
When I pulled this bowl out of one of the boxes Nissin Japan sent, I was immediately curious. I mean, this looks really thick. This is a shrimp tantanmen. What is tantanmen you ask? Wikipedia, if you please…
