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Today’s the next to last review of the Nissin Singapore Meet The Manufacturer. This is the 14th review! There have been an interesting array of different varieties that have been really quite good! Today, I’m trying the package version of their spicy beef flavor. I reviewed the bowl version pretty early on. Anyways, let’s have a look at this one!
Been a busy day today so noodles came in the evening instead of first thing in the morning. Usually, instant noodles are the first thing I eat in the morning. Well, today it’s vegetable tom yam Cup Noodles. Let’s see how they come out – very curious how they’ll be inside!
My son’s favorite instant noodles of all time are (drumrolls please), Nissin Top Ramen Chicken Flavor. It’s about as domestic as you can get. I’ll admit I like it a lot too – basic noodles and decent chicken broth. He does let me make him stuff that’s a little more adventurous from time to time. Today’s going to be one of those days.
Many of you familiar with the sight of this package may say – hey waitta minute – what are you calling this? In fact, this is known by a few names! Here in the United States, it’s called Nissin Demae Ramen. In Japan, the four characters in big print translate to Demae Iccho. In Singapore however, Chinese is often spoken, and they translate to Chu Qian Yi Ding. I’m pretty sure it means something like delivery boy’ or something – the little guy on the package. Anyways, this is pretty easily gotten the world over, however this is the Singaporean made one! Let’s check it out!
Cup Noodles are made by Nissin in all sorts of varieties worldwide. They make them specifically for different regions – the ones for sale in India have an Indian taste; ones in Brazil have flavors that appeal to Brazilians. One flavor that is kind of universal is chicken. I would guess that every country has some kind of well known chicken dish. I wonder if they have chicken in Antarctica? I guess it would be freeze-dried and imported. Is Antarctica even inhabited? Maybe wikipedia will know…
XO Sauce is an interesting thing; I think this Wikipedia snippet is a good way to start –
Developed in the 1980s in Hong Kong for Cantonese cuisine, XO sauce is made of roughly chopped dried seafoods, including scallops, dried fish and shrimp, and subsequently cooked with chili peppers, onions, and garlic. This dried seafood-based sauce bears similarity to the Fujianese Shacha sauce. Spring Moon, the Peninsula Hong Kong‘s Chinese restaurant is often credited with the invention of XO sauce, although others claim the sauce’s origin in the urban area of Kowloon.[2]
I first heard of a dish called Chilli Crab a few years ago, and was told it was the ‘signature dish of Singapore.’ Since the advent of Instagram, I’ve seen this particular Cup Noodle variety dozens of times and always have been quite curious about it. Let’s take a look at this regional Cup Noodles variety!
Toiday, I’m reviewing another new one from Nissin Singapore – Kyushu Black. Kyushu style ramen is different in that it features broth with a cloudy nature and rich flavor. Nissin Singapore’s Kyushu Black looks from the package to feature this. The black part? Black garlic oil! Looks interesting! What to add…
Looks like we’ve got some hot weather coming to the northwest this week. One weather report is saying it will get into the 90’s which is pretty darn hot for these parts. My wife and I were talking about it the other day and she mentioned that the last time we had a summer with such hot temperatures, the winter was equally as extreme – got lots of snow! I hope that it turns out the same way this year because I really like snow quite a bit. Granted, there are quite a few challenges getting around being legally blind, but it’s neat stuff all the same.
Whether you call is Tom Yam or Tum Yum, it’s a tasty, spicy and citrus flavored soup that originally heralds from Thailand. It is often served with seafood (shrimp seems most common) and garnished with coriander, better known in the United States as cilantro. When I first saw something mentioning coriander in Tom Yam, I decided to go to the store and find some. I ended up with a $5 little jar of powder. At the point I realized they call it cilantro here, I felt a little stupid, albeit a more educated. Coriander adds a nice little flavor to things. The thing is that you can’t get it here in very small amounts. For usually between 50 and 90 cents, you get more coriander than I would have any clue of what to do with, and I suppose it could be frozen, but I don’t think it would be as fresh and happy as it is when it’s just bought. So, I always feel a bit wasteful when I buy it. On the bright side, I think it’ll come into play a few times in this week, so that’s at least a plus. Well, let’s try this Tom Yam and use some coriander!
Here’s a new line from Nissin Singapore – their premium Japanese ramen. There are two of them – this Tokyo Shoyu and one called Kyushu Black which I will be reviewing in the few days. So what is Tokyo Shoyu? Well, let’s start with some Wikipedia info on shoyu ramen:
Seafood curry! This sounds and looks really interesting. I think this is the first that mentions including cuttlefish, too! I got curries cuttlefish at a dim sum joint nearby a few months ago. It’s pretty good stuff – chewy and had a nice curry sauce. I’ve got some nice things to add to this one I just got at the store the other day. For the last few months, I’ve been trying new things from the seafood counter at the Asian markets around me. I’ve tried quite a few fishball varieties, sliced squid, and got some interesting looking fish cakes! Let’s have a look at this seafood curry from Nissin Singapore!
