Category: Japan

#2128: Sapporo Ichiban Taimeiken Yousyoku Yasangatsukutta Omumen

Here’s another one from BoxFromJapan.com. They’re a subscription service where you can get a box of noodles from Japan every month (they also have neat candy boxes from Japan as well). Still to this date I haven’t gotten a repeat or anothing I’ve ever reviewed in the past – pretty awesome! Here’s what they have to say about this one: ...see full post

#2126: Nissin Mennippon Oumi Chanpon

A lot of Meet The Manufacturers lately! Nice to get back to going through my hampers and picking something different every day! This one hails from Japan and was sent to me by Javier of www.BoxFromJapan.com. You can go there and subscribe to a monthly box of instant ramen – really a great deal! I’ve never gotten a repeat or one that I’ve reviewed before – pretty awesome! Here’s what Javier has to say about this one: ...see full post

#2099: Sanpo Yakibuta Ramen

Here’s another one from the Box From Japan box from March! BoxFromJapan.com is a monthly subscription service – you get 4 neat and very unique bowls of ramen sent from Japan along with a few chopsticks and a little letter! Really awesome – I’ve not gotten any that I’ve reviewed before at this point which is really quite amazing! Anyways, check them out! Today’s variety looks interesting – they mention that the piece of pork is shaped like a heart to show the care they put into their products. Neat! Let’s check it out! ...see full post

#2096: Maruchan Seimen Noukou Toro Tonkotsu

Here’s one from the Box From Japan box from March! BoxFromJapan.com is a monthly subscription service – you get 4 neat and very unique bowls of ramen sent from Japan along with a few chopsticks and a little letter! Really awesome – I’ve not gotten any that I’ve reviewed before at this point which is really quite amazing! Today it’s a shiny gold ensconced tonkotsu. Let’s have a look! ...see full post

Washoku Explorer Kit: #2066: Marutai Hakata Tonkotsu Ramen

Okay so a few weeks ago I got a neat box in the mail. It contained the Washoku Explorer Tonkotsu Ramen kit. The idea is that you can get a nice kit with all the things you need to experience a great bowl of Japanese ramen at home – even the bowl! You can visit Washoku Explorer here. They have all sorts of other Japanese kits – really fascinating and a neat idea! The Tonkotsu Ramen kit includes this Marutai Hakata Tonkotsu ramen (2 packs with 2 servings each) and well as some special garnishes/add-ons I’ll show you below. Let’s check it out and give it a try! ...see full post

#2060: Nissin Cup Noodle Light Plus Cheese Fondue

During the Nissin Japan Meet The Manufacturer, I reviewed 15 varieties. Well, Daisuke-san from Nissin Japan sent many more – amazing varieties that I get to put into the regular rotation and share with you now! Thank you again, Daisuke-san! This is one of the new new Cup Noodle Light varieties – let’s take a look! By the way – he mentioned that just recently, Cup Noodle(s) has been enjoyed over 40 BILLION times since the 1970s! Wow! ...see full post

#2055: Nissin Tokyo Tokunou Gyokai Tonkotsu

Here’s one from the Box From Japan box from March! BoxFromJapan.com is a monthly subscription service – you get 4 neat and very unique bowls of ramen sent from Japan along with a few chopsticks and a little letter! Really awesome – I’ve not gotten any that I’ve reviewed before at this point which is really quite amazing! Anyways, check them out! Today’s variety looks really great – here’s what Box From Japan has to say about it: ...see full post

#2048: Acecook Kado-Men Koikoku Tonkotsu

Here’s one from the April offering of Box From Japan! This looks like one big bowl of tonkotsu! Let’s have a look inside! By the way – Box From Japan is a really great way to get some instant noodles you probably haven’t ever tried before, nor in a million years wouldn’t have access to here in the USA. With that, let’s crack this bog one open! ...see full post

