Went through my bins and found everything I’d not reviewed. Guess what? Only four things. Yep – I’ve all but caught up! Which is good because more should be here tomorrow with more on the way. I’ve been on a roll lately – really found my groove again. Here’s how my day goes (if anyone cares). Get up, get stuff ready for kids, get stuff ready for reviewing. Review. Get my boy on the bus. Have some oatmeal and peanut butter with my daughter. Edit images and video for the reviews I did. Do some walking back and forth in the apartment. Get my daughter ready. Get her on the bus. Walk ten miles. Get home and get my daughter off the bus. Then my son off the bus. Then start taking pictures of the stuff I’ll review the next day and get those posts ready. Then we get the kids dinner done, put em to bed, have our dinner, try not to fall asleep/wake up on the couch and then start the whole thing over. Today is a little different. Today is a new tradition I started a couple of weeks ago. It’s B-roll Sunday. What’s that you probably don’t ask? Well, I go out walking with my rucksack on my back with my monopod, the phone I use to shoot Instant Noodle Recipe Time, and a battery brick in search of benches that have decent views and shoot ten or more minutes of video to do time lapse videos. Today I walked to Seattle – and should have some good intros and outros in store for this and the next couple of episodes of the show. But enought about me and this behind the scenes look at things you probably aren’t interested in. Let’s try this one from China.
Category: China
#4248: Dian Zun Crossing The Bridge Noodle – China
First, off a huge thanks to Kyle over at Mom’s Dry Noodle for help in translating this. According to him, this is a special dish – here’s what Wikipedia had to say about it –
#4247: Qinsheng Shaanxi Cold Noodle Sour & Spicy Flavor – China
This is a Shaanxi cold noodle. So, what’s that? Well, it’s from a region of China. It’s really quite good, but a bit of trouble to cook. But I’m going to cook it. You can always watch me battle with it in the episode of Instant Noodle Recipe Time at the bottom of this post. You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel as I have a new episode of the show every single day. Anyways, let’s give it a try!
King David Sends Non-Fried Noodle Samples!
A company I’ve seen for a few years called King David connected with me a while back about sending samples – and they did! These are special non-fried noodles in chicken and beef. It looks like King David does a lot of ‘private label’ products. So, say you had Joe’s Snacks To Go or something like that – you could contract with King David and they would put your logo on instant noodles and you’d be selling instant noodles now. It’s interesting stuff. Well, let’s crack this box open and have a look inside! Thank you!
#4217: Lin Jia Ya Tou One Noodle One Soup Spicy Noodle – China
One noodle, one soup. You get some dry noodle with sauce and a bowl of soup on the side – okay? This is the last of this series I found just before Lunar New Year. Let’s check it out!
#4215: Yuanxian Absolutely Yummy Hotpot Sweet Potato Noodle – China
Well, hello there! I haven’t been reviewing a lot lately – weather’s been nice and I’ve been walking a lot – did 22 miles last week – on Thursday! Luckily, I’m over a hundred reviews ahead so by the time you see this, it’s probably close to 4 months later than when I wrote this here. Anyways, this one came from Asian Family Market on Aurora a couple days before Lunar New Year. Let’s check it out!
The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Instant Noodle Cups Of All Time 2023 Edition
Often overlooked but always present, the instant noodle cups is a very common ‘on the go’ form factor for instant noodle varieties around the world. These are my favorite cup varieties from reviews up to #4120. Don’t see a variety you like I’ve not tried? Contact me! Also, here’s a link to all of my top ten lists! With that, let’s check out The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Instant Noodle Cups Of All Time 2023 Edition.
#4209: Kings Noodle Hot & Sour – China
The last Kings Noodle variety I tried was absolutely phenomenal, so I’ve got high hopes for this one. This is a single serving variety with a whole lot going on in the box – let’s check it out!
#4207: Xijiu XO Sauce Noodle – China
This is a tricky one to translate. Big thank you to Kyle over at Mom’s Dry Noodle for your help! I found this one 2 days before Lunar New Year – fancy stuff. XO sauce is really nice stuff too. Let’s give this a go.
#4196: Lin Jia Ya Tou One Noodle One Soup Pepper Noodle – China
Found this one right before Lunar New Year. Looked interesting and there were three of them we could get, so we got all three. The last one I tried said it was spicy, but didn’t seem to be so much. Luckily, this time I got some really great advice on what this was and how to cook it from Annie over at Red Chef – thanks you! Let’s give it a try!
#4189: Kings Noodle Chongqing Instant Pea Noodles – China
Another one found just before Lunar New Year at a local market. These have all been fun to review as they’re all very mysterious; the way to translate and research these is always different and usually requires a lot of digging. Let’s check it out!
#4186: Shoo Loong Kan Hot Pot Vermicelli Hot and Sour Rice Noodles – China
Here’s another one I found at Asian Family Market in 99 in Shoreline. We got so many that day. Wow. Still a ton to do! Let’s check it out!
