Author: Hans "The Ramen Rater" Lienesch

Meet The Manufacturer: #1588: Mi E-Zee Perisa Bayam

This is only the second time I’ve had this flavor of instant noodle a couple of times before. For those of you who are wondering, Bayam translates to Spinach. I’m kind of bummed – I don’t have any spinach to go with it today, but I wonder if it’ll need any. Let’s see if this Mi E-Zee Perisa Bayam delivers some spinachy goodness! ...see full post

Meet The Manufacturer: #1587: Mi E-Zee Plain Noodles Mee Goreng

In general, I don’t review plain noodles. I usually require instant noodles to have a seasoning with them or have seasoning infused into them. Well, I hadn’t told this to CarJEN and they sent lots of them – I figured it only fair to do up a recipe with them! The picture on the front of the package certainly looks like mee goreng, so I figured I’d round some things up and make some for Kit for breakfast today. Let’s check it out! ...see full post

Meet The Manufacturer: #1586: J.J. Snek Mi Perisa Ayam

Here’s the other variety of J.J. snack noodles CarJEN produces. Ayam translates to chicken. The mighty chicken seems to be the universally accepted flavor in the world. I was just wondering – how many are there? Chickens, I mean; how many chickens are there on the planet? I typed in world population of chickens into Google and it spat this out instantaneously: ...see full post

Meet The Manufacturer: #1583: J.J. Snek Mi Perisa BBQ

Instant noodles are usually served cooked, but there are other methods as well. These are ‘snack noodles,’ which are eaten without any cooking straight from the bag. Although not well known in the United Staes, they indeed are very popular around the world – there are multiples brands and varieties spanning Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan to name a few. Today we’ll look at an individual pack (the picture above is a ten pack). Let’s check out these J.J. Snek Mi from CarJEN! ...see full post

Meet The Manufacturer: #1582: Mi E-Zee Perisa Kari Curry Flavour

To start things off, I felt it would be great to try this Mi E-Zee Kari. Kari (curry in english) is one of my favorite flavors since I was a kid. My mom used to make curried chicken liver over rice and it was some seriously delectable stuff. Over the years, I’ve experienced a great many kinds of curry: Japanese curry which is usually sweet, Indian curry, Thai curry and my current favorite, Malaysian curry. Let’s see how this Mi E-Zee Kari measures up! ...see full post

Meet The Manufacturer: Interview With CarJEN Food Sdn Bhd

#1580: emart Dare You! Habanero Ramen (New Edition)

This was sent to me by Anders E. from South Korea – thank you very much! For some time new, eMart’s Dare You! Habanero Ramen has topped The Ramen Rater’s Spiciest Instant Noodle Of All Time lists. There’s a really good reason for this too – it’s violently hot. Heat is measure in SHU – Scoville Heat Units. Here’s what wikipedia has to say about the Scoville test: ...see full post

#1578: Nissin Gonbuto Tempura Udon

I thought today would be a nice day to deal with one I’ve been a little confused about. The instructions on this one have had me confused; drain it but it has soup? Hmmm… Well, a YouTube video I found helped with that and now it makes a lot of sense! In fact, it’s looking like a very easy one to prepare to be honest. Let’s have a look at this Nissin Gonbuto Tempura Udon and it’s unique preparation. ...see full post

#1577: MAMA Pork Flavour Whole Wheat Noodle

Here’s an interesting one made in Thailand by Thai President Foods. Why’s it interesting? Well, aside from being a whole wheat noodle, it’s definitely for the Scandinavian market. I think it’s interesting how many companies have popular products both in their home countries and abroad, but especially in Scandinavia. Let’s have a look at this product from MAMA! ...see full post

Friday Video: Flashback Friday

I woke up today with this song in my head. It’s kind of weird – I got a bunch of hand-me-down audio cassettes from my sister Sue when I was a kid. All sorts of disco and soul stuff – I listened to them over and over and over – lots of Bee Gees and Spinners and O’Jays. It’s kind of like I went through the 70’s pop thing even though I was 5 when 1980 came around. Thought I’d post this one today – my sister and I will be visiting Thailand in May and I’ll have more info about that soon. Some things I can say now is that it’ll have instant noodles, rice, and factory touring involved! Happy Friday to all! ...see full post

