Author: Hans "The Ramen Rater" Lienesch

#1724: Pirkka Nuudeli Liha Nudlar Kott

This one’s made by Thai President Foods’ Hungarian factory for a supermarket chain in Finland. It took a little translating to figure out and then I looked at the package; see the pepper? Yeah – hot and spicy instant noodles. Oh wait – then I tried it. Indeed it was hot and spicy, but something else I detected. It turns out ‘liha’ translates to ‘meat.’ It kind of reminded me of… Well, read on… ...see full post

#1723: Baixiang Noodles Artificial Beef Flavour Instant Noodles With Soup Base

Today’s the last day of my son’s two week vacation here. I usually have him every other weekend, and a special breakfast, I made him some noodles. He recently has found he likes beef a lot – usually he’s been a chicken fan, so that’s kind of interesting. He also likes fishcakes – kamaboko, narutop, fishball – something that’s not really popular in American kids his age. That could be though that they’ve never tried them… Anyways, here’s a bowl of noodles for Andy! ...see full post

#1722: CarJEN Otentiq Cheezy Curry Instant Noodles

Recently, I reviewed the new CarJEN Otentiq Cheezy Mushroom variety and really liked it. This one is the curry variety – I love curry as anyone who sees my top ten lists can realize rather quickly. What’s neat is that I don’t think I’ve seen cheese curry in an instant before, however I have had cheese curry in an Indian restaurant. Well, let’s see what we have here – it certainly looks nice! ...see full post

#1721: Salam Mie Mi Goreng Dengan Abon

Here’s the second of two Salam Mie products I got at the Econsave we visited in Butterworth, Malaysia during our special trip to visit the makers of MyKuali last October. I’ve seen a lot of people commenting on the other variety lately, so I thought I’d give this one a try. Abon is a powdered meat – usually pork or beef (in this case beef) seasoned with spices. Sounds good – from what I see, it’s used as a topping like fish floss is used on Chinese porridge. Anyways, let’s check out this Salam Mie Mi Goreng Abon! ...see full post

#1720: Mamee Chef Lontong Flavour

I’m always searching around the Internet and checking up on different instant noodle companies to see if they’ve got something new coming to the market! I saw that Mamee Chef has just released this new Lontong Flavour variety and asked if I could get some samples – and I did!  So, what’s this Lontong all about? Here’s what the nice folks at Mamee Chef had to say about it: ...see full post

#1717: Lee Fah Mee Sarawak White Laksa Instant Noodle

I got a message from someone in Sarawak a couple months ago about Lee Fah Mee Sarawak White Laksa. They sent some home to the Us with a friend and that friend shipped some to me! Thanks! It’s kind of funny; I’ve been curious about Sarawak’s instant noodle offerings for a long time – and then in the last couple of months I start getting some to try. This sounds really interesting – White Laksa! Let’s crack open the package and see what’s inside Lee Fah Mee Sarawak White Laksa! ...see full post

#1714: Master Kong Sichuan Hot Spicy Fish

This one has been a little tricky to figure out. A lot of the time, distributor stickers aren’t all that helpful; they might say the flavor, but the true name can be elusive. After looking around, I found ‘boiled fish’ and ‘spicy fish’ and ‘hot fish’ (hot fish being the one on the sticker). I think however Sichuan might be in there somewhere, so I included it. As for the lady on the package and the folks on the back, I’m pretty sure they’re involved in some kind of television program in China. Anyways, let’s have a look! ...see full post

The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Instant Rice Noodles Of All Time 2015 Edition

I’ve been asked ‘can you do a gluten-free list’ so many times I can’t count. Well, I thought I’d try doing the next best thing. Rice noodles, rice vermicelli, bihun and rice stick are (as far as I know) all gluten free. Hopefully this list will help those who want gluten free varieties. I should say however that I can’t say that the seasonings are gluten free, so check to make sure. Aside from gluten free aspects, rice noodles are popular all over the world, in all their forms. I would ask that instant rice noodle companies contact me – I would like to do more varieties for next year’s list as well! Eventually, it would be nice to split the list into a pack and bowl list, kind of like the wheat noodle top ten. With that, let’s have a look at this new list, The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Instant Rice Noodles Of All Time 2015 Edition. ...see full post

#1713: CarJEN Otentiq Cheezy Mushroom Instant Noodles

So here’s a new one from CarJEN – a new line called Otentiq. You might remember seeing CarJEN’s Nyonya Curry Laksa on this year’s big top ten list in the 4th place spot. I’ve seen very few cheese themed instant noodles in the past, and I believe this is the first one from Malaysia. Very curious how it will be – if the Laksa is any gauge, this could be really good! There’s also a CarJEN Otentiq Cheezy Curry coming soon as well! Let’s check it out! ...see full post