This looks like a good one! I like how it mentions on the front in the little text: with ‘top-notch Secret Roasted Beef Paste Recipe’ – that definitely has me interested. This is part of their Premium line – let’s have a look under the hood and see what makes this instant noodle tick.
Let’s kick things off with this Cream of Chicken Cup Noodles. I’ve heard of creamy chicken instant noodle, but never cream of chicken! What’s more interesting to me is the part of the world this is coming from; I would think this a more US or British flavor, but Singapore? I looked around online and found this recipe for creamy soups on a Singapore Home Cooking site – I would never have guessed creamy soups would’ve been popular there! Anyways, let’s give it a try!
When I told the folks at Nissin Singapore that I’ll review up to 15 different products for a Meet The Manufacturer, they decided to send some more! Let’s peek inside.
Got a package yesterday! These are samples from Nissin Singapore!
These are two new varieties of ramen noodles – Tokyo Shoyu and Kyushu Black! Sound interesting!
Interview With Nissin Singapore * Product Samples From Nissin Singapore (1 of 2) * Product Samples From Nissin Singapore (2 of 2) * Nissin Cup Noodles Cream Of Chicken Flavour * Nissin Premium Instant Noodles Roasted Beef Flavour * Nissin Cup Noodles Seafood Curry Flavour * Nissin Japanese Ramen Tokyo Shoyu Instant Noodles With Soup Base * Nissin Cup Noodles Tom Yam Seafood Flavour * Nissin Premium Instant Noodles Spicy Beef Flavour * Nissin Japanese Ramen Kyushu Black Instant Noodles With Soup Base * Nissin Cup Noodles Chilli Crab Flavour * Nissin Premium Instant Noodles XO Sauce Seafood Flavour * Nissin Cup Noodles Chicken Flavour * Nissin Chu Qian Yi Ding Sesame Oil Flavour Instant Noodles With Soup Base * Nissin Premium Instant Noodles Roast Beef Flavour * Nissin Cup Noodles Tom Yam Veg Flavour * Nissin Premium Instant Noodles Spicy Beef Flavour * Nissin Cup Noodles Black Pepper Crab Flavour
If you like it hot, you’re in for a real treat here. These are the spiciest instant noodles you can get that I’ve reviewed from my 1,446 reviews thus far. If you can’t handle spicy foods, these definitely aren’t for you – these are serious! Many of these were so hot, I couldn’t finish the bowl – and I can handle a decent amount of heat! I used to review hot sauces! Anyways, Hope everyone is having a great summer and here are the spiciest instant noodles of all time for 2014!
To start off, thanks to Raissa T. and Andre L. for their help on translating! Today feels like a yakisoba day. I really like yakisoba! It’s a pretty versatile dish; you can add anything to it and it’s still good! Well, strawberry jelly probably isn’t the best add-in… Then again, with that mention perhaps someone will try it and make it the new craze? The latest weird add-in craze was adding those little pudding cups or flan into a Cup Noodle. Bizarre… Well, let’s see how this comes out – looks good on the package! Especially with the amazingly cool little recommendation to…
If you’ve wanted a really in-depth documentary about the instant noodle, this is a great one. From past to present and beyond, this documentary follows the journey – from Momofuku Ando’s process of inventing the instant noodle, to how it’s developed in different cultures.
The day is upon us – the day to review the new Hokkien Prawn Noodle – the second instant noodle from the company that made the number one on my 2014 Top Ten Instant Noodles Of All Time list! As with their Penang White Curry Noodle, Hokkien Prawn Noodle is a bit of a mystery for me. I had never tried White Curry before I tried their product, nor have I ever had Hokkien Prawn Noodle before. I did a little digging online and found the Penang Hawker Food Blog. I found this text there:
Woo-hoo! I’ve been looking for a couple varieties by Maruchan for a while and this is one of them. I want to thank Craig Y. and all the nice folks at Maruchan for getting this one in my hands! I’m sure someone out there is going to say ‘Hard to find? It’s at every store around me!’ One thing though is that not every product is marketed or distributed to every area. One example of this kind of thing is a soda called Cheerwine. It’s quite popular and easily found in the southern United States, but it’s relatively unknown on the west coast. Anyways, Jalapeno Cheddar noodles sounds pretty neat! Let’s have a look at this one.