#1574: Chering Chang Steam Vegetarian Flavor Noodles

In last year’s Top Ten Taiwanese Instant Noodles Of All Time 2014 Edition, Chering Chang was second place with their Curry La-Men – excellent stuff! What is interesting is that that was the only variety they make that I’d tried. I’m very curious how this one fares – vegetarian. Vegetarian instant noodles can be all sorts of different things; bland, bitter, full of vegetables, focused on mushroom; it’s such a broad flavor that can be interpreted masterfully or poorly. I have high hopes that this will be another excellent offering from Chering Chang. Without further adieu, let’s have a look inside. ...see full post

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

The Ramen Rater’s top Ten South Korean Instant Noodles Of All Time made it’s debut last January and I thought this would be a good day to release the new one for 2015! South Korean instant noodles (known as ramyun) are characteristically thicker and chewier than most instants. Spiciness is a common trait as well as beef flavors. Here are my top picks of the South Korean varieties I’ve reviewed of my 1,573 reviews to date. ...see full post

#1572: Master Kong Artificial Seafood Flavor Instant Noodle

 Far and few between are the Master Kong varieties I find locally. This is one of them I got a couple months ago – a real surprise. I don’t know why so many of them aren’t available in the United States; I’m guessing possibly that many of their products contain chicken or beef, and import of chicken or beef into the United States from Asia is very hard if not impossible. Luckily, fish products are generally accepted for import quite easily and here we are. Let’s check out this  Master Kong Seafood instant noodle! ...see full post

#1573: Hao Way Penang White Curry Instant Bowl Noodles

I’m sure everyone has been noticing – I’ve been reviewing a LOT of Malaysian instant noodles lately. The reason for this is that I have a ton of different varieties with more on their way – but this one’s a first! This is the first Penang White Curry bowl variant I’ve tried. Let’s have a look! ...see full post

#1571: Econsave Choice Instant Noodles Curry Flavour

One thing that tends to baffle a lot of my readers is my fascination with ‘store brands.’ I often get ‘it nothing special’ and thoughts like that. To me however, any instant noodle I’ve not reviewed before is definitely fair game and believe it or not, store brands tend to be much harder for me to source than any others. The reason for this is that large supermarket chains are mostly regional and don’t distribute their instant noodle varieties to anywhere other than their own stores. This one is particularly special – I got this one on my trip to Malaysia, and got it at the Econsave grocery store in Butterworth, Penang! ...see full post

#1570: Maruchan Big Cup Ramen Corn, Salt & Butter Flavor

Once in a while, I get something a little different – something that contains something I’ve not seen before. This is one of those times. So it was kind of difficult to translate this one – it’s basically salt Butter and Corn flavor, although the translation I ended up with didn’t mention the corn. I decided to go ahead and add corn in the title anyways. Also, I saw lots of translations mention the word circle, although I’m not sure if that was just Google translate being weird.Anyways, this is a big bowl of noodles and I’m very curious to try them. Without any further adieu, let’s open this thing up and look inside! ...see full post

#1568: MAMA Instant Noodles Cup Beef Flavour

Recently, I did a Meet The Manufacturer with Thai President Foods, makers of MAMA brand instant noodles. They’re located in Thailand and have a quite enjoyable range of products. Well, I’m happy to announce that I’ve been invited to visit their factory and visit ThaiFex, a big fhood expo in May! I’ll have more on that soon. Very exciting! I’ll have more info about the trip soon, but for now, let’s check out this cup from Thailand! ...see full post

#1566: Nissin Cup Noodles Tomato Enjoy Noodles With Hot Soup

This one I got at a large Indian grocery in Bellevue a month of so ago. I had a couple from this line waaay back – a Pani Puri and a Manchurian one. This one sounds pretty good to me – also curious how must of the hot sour I’ll enjoy as I’m going to bet this sucks up almost all the liquid. Anyways, let’s see! ...see full post

#1565: Oyatsu Baby Star Snack Noodle Chicken Flavour

Here’s one of the ones I got when we went up for my annual birthday trip to Canada! So snack noodles are very popular around the world – Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan have quite a few companies making different varieties. They’re usually basically an uncooked instant with a seasoning to add or are pre-seasoned. Let’s check out this one from Japan – Oyatsu Baby Star! ...see full post