
It’s been a heck of a long time since I had one of these – over three years! Shin Ramyun is Nongshim’s most well known product – let’s see how it goes now, after trying over 600 varieties since I last tried it!
Over 5,000 Instant Ramen Noodle Reviews Since 2002

It’s been a heck of a long time since I had one of these – over three years! Shin Ramyun is Nongshim’s most well known product – let’s see how it goes now, after trying over 600 varieties since I last tried it!

I figured for Meet The Manufacturer Week: Nongshim, I would start with a Bowl Noodles I saw get made while I was at their plant! They were cranking them out en masse! I’ve reviewed the old packaging / version in the past and these new ones are very different. They’re made to be cooked in the microwave, so that’s how I’ll cook them.
Here we go with another Meet The Manufacturer week! This one’s a little different of course since my wife and I actually took a trip and met the people who are Nongshim America! It was an amazing and fun visit – so without further adieu, here’s what happened. By the way, if you click on the images they get much bigger.

Here’s something really new and very different from a lot of the instant noodles I’ve reviewed before. Jinjja Jinjja translates to “Really Really” (Spicy Spicy) – and I suppose in this review we’re going to find out how really really spicy Jinjja is! I should say that I sampled this one at Nongshim America while I was down there, so I have tried it before – but not a while bowl of it. I found out that the flavor comes from boiling pork bones for a long time, black beans and peanuts! It also turns out that the wheat flour used to make these has some red pepper powder added to them – heat in the noodle as well as from the dry seasonings! Let’s give this a try!

I got two shipments today – one from Nongshim America, which I visited last week (there’ll be a lot of stuff all about the visit, the plant tour and the people very soon!). Here’s the first one from Nongshim America!

Well, we’re back from outr trip to Nongshim USA! It was absolutely amazing! The people were so nice, seeing how noodles were made amazing, and the new flavors I tasted were great! I’ll be posting a bit about the trip very soon! For now, I’d like to thank Ray Adams for introducing my wife and I to the world of Nongshim USA! His boss Ray Kim made us feel very welcome and it was so much fun talking with them and everyone else there about noodles and the Nongshim culture. We are so lucky to have been afforded this opportunity and really appreciated it! Can’t wait to do Meet The Manufacturer: Nongshim week! Until then, I’ll be posting a bit of info about the tour and what happened while I was there. Keep your eyes peeled!
Tomorrow, my wife and I are headed to the airport to fly down to the Nongshim USA plant in Rancho Cucamonga, California! There, we’re going to do a plant tour, a noodle tasting, and a videotaped interview for the next Meet The Manufacturer, which (you guessed it) will feature Nongshim. We’ll return on Saturday with stories and pictures – I might do a post while we’re down there from my phone possibly. I want to say thank you to the wonderful folks at Nongshim USA for this opportunity to learn more about their company and instant noodles! We’re really looking forward to this! Next stop, southern California.

The nice folks at Nongshim were kind enough to send some samples of this new beef variety recently. Haven’t tried any of them since they’ve gone with the new outer packaging! Let’s give it a try!

I thought today I’d review this one, sent to me by the nice folks at Ramen Place – thanks! Was thinking it would go nicely with some of the stir fry veggies I’ve been enjoying lately. I also talked with Ray from Nongshim today – found out a little bit of information that you might find interesting if you didn’t know. Nongshim’s logo is a seed, and Nongshim translates to ‘Farmer’s Heart.’ I like that – and we’ll see how I like these noodles now!

The folks at Nong Shim sent me a box of these last week! Thanks again! Can’t wait to visit the big factory in May! I’ve not seen this before and from what I gather it is brand spanking new! Garlic teriyaki sounds awesome – let’s see how it goes!

This is one that’s been in the ramen hamper for a while and so it’s time to give it a go. I’m usually a little leery of the noodles with the thick black coating, but I’m throwing caution to the wind; I liked the last Jjajangmen I had so why not!

My sister was up in Canada at a big grocery store and found this for me! Shin Ramyun Shrimp Flavor! Never heard or seen it before – what a score! Let’s see how it goes with this one!

I’ve been waiting for everything to be all set up to post about this, but I have excellent news! Nong Shim America has invited my wife and I to come and tour their plant in Rancho Cucamonga, California! They’re going to fly us down for a weekend in late May where we will take a tour, sample their products and do an interview! This is about as cool as it gets! Want to say thanks to Nong Shim America for this wonderful opportunity for us to see a real instant noodle factory and to be able to bring it to everyone who enjoys the website! I’ll mention this again as time draws nearer. We’re very excited!