Here’s a new one from Nongshim, and it’s definitely unique. It’s a stir noodle, which means that there’s no broth, but a sauce that it stirred in to coat the noodles. Another unique thing is that it can be served hot OR cold! I was thinking of using a special divided bowl I have, but one side is bigger than the other and so I came up with an idea: since they sent a few packs, I’ll make one hot, sample it and then make one cold and sample it – easy enough. Something else I found interesting was on the right and left sides of the package. It says “NONGSHIM BLACK CLASS NOODLE DISH.” The final interesting this about this one is the inclusion of chipotle. Chipotle? Now that’s different – don’t think I’ve come across that being used in an instant before. Well, let’s open this one up and see what’s inside!
My contact at MyKuali told me she was sending some samples of their new Penang Hokkien Prawn Noodle over! If your follow my annual Top Ten Instant Noodles Of All Time lists, you’ll know that MyKuali hit #1 with their Penang White Curry Noodle this year. These two big boxes showed up yesterday…
Awesome! Tom Yam! Tom Yam soup is a spicy and citrus seafood extravaganza for the taste buds. I really enjoy it quite a bit. Let’s see how this variety tastes! This one’s made in Malaysia.
Here’s the third package from Maggi Singapore!
Hey these look neat – on the left is Maggi Royale Penang Seafood Curry and on the right, 2 Minute Tom Yam! Thanks!
Interview With Maggi Singapore * Product Samples From Maggi Singapore ( 1 of 3 ) * Product Samples From Maggi Singapore ( 2 of 3 ) * Product Samples From Maggi Singapore ( 3 of 3 ) * Maggi Extra Spicy Curry Instant Noodles * Maggi Senses Laksa Instant Noodles * Maggi 2 Minute Noodles Curry Flavour * Maggi Hot Cup Perisa Kari * Maggi 2 Minute Noodles Assam Laksa Flavour * Maggi 2 Minute Noodles Tom Yam Flavour *
I sent an email whilst down in California to a friend at Maruchan USA as to where to find a couple varieties I couldn’t find here. He was kind enough to arrange some samples!
Wow check this big sucker out! Nissin’s Souper Meals are exactly that – super sized! This was sent over by the nice folks over at Nissin Foods USA the other day – thanks! Let’s peel the lid off of this one and have a peek inside…
So this week there have been a myriad of articles coming out; Eater, HuffPost, TV news websites… All showing this video and headlines like “Stop What You’re Doing: This Is How Ramen Noodles Are Made.”
I’ve reviewed quite a few instant by this brand. They’re made in Taiwan and they come with four of everything; four noodle blocks, four of each sachet. The Interesting twist with this one is that it doesn’t use broth; it’s a stir noodle! I don’t think I’ve found one of those yet. Let’s check it out!
Here’s the last of the Adabi varieties I received from Annie T. of MyKuali in Malaysia – thank you! It’s a wet and rainy day outside this morning. It started raining just before 7am and has been ever since! In northwest Washington state, we sometimes get a big dump of rain in the summertime – even got some thunder! You can see how easily amused I am! Anyways, spicy mi goreng sounds like a nice accompaniment for the day’s weather. Let’s have a look at this one.
Most of us in the United States are familiar with Maruchan’s ramen packs and ‘Instant Lunch’ cups. However, most of us aren’t familiar with Maruchan’s popular products overseas in Japan. Miso is a fermented soybean paste – it’s good stuff, with a kind of musty scent. Notice on the front of this one: it’s also saying that it’s lower calorie. Let’s have a look inside.
Here’s something I’ve been waiting for – three new products from Nongshim America! Let’s see what’s inside!
A few months back, a fellow named Tomonori contacted me asking for some help with a television program in Japan. He wanted to know if he could use some of my images and get some info. I said sure – if you could send me a real Japanese ramen bowl! He was more than happy to do so and so we exchanged some info. A little later, the television program came out.
Here’s something you wouldn’t find in the United States usually! Macaroni and cheese is a common thing here; almost a national dish! But macaroni and chicken and abalone – in a broth? Nope – not something most would even consider. One thing’s for sure: macaroni is almost always accompanied by cheese here. Let’s see what it’s like cheese free!
These little cups always are a nice surprise. I usually expect that they’ll be funky and gross but they usually have been very good! This one sounds interesting – I’m curious what ‘brown sauce’ means; like brown gravy? The pic on the front looks like wide rice noodles too. Well, it looks like fun to me – let’s crack this one open and see what’s going on inside.
Came home from the store yesterday to see this on my doorstep – samples from Nissin USA! Let’s open it up!
Win Onn Foods of Malaysia make Hao Way brand Penang White Curry Noodles. I reviewed them a while back, but they asked if I’d like some more. Very kind!
Yeah – it’s that time of year again! Cups are interesting; they usually hold a lot less water than a bowl, so the steeping process is a little different and so are the noodles. I’ve had some horrendous cups over the years, but then there are some that are really quite good. This last year has been a great one where cups are concerned! Let’s have a look at the best of the best! The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Instant Noodle Cups Of All Time 2014 Edition!