The June Box From Japan

For a while now, Javier over at BoxFromJapan.com has been sending me sample boxes and they’ve been really out of this world. Box From Japan is a subscription service – you can get a new box every month to your door – it’s reasonably priced I think since you can’t find any of these in the USA, plus I’ve NEVER gotten a single instant ramen from him that I’ve ever reviewed before – and that’s definitely saying something. Not only that, he also has a candy box – all sorts of neat treats from Japan as well! Let’s look inside! ...see full post

#2039: Tokushima Seifun Yakibuta Ramen

Here’s another one from Wesley N. He sent a box in mid December that arrived mid February from Japan – we’d thought it might have been lost, but it showed up – and in immaculate condition! Thank you again!Tokushima prefecture is on Shikoku island in Japan, and these varieties from Tokushima Seifun aren’t widely known and very localized. Seifun literally means ‘manufactured powder,’ referring to the flour mill. This looks exceptionally good! Let’s have a look! ...see full post

#2035: Acecook Maru Uma Curry Udon

Another one from Javier over at Box From Japan! Thanks! So if you didn’t already know, BoxFromJapan.com is a subscription service. You can get 4 instant noodles from Japan a month. What’s amazing is that I not yet received a single on that I’d reviewed previously which is truly amazing. You can also get a monthly Japanese candy box! Pretty rad! Today, I’ll be checking out this Acecook curry udon cup. Let’s crack it open! ...see full post

Box From Japan: It’s Gonna Be May!

For a while now, Javier over at BoxFromJapan.com has been sending me sample boxes and they’ve been really out of this world. Box From Japan is a subscription service – you can get a new box every month to your door – it’s reasonably priced I think since you can’t find any of these in the USA, plus I’ve NEVER gotten a single instant ramen from him that I’ve ever reviewed before – and that’s definitely saying something. Not only that, he also has a candy box – all sorts of neat treats from Japan as well! Let’s look inside! ...see full post

High End Ramen Exploration Set From Washoku Explorer Of Japan

I heard about this from a post by a colleague in the noodle review crowd (yeah, there are more of us) and thought I’d see if I could give it a review. I got an affirmative, and this is what they sent. First – Washoku Explorer appears to be a website with offerings that aren’t only about being tasty food, but educating you on the foods from Japan. It looks like a really neat thing – click here to check it out.This will be a special upcoming review! For now, let’s have a look at what we have here. ...see full post

Meet The Manufacturer: #2004: Nissin Donbei Dashi Shoyu Yakiudon

Well, here we are with the last of this Meet The Manufacturer. It’s been a lot of fun and I hope it;s been a neat one for everyone to see! I want to personally thank Mr. Okabayashi for all of his help throughout this process! Many were hard for me to figure out the names on and he was very quick to help. Not only that, he made sure there was a great variety to choose from for Meet The Manufacturer. So again, thank you very much! Today’s review will be this large bowl – the same shape as the Nissin UFO bowls. This is part of their Donbei line. You might wonder – so what’s yakiudon? Well, simply put yaki means fried. So, these are thicker noodles than what you would find in yakisoba. Let’s check this out! ...see full post

Meet The Manufacturer: #2003: Nissin Raoh Rich Miso Flavor

So this one confused me a little; I was sure I’d reviewed it before. In fact, here is review #1069. I’m noticing a couple of differences though. First, different bar code. Second, different water amount. Notice this one says 400ml for 5 minutes whereas the other says 430ml for 5 minutes. Curious. Let’s take a look and see what makes this big fancy bowl tick. ...see full post

Meet The Manufacturer: #2002: Nissin Cup Noodles Tom Yum Goong

This is one of Nissin Japan’s ethnic series – this one being Thai in origin, they also have a Singaporean Laksa and an Indonesian Mi Goreng. This one looks a lot like the Nissin Cup Noodles that come from Thailand – usually there’s the guys from Manchester United on there as well. Let’s have a look inside and see what’s what. ...see full post

Meet The Manufacturer: #2001: Nissin BIG Cup Noodle Seafood Clam Chowder

What – you thought I’d quit at #2000? Surely you jest. The beat goes on and on and on and on, folks. What’s crazy is I’ve never reviewed the regular Nissin Seafood Cup Noodle – however one has come into my possesion recently thanks to a reader, so I will be very soon. This is a very new one from Nissin – let’s check it out! ...see full post