The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Instant Noodle Bowls Of All Time 2022 Edition
Lots of people enjoy bowls full of noodles from around the world. They often come with a utensil, and all you need it hot water. For a quick meal, they’re hard to beat insofar as convenience. Some bowls however go above and beyond a utilitarian sense and are truly gourmet. This list is comprised of my favorite bowl varieties from all reviews up to #4120. All scoring is done prior to garnish being added. Do you want me to review something I haven’t? Drop me a line! With that, let’s peruse my top picks on The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Instant Noodle Bowls Of All Time 2022 Edition!
#4164: JTM Food XO Sauce Seafood Noodle – China
This is another one I found a couple days before Lunar New Year. The bar code came up with nothing which was a little troublesome, but I did manage to find the website on the packaging. The XO definitely is a reference to XO sauce, and it being blue and pics of the bowl definitely mean it’s gotta be XO sauce seafood. At least, I think so. Let’s check this one out!
#4163: BAMAN Rice Noodles, Hot and Sour – China
Another one I found during sales on Lunar New Year products. Very curious about this one and kind of confused as to how to prepare it, but I’ll figure it out. Let’s give it a look!
#4161: Qinsheng Shaanxi Cold Noodle Hot & Spicy Flavor – China
It’s been a while and thought hey – today is Lunar New Year so I’m doing Chinese reviews today. This is a very popular street dish – the noodle is called Liangpi. It’s a cold noodle dish, and really quite tasty – let’s get started!
#4160: Lin Jia Ya Tou 2x Spicy Salted Egg Yolk Flavour – China
I’m getting this post ready to go the day before Lunar New Year – – we went to a big Asian grocery just north of Seattle yesterday and shopped for noodles. They usually have some really neat things in store for the special holiday! This is supposed to be an extra spicy salted egg variety – very curious about it – let’s check it out and see if it’s truly ultra spicy! I should note that I had no clue my lens was so greasy – which is a bummer since I did three shows and a mukbang while it was like this… So, forgive me. It’s clean now, although a little late…
#4142: Baixiang Artificial Pork Bone Soup Flavor Instant Noodle – China
You know, I’ve had the pack version of it and I recall I did enjoy it, so hey – why not the bowl? I found this over at the local 99 Ranch Market and though wow I haven’t done the bowl – let’s do it! So, here I am, doing it as it were.
#4141: Sichuan Baijia Lanzhou Artificial Beef Flavor Noodle – China
I think I recently did another version of this a little while back – that’s usually means it’s been months. Anyways, pretty crazy here now what with Omicron – so I’ve gotten two emails from the kiddos school district saying be prepared if things get worse they’ll be back home with their school tablets again. That would be incredibly unfortunate; they get so much out of socializing. Then again I don’t want my kids getting sick. My son’s fully vaccinated and my daughter got her first one a day after her 5th birthday just before Christmas.
#4140: Kang Shi Fu Braised Artificial Beef Flavor – China
I thought I would do three reviews in a row from China. Why? Well, it’s January 3rd here and I just got done with the arduous Christmas and New Year’s happenings and I want to show off my new musical instrument. You can watch the video below and on the next two reviews. Be kind – never played a bowed instrument before in my life and never a traditional Chinese instrument.
#4115: Nan Chuan Dao Sheng Wuhan Sesame Hot Sauce Konjac Rice Noodle – China
Konjac noodles generally are very chewy and rubbery – unless they have a gauge that works well with them. That being said, they’re also quite low in calories – extremely low. This one seems to marry konjac and rice together for the noodle. However, if it were simply konjac, it would be much lower. Anyways, let’s see what we have.
#4096: Artisan Instant Noodles Artificial Beef Flavor – China
Here’s the second of the Artisan branded varieties I’ve come across recently. Neat flower pot style big cups with a ton of sachets within. I think I found this at Asian Family Market on 130th Aurora in Shoreline. Let’s check it out.
#4087: Nanchang Rice Noodles Classic Flavor – China
Found these at Asian Family Market on 130th & Aurora. Don’t really know anything about these. What I can say is that they also have a crawfish flavor variety. There are so many Chinese brands that show up these days with a single variety and very little info. I should say though lots of English on this one which makes translation painless and cooking instructions are included in that. Let’s give ’em a go!
#4071: Artisan Chongqing Style Noodles – China
Here’s one I found at Asian Family Market on Aurora near Shoreline. Pretty rad place to find neat new stuff to review. Never seen this Artisan branding before – let’s check it out!
#4048: Kailo Brand Instant Noodles Chicken Flavour – China
Here’s one that came from an Exotic Noods subscription box! Use coupon code THERAMENRATER for a discount. I haven’t had anything by this brand in probably a decade – but I remember I liked this brand’s products. I remember that, but I don’t know where my keys are at the moment. Fascinating. Well, let’s give it a try!