Starting yesterday evening, I noticed a huge amount of people from Korea coming to the site. Apparently, they were all coming in droves because of a news story about my Top Ten list including Nong Shim’s Shin Ramyun Black noodles! Well, here’s some links and some pictures of the articles. I’m really hoping someone can translate them soon as Google Translate has done a really crummy job where it usually does so well.
Here it is – the new Ramen Rater Top Ten List! It was originally released on Foodiggity.com on January 9th, 2011 as an exclusive guest post I did. Now, here it is on The Ramen Rater for your perusal with links to all of the corresponding reviews! Enjoy!

This was sent to me by Greg B. of Marathon, Florida! I was a little surprised that I haven’t reviewed this one before, but sure enough, I haven’t! Let’s rip open some Korean ramyun!

So this guy named Dave P. posted a YouTube video on the Ramen Rater Facebook page showing some people in Korea making a bowl of Shin Ramyun a little different that I’ve made it in the past. I thought I’d try to get the ingredients and give it a try. Here’s the video:

I’ve heard now from two separate sources that this Kkokkomyeon stuff is really popular and is going to be a really big deal when it comes to the USA. Both a seller of instant noodles alluded to it as well as a mention by name by the lady at the Kitty House at 99 Ranch Market (they sell Hello Kitty stuff there).

We went and got makings for Korean BBQ at the store yesterday and I found this unreviewed cup so I figured let’s do two cups today. Here we go!

Say that three times fast, why don’t you?! This is one sent to me by Nick at OrderRamen.com. Looks like some spicy good noodles!

Despite some trouble with FedEx, I got a box in the mail yesterday from Nick at OrderRamen.com!

UPDATED REVIEW – uses a recipe from EatYourKimchi.com! See it HERE!

First off, I want to thank Greg B. of Florida for sending this one in. Shin Ramyun Black – wow. So I should mention about the ‘ controversy in South Korea about this product. Nong Shim advertised that it had more nutritional value than it really did and was fined for misleading advertising ( Korean Herald article here ). It was extremely popular and I believe it still is. It costs much more than regular Shin Ramyun too. I’ll have to say that I’ve been waiting for just the right day to review this one! Let’s see what’s inside this interesting package of South Korean instant noodles!
This was found, given to my sister and passed along to me. This is from a Reader’s Digest. I haven’t seen the Lucky Peach yet but boy is this stuff screwed up. I really liked how Nong Shim was just a Californian company – no mention of the fact that it’s Korean. The Myojo Chukazanmai is a line of noodles by Myojo and has such an array of types (some are even to be served cold) that this broad review makes no sense. I think everyone knows how I feel about the GreeNoodle – try and try again I find them detestable. The Kamfen was the kicker for me though. Which one was reviewed? There’s a ton of varieties… Finally the article’s name kind of peeves me, but at least someone might go ahead and see f people review instant noodles online. The kicker? Not any mentions of anything from Indonesia, Thailand or Vietnam. Shameful!

Today there was an open six pack of these so I decided even with a zillion ramens I’d get this one to try. Oolongmen!

Let’s start the road to 1000 reviews with this gem I’ve been looking for for a while now. I really like the regular old Neoguri and hopefully I like this one too.

I’ve been waiting for the right time to review this and today is it. Potato noodles eh? I’ve had sweet potato noodles in the Baijia brand offerings and been quite unhappy with them. Hopefully Nongshim can make the potato happy again…

So I thought I’d tried every single variety of these but I found yet another in California! This is just chicken – not spicy chicken. So here we go with the noodling!

Okay so I reviewed Samyang’s Kalgugsu a long time ago and it said it was assorted clam flavored noodle soup. This one just says its Korean noodle soup, however its got mussels, anchovy, bonito, shrimp tuna and mushroom going on too. I wouldn’t call it assorted clam flavor this time around – more like assorted flavor flavor.

Honestly instead of Big Bowl I think these should be marketed as Huge Bowl, but honestly this is about what you would get if you bought a pack of Nongshim Kimchi noodles in a pack, except you would get better quality noodles there. These noodles are built for fast inflating and absorbency.

So here’s the last (as far as I know) of the Shin Ramyun line from Nongshim. Shin Ramyun (pack), Shin Cup, Shin Bowl and Shin Big Bowl. Let’s give it a go.

So here’s something interesting. This is for the health conscious noodle fan – from Korea, we have Nongshim’s Noodle Lite 275.

So here we go – an even larger container of Nong Shim Shin Ramyun!

Styrofoam! Ready for battle!!!

So it’s time for some spiciness! Champong! Bring it!

Was a little surprised to see this one has over 2200mg sodium! It’s just a cup for cryin’ out loud!

Ladies and gentlemen, the enormous Ramen Box has been opened and we begin. This one comes from Korea.

So here’s a big sucker – the name says it’s big. So let’s see if bigger is better with Nongshim Spicy Shrimp…

So here’s something a little different! Healthy and consomme usually aren’t words I see one packages of instant noodles!