Meet The Manufacturer: #1999: Nissin Curry Udon

Wow – the cusp of history with this review, folks. The next post will be #2000. That’s a LOT of reviews. It’s funny though; it’s such a regular part of my day that it doesn’t seem too insanely crazy to me anymore. But then again, yeah – most people think I’m pretty nutty, but hey it’s a fun hobby and it’s unique – I dig my niche. Anyways, one of my favorite flavors is curry. Since I was a kid and my mom would make curried chicken livers for dinner (she hasn’t made that in years; she questions the quality of chicken livers these days), I’ve enjoyed it a lot. Well, this is Japanese curry; usually not super spicy and leaning towards the sweet side which is always nice. Let’s have a look at this cup. ...see full post

Meet The Manufacturer: #1997: Nissin Cup Noodle Vegeta Buta-kyabetsu Tonkotsu

This is a very yellow Cup Noodle! It’s a pork and cabbage tonkotsu andc I noticed that it mentions ‘1/3’ in a few spots. I believe this is denoting that this contains 1/3 of the daily intake of vegetables one should get. That’s great – I really like it when lots of vegetables are included in a variety! As for tonkotsy, tonkotsu is a pork bone milky broth ramen – one of my favorites. Let’s take a look! ...see full post

Meet The Manufacturer: #1993: Nissin Raoh Tonkotsu

Usually when I make tonkotsu, I add on some barbecue pork. This is what you’d usually find as an appetizer at a Chinese-American restaurant – the bright red edged tasty sliced pieces. Well, I was fortunate and on my birthday, my wife and two sons accompanied me to Uwajimaya, a Japanese supermarket in downtown Seattle. I wanted to find the real stuff – the chashu pork. After a lot of going from one end of the deli to the other, confusion with what I was looking for and finally almost giving up, a man brought me a nice package of freshly sliced chashu pork. I had him slice even more and now I have a nice stash of it in my freezer. This will be the first one I’ll be using this with – pretty excited! Now the bowl version of this product no doubt comes with a dehydrated slice of chashu pork which is very nice too! Let’s have a look at this one! ...see full post

Meet The Manufacturer: #1990: Nissin Cup Noodle

I thought I should start things off with the original Nissin Cup Noodle. It’s funny; I’ve never reviewed one of these before (except the Emergency Nissin Cup Noodle from Momofuku Ando Day #4, which is a bit different). The story goes that Momofuku Ando noticed businessmen on flights would ask for cups of hot water instead of coffee. They would put pieces of Nissin chikin Ramen in these cups and eat it that way. He thought hey – why not ma.e instant ramen in a cup form. He did, and now it is a ubiquitous item throughout the world. As you’ll see during this Meet The Manufacturer, there are many, many different varieties of Cup Noodle made by Nissin – from the logical to the surprising and unique. Cup Noodle has it’s own museum as well! In Yokohama, Japan! Find out more about it here. Let’s crack open this one – the original Nissin Cup Noodle. ...see full post

Meet The Manufacturer: Interview With Nissin Japan

The April Box From Japan!

For a while now, Javier over at BoxFromJapan.com has been sending me sample boxes and they’ve been really out of this world. Box From Japan is a subscription service – you can get a new box every month to your door – it’s reasonably priced I think since you can’t find any of these in the USA, plus I’ve NEVER gotten a single instant ramen from him that I’ve ever reviewed before – and that’s definitely saying something. Not only that, he also has a candy box – all sorts of neat treats from Japan as well! Let’s look inside! ...see full post

#1983: Tokushima Seifun Tokushima Ramen

Here’s another one from Wesley of Japan – thank you again! This one sounds interesting – in his note he says ‘stylized instant ramen of Tokushima Ramen (the real dish) which ras a sweet soy sauce base, shaved pork and raw egg.’ Sounds interesting! Looks like some narutomaki on the package as welol – think I have some in the freezer. Let’s give this one a try! ...see full post