Over 5,000 Instant Ramen Noodle Reviews Since 2002
I had always thought carne meant beef but I was wrong. Turned out carne means meat and res means beef – always learning something new about the world through the instant noodle and doing translations! Let’s check out this beef flavored instant noodle from Mexico!
To start things off, I thought it would be interesting to try one of these Cup Noodles that come with hot sauce. Definitely not uncommon around the world to find a Cup Noodle variety with a sauce sachet, however it seems to be a little less common in the Americas. Let’s give it a try!
This box is even larger than the first one! Let’s see what’s inside!
A shopping bag (click to enlarge).
Interview With Nissin Mexico * Product Samples From Nissin Mexico (1 of 2) * Product Samples From Nissin Mexico (2 of 2) * Nissin Cup Noodles Sopa Nissin Hot Sauce Sabor A Pollo * Nissin Sopa Nissin Sabor A Res Sopa Instantanea Tipo Ramen * Nissin RapiFideo Sabor A Chile Y Limon * Nissin Maxi Sopa Nissin Cuchareable Sabor A Pollo * Nissin Cup Noodles Sopa Nissin Sabor Mariscos, Habanero Y Limon * Nissin Cup Noodles Gourmet Sabor A Caldo De Camaron * Nissin Maxi Sopa Nissin Cuchareable Sabor A Camaron Picante * Nissin Cup Noodles Sopa Nissin Con Camaron * Nissin Sopa Nissin Sabor A Pollo Sopa Instantanea Tipo Ramen * Nissin Cup Noodles Sopa Nissin Sabor Camaron, Habanero Y Limon * Nissin RapiFideo Sabor A Tomate Y Pollo * Nissin Cup Noodles Sopa Nissin Sabor A Carne De Res * Nissin Sopa Nissin Sabor A Camaron Sopa Instantanea Tipo Ramen * Nissin Maxi Sopa Nissin Cuchareable Sabor A Jugo De Carne * Nissin Cup Noodles Sopa Nissin Sabor A Pollo
As I’ve said in the past, I’m usually about 50 or so reviews ahead of myself. Well, today is the actual day our daughter Miriam will be born and by the time this comes out she’ll be close to two months old. Wow! It’s early in the morning – although it’s just a few hours away. Really excited! This one seemed interesting enough for a day of birth – Mexican pizza from Taiwan? I think a fiesta is in order; although I wish these were called Little Princess – but hey look at the title I think that works at least a little! Let’s check it out!
Another sent by Colin – thanks! So this is one of a new line from India within the last year or so. Looks to be vegetarian and to have peas in there. Here’s a little about the company from Wikipedia –
Here’s the second of four short little looks at Prima Taste’s new Ready Meals line. This one’s beef rendang. Rendang is an Indonesian dish of beef that’s cooked in coconut milk with lots of seasonings. There is wet and dry Rendang – the wet is what I’m guessing we have here. Here’s a little more info from Prima Taste –
I know, I know – you don’t have to tell me that this isn’t an instant noodle, but the folks at Prima Taste sent me some of these neat meal pouches and I wanted to let people know about them. You cut a little slit in the side towards the top and microwave for 90 seconds. Boom – curry chicken rice! Here’s a quote from the company:
Another one from Colin – thanks again! Haven’t seen this brand previously. Always neat to start checking out a brand I’ve not reviewed after trying so many. But what’s Shanxi? Wikipedia, if you please:
Okay so here’s another one of the new recipe Cup Noodles from Nissin Foods USA – thanks again for sending ’em over! The new recipe features reduction in sodium as well as no added MSG and no artificial flavors. Let’s have a look!
Another left over from the Nissin Hong Kong Meet The Manufacturer. I’ve reviewed many Nissin HK tonkotsu varieties thus far, and today we have yet another variety! This is a Tokyo Shoyu Tonkotsu. Shoyu translates to soy sauce, so this seems like it will be a kind of milky soy kind of thing? Let’s find out!!
I got an email a week or so ago from Colin, a reader from Massachusetts who has been regularly sending me noodles from time to time. Let’s see what’s inside this big box!
After a short hiatus, I received an email from Javier. Javier runs Box From Japan, a website where you can get different subscription boxes full of interesting Japanese things! They have a ramen box – which comes with 4 varieties of instant noodles from Japan. They also have a cando box which has a ton of different kinds of Japanese candies which are odd and interesting. Even a Pokemon box! Let have a look inside this one!
Here’s another one that Colin sent – thanks! Today I was really craving something curry – it’s been a little while since I’ve had any curry to review so here goes!
Here’s a new jjajangmyun from Paldo of South Korea sent by Yongmin Park of Paldo. Thank you very much! For those of you unfamiliar with jjajangmyeon, here’s some info from wikipedia:
Exotic Noods (www.exoticnoods.com) is a monthly subscription box – 4 varieties from around the world arrive at your door with chopsticks and info on them. Pretty great, especially if you don’t know what to try, don’t have an Asian grocery anywhere near where you live… Many reasons to check out an instant noodle subscription service. I think the best reason is to try something new and expand your palate! This box is a ‘premium’ box – wioth a lot of extras! Let’s look inside!
When I get a package here, it’s turned into a kind of celebration. So the head of festivities is Miles – a box comes and he’s ready to beat on it like a drum! I think he’s going to be a percussionist when he grows up – which I’d definitely be okay with. However, maybe he’ll be a noodle reviewer and follow in my footsteps – who knows; he’s not even two years old yet haha! Let’s open the box!
Here’s one I got at the Carrefour store in Taipei at the bottom of the Miramar Entertainment Park mall. It was on sale and definitely something I didn’t expect to see. There was a bunch of articles that came out about this variety a while back – it was popular many years ago and discontinued and then brought back to the delight of consumers. Noodles with a picture of a giraffe in a bow tie on the front? Yeah; this sounds neat. Let’s check out this revisited classic from Japan!