The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Spiciest Instant Noodles Of All Time 2022 Edition
One thing I’ve noticed – spicy is in. This list tends to be the most popular on my website The Ramen Rater every single day. People just want to get all the spicy they can get. Why is that? Spicy is intense. Spicy compliments flavor. Spicy will knock you on your butt. The challenge and chase for the endorphin rush that ultra spicy things give people is extremely tempting for many. These are the spiciest varieties I’ve had the opportunity to sample as of my 3,950th review. Ready to burn? Let’s get to The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Spiciest Instant Noodles Of All Time 2022 Edition.
#4022: Yumei Night Market Chow Mein – Soy Sauce Flavor – China
Found this one at the Asian Family Market on 130th & Aurora in Seattle. They’ve got a lot of premium varieties – this one is in a little box which is pretty neat. I’ve had some from this brand in the past I really didn’t like but I’m hopeful – I mean, they’re mentioning night market in the title and night markets are really, really cool – at least when I visited Taiwan. Let’s check it out!
#4012: Lingzhu Hot & Spicy Konjac Liangpi – China
Here’s another one I found at Asian Family Market in North Seattle at 130th & Aurora. This one is konjac and being konjac noodle, it’s exceedingly low in calories – it’s saying it’s 16 calories for 100 grams. Like I said – way low cal. Let’s check it out – by the way it’s a cold noodle!
#3994: Baman Sour Doujiao Noodle – China
This one looked interesting – saw it at our local 99 Ranch Market… Was really struggling with the translation of the directions, however my friend Bobby from Toronto came through right when I needed clarification and here we are – thanks! Let’s give this a try!
#3990: Sichuan Guangyou 9999 Chongqing Instant Noodle Artificial Beef Flavor – China
Here’s one that came via Exotic Noods – check ’em out and use coupon code THERAMENRATER for a discount!
#3988: Uncle Fun Hai Nan Fen – China
An apron, glasses, and a sunny demeanor. Yes, this is Uncle Fun. Fun? Foon? I’m guessing it’s pronounced Foon. When I opened this, the aroma was definitely nice. But what was difficult was the cooking part. I found a new way to image translate, but it was through google, so very confusing. Boiling noodles in cold water seems a little strange to me, but they’ve got some mad tech in China, yo… I hope I can figure out how the heck to cook this stuff… UPDATE – big thanks to Kyle K. over at Mom’s Dry Noodle for huge help in cooking instructions!
#3983: Shi Zu Ren Energy Vegetarian Beef Flavor Noodle – China
Yup – another Chinese flower pot. I like these so much – they’re interesting things. Lots of sachets and bits and pieces to taste. Let’s check it out!
#3937: Xiao Long Kan Jintong Sour & Hot Pumpkin Flavor – China
Well this sounds interesting enough… Another flower pot. This one looks neat and sounds tasty. Let’s check it out!
#3932: Single Grain Chongqing Noodles – China
Another one found at the nearby 99 Ranch Market in Edmonds, Washington. That place really holds a dear place in m heart – that’s where my interest in the instant noodle really was rekindled back in 2010 when we moved about five minutes away. There should be a plaque. Anyways, let’s check out this spicy Chinese variety.
#3928: Mo Xiao Xian Luosifen Instant Rice Noodle- China
Wow so this one looked neat but sure didn’t want me to know exactly what it was. Smelly powder? Smelly smelly juice? I mean, yeah – of course sign me up for that experience, but I want to know what it’s actually called.
#3905: Shoo Loong Kan Mianyang Instant Rice Noodle – China
Three Chinese varieties found at the same store in a row. I still feel like crap – it’s the third day of reviews but I’m doing four today.
#3903: Fairy Bridge Huo Guo Gu Lang Maocai Instant Hotpot Noodles Chuanchuanxiang Flavor – China
This one looked interesting when we were out noodle hunting a few weeks ago. I’m in the mood for interesting. I’m also feeling a little loopy today – allergies and I got my second Pfizer shot. Let’s do this.
#3902: Baijia Chengdu Sweet Noodle – China
Here’s one we found at a fancy market on Highway 99 south of Shoreline. This one sounds pretty good – I suppose we shall see. Let’s check it out!
#3890: Niudafang Lanzhou Ramen – China
A recent local find. Unfortunately, the website mentioned on the box is defunct. Luckily, I kind of figured out the way to cook this one up from seeing varieties that did come with soup on YouTube when I looked up Lanzhou. Let’s check this one out.
#3882: Shi Zu Ren Daozai Mian Instant Sour Noodle Soup – China
Here’s yet another one of these Shi Zu Ren ‘flower pots.’ This one’s pretty snazzy – silver shiny cup with Mr. Demon and flying pieces of vegetable. Let’s dig in!