Something Odd: Heinz Hello Kitty Pasta Shapes In Tomato Sauce

This year on my birthday trip to Richmond, BC to look for instant noodles, my wife Kit found this can of Hello Kitty pasta. She said she was hungry earlier and I said ‘hey what about that Hello Kitty canned stuff?’ She agreed and here it is! It’s not an instant noodle by any stretch of the imagination, but it was interesting enough that I thought maybe it should get a post on here. So here we go! ...see full post

#1712: Sakurai Foods Organic Miso Ramen

Wow it’s Summer here today! Just hit 90 degrees and the clouds are rolling in – hoping for a nice lightning storm to watch tonight. I’m still reviewing instant noodles in this weather though – it’s 83 degrees in our apartment right now. Wish we had air conditioning! It rarely gets this warn in Western Washington though. Anyways, I thought some miso might be a good one to try today, and an organic one at that. The packaging has a Vegan logo on it, but I think I might add some meat in with it. Let’s have a look at this organic miso ramen! ...see full post

The Ramen Rater’s Bottom Ten Instant Noodles Of All Time 2015 Edition

After trying over 1,700 instant noodle varieties, it is expected that some of them will be on this list. Why? Well, some just make me wretch. They’re the ones that get a score of one to zero stars. Not to say that there are some folks out there who like them, but that hypothetical someone would not be myself. With that, here’s the new The Ramen Rater’s Bottom Ten Instant Noodles Of All Time 2015 Edition. ...see full post

#1709: Asia Gold Instant Noodles With Shrimp Flavouring

Here’s a neat one. During my trip to Thai President Foods’ Agent Meeting in Bangkok last month, I went to a seminar for a large group of European distributors. There were a couple guys who were there that I met from the Thai President Foods Hungary factory, and I was able to obtain samples of many of the products that are manufactured there, this being one of them. I noticed that on the label, an Austrian company is distributing this one. Anyways, this will be my first instant noodle review I’ve ever done of a product manufactured in Hungary! Let’s check it out! ...see full post

#1707: Azami Hot And Spicy Flavour Noodle Soup

Here’s one I got from Justin M. from Winfield, BC up north of here in Canada! Thanks! Let’s see here: the instant noodle was invented in Japan. This one is sold in Canada under the name Azami and sold by Loblaw’s, a supermarket chain. It’s manufactured in China. I’ve been hoping one of these Azami varieties would really blow me away; hot and spicy is a flavor profile I generally like a lot – let’s see how it fares! ...see full post

#1706: Maggi Hot Cup Goreng Perencah Cili Fiesta

Here’s one I got on my trip to Malaysia last October! I was really keen on getting something like this while over there – anything that has some kind of promotion for a contest or sports event – or movies and cartoons – are very fascinating to me, not only because that’s not something you really see here on instant noodle products, but that the possibility of finding an export version here is slim to none. This one mentions Brazil on it – football! Let’s have a look inside and give ‘er a try! ...see full post

#1702: Samyang Foods Seafood Noodle

Here’s a seafood cup that screams seafood. I’ve mentioned before that certain colors seem to be universal when it comes to instant noodles – red for spicy or beef, green for pork (not sure why) and yellow for chicken. Well, blue is for seafood and this cup’s text is certainly blue enough. This is a Samyang Foods product for the Japanese market. Anyways, let’s crack it open and see what makes it tick. ...see full post

#1699: Vit’s Mi Goreng Pedas Chewy & Springy

Mi Goreng means fried noodles and Pedas means spicy – how can ya beat that? This is one that I picked up at the Econsave on last year’s trip to Penang, Malaysia. I gotta say – it’s weird to say that. I never thought I’d end up making it to Asia; now having been to both Malaysia and Thailand, it’s like I’ve got a different perspective of the world. So many of the people I met over there had visited the United States, either for work or schooling. How many folks do I know from here that have gone the opposite direction though? Definitely a lower ratio at least in my experience. It is quite expensive and I’ve been lucky that companies have said ‘hey! come visit us!’ Instant noodles – who would’ve thought. Anyways, I’ve been a big fan of Mi Goreng for quite a while. It’s combination of sweet and spicy flavors has always been so nice. This one promises to a bit further on the end of the spicy stick – hoping so! Spicy is always nice. Let’s check out this mi goreng by Vit’s of Malaysia! ...see full post