I was contacted last year by Fanny Chu, a California artist with a true love for ramen. In fact, she designed a ramen poster, highlighting many of the different varieties of ramen in Japan. Well, she’s done a big update to the poster and now it includes a whopping 42 different varieties. They can be bought here. Let’s have a look!
Sad to say it but this is the last of the varieties sent to me by Javier over at www.BoxFromJapan.com. He’s decided to end the subscription service for instant noodles, however you can still get neat boxes of Japanese candy! Check ’em out! Well, here’s what he had to say about this variety:
Here’s another one from Colin – thanks! So, wwhat’s CXO sauce? Here’s some info from wikipedia:
Yet another left over from the Nisin HK Meet The Manufacturer! Man, they sent so many! Thank you so much – really helps a lot! So these are instant takes on classic Italian pasta dishes. They’re microwavable and thus far, I’ve not had one I didn’t like. Let’s see how this one fares.
Here’s another box from MyKuali – hoping that it’s got what I am hoping it has inside! Let’s see!
Yet again, a donation from Colin of the east coast – thanks, bro! This is another ‘no way – I’ve reviewed this one’ kinda variety, but it turns out indeed I haven’t. It looks like the Nongshim ‘BIG Bowl’ line, but it’s definitely not the export version if it is. Let’s have a look – very curious about this one.
This is one I brought back with me from Taiwan! Happy Cook is a brand that one of the factories in Taichung makes.
I got a message from a reader whose name is Zou from China. He has this instant noodle he said I have to try – and so we start chatting. So it came in the mail a couple days ago! Let’s check out what he sent!
Here’s yet another from a reader named Colin from the east coast. He’s always surprised me a little insofar as being able to send me varieties I hadn’t reviewed yet. I mean, this totally would have been one I would’ve passed over as previously reviewed, but I can’t find it anywhere. As far as walking by it at local stores, I’ve done so countless times. Anyways, let’s crack i open and have a look!
This was sent to me by Ippin, a purveyor of wonderful Japanese items! Thank you again! They informed me that this one has been discontinued, but I’m reviewing it anyways. I really like curry, spicy things and chicken. What’s more, it’s snowing today! Let’s give this Cup Noodle with a famous tennis player on the front!
I found out recently there’s now a group that’s reviewing spicy instant noodles in Australia – they call the blog RamenRegretRater, and they talk about the poops they have after eating spicy instant noodles – I shit you not! I’ve been chatting a lot with Kamran R. about instant noodles a lot recently and kindly sent some stuff he found while on vacation in Bali. Thanks, man! Let’s take a look!
Here’s one of a line I’ve been kind of on the fence about lately. I tried their tonkotsu and was a little disappointed and hopeful that this miso will be a different story. Shall we have a look?
Got this neat dual box package in the mail the other day! What’s inside? Let’s see…
Yep, you guessed it! This is yet another one left from the Nissin Hong Kong Meet The Manufacturer. Thanks again to Nissin HK for sending so many varieties! Sounds simple enough – it’s spicy, it’s beef. Let’s check it out!
A couple of months ago, I was sent a new book (click to enlarge) by my friend Tony Johor Kaki! He runs a really great blog and I first found him from his instant noodle reviews. Now he’s written a book – Fine Dining With Johor Kaki: 100 Must-Try Johor’s Heritage & Street Food. Its a really neat presentation of some of southern peninsular Malaysia’s great foods and where to find them. Here are some words about it from the author:
恭喜发财 and Happy Lunar New Year to all! I had a look at my lists I hadn’t updated in a while and saw it was in January of 2014 last I did a top ten Chinese list. Why so long? Well, I like to have done quite a few reviews in a year when it comes to country lists for that specific country. If I’d done only two and there weren’t any big changes, I’ll kind of let it go until the next year. This one seemed ripe and ready for a new version. Of the almost 150 reviews I’ve done of Chinese instant noodles, these are my favorites. I should mention that if you are an instant noodle in mainland China and interested in having me review your products, please contact me to set up a review series. With that, let’s have a look at The Ramen Rater’s top Ten Chinese Instant Noodles Of All Time 2017 Edition.
A lot of people these days are giving up meat and switching to the Vegan lifestyle. So, what’s the difference between Vegetarian and Vegan? It seems like there are many different ‘flavors’ of Vegetarianism. For example, I have a friend who claims to be vegetarian, however he eats bacon, eggs and Jack In The Box fast food tacos. Here’s what wikipedia has to say about Veganism:
This looks very interesting. Check out how thin these noodles are! Sesame and garlic are great flavors to marry together as well. So we’ve seen sesame sauce – the tan colored peanutty kind of stuff and today it’s sesame oil – a much lighter fare. Let’s have a look!
Here’s one I really like. It has what I like to call a ‘back and forth effect flavor.’ It’s like you get one flavor lingering then your palate gets the hint of another flavor, then back to the first. It’s really unique in this way – reminds me of one of my favorite hot sauces – not in the taste, mind you, but this kind of back and forth. Let’s check it out!
During my trip to Taiwan in November of 2016, I had the opportunity to try the three varieties of the new Xiao Ban Mian line. I remember this one in particular; it was really quite good and I only got a bite or two of it – my sister actually scarfed this one down quickly! Now, back in the controlled environment of my noodle lab (sounds more amazing than it is, really), I’m really excited to give this a try. Let’s check it out!
So I remember the first time I tried this one a couple years ago. Indeed, it is spicy! Sichuan pepper is a little different kind of spicy in contrast to a jalapeno or wasabi – here’s a little info about the Sichuan pepper from wikipedia:
