The Definitive Source For Instant Noodle Reviews Since 2002
Today, we have one that was part of Japan Crate’s Umai Crate. So Japan Crate is a subscription service which has all sorts of different options for you. pretty neat stuff from Japan! There’s a coupon code for you too – just use THERAMENRATER to get a special discount at check out.
Here’s another neat one from Zenpop.JP. Thank you! So Zenpop has all sorts of monthly boxes including ramen boxes. Nine instant ramen in one box for a good price – check ’em out! Here’s what they had to say about this one – ‘Simple, classic shouyu ramen will never be boring. Flavorful vegetables, roasted garlic, and black pepper boost the savory taste of shouyu based chicken soup. The toppings include chopped roasted pork, shrimps, scrambled eggs and green onions.’
Well would you look at that! Top Ramen. An American original. You might be thinking ‘aww that’s Japanese,’ but this stuff is as American as it gets. The flavor is made to appeal to the local market. What bums me out is when I say ‘an American original’ all I can think about is my favorite political show which is no more. My dad used to watch The McLaughlin Group for years and I finally hit an age after he was gone that I checked it out and got hooked on it. I’d torture poor Andy and make him watch it all the time. But Dr. McLaughlin died a couple years ago, and they ended the series long run. I would be curious how it would have been if he would have stayed alive longer – how the show would be these days. Anyways, I’ve gone way off track. So soy sauce is known as Shoyu in Japan. This is a kind of Shoyu ramen. Let’s check i tout!
Alright so today we have one that was sent by Daniel from Brazil – thank you again so much! This one looks to be a bolognese and from the colors of red, white and green, an Italian-themed variety. Sounds good to me! Let’s take a look.
Here’s a big tray of yakisoba I found up in Canada at Osaka Market in Yaohan Centre, Richmond, BC. Yeah, that’s a mouthful. Anyways, sometimes they’ll have a special on Japanese varieties that are somewhat new and this is one of them. Here’s a little about yakisoba from Wikipedia for you –
Here’s another neat one from Zenpop.JP. Thank you! So Zenpop has all sorts of monthly boxes including ramen boxes. Nine instant ramen in one box for a good price – check ’em out! Here’s what they had to say about this one – ‘thanks to its fertile land, Hokkaido produces a wide variety of foods, and this ramen includes potato that grew in the rich land. The soup is seasoned with Red Miso, which has a strong taste and dark red color. You’ll be surprised to find how potato tastes in a great miso soup.’
Here’s the last of the potato chip varieties I’ve got for review. The hamper is dry of potato chips! Still makes me laugh a little – I would have never thought that instant noodle flavors would crossover to potato chips. Let’s check these out!
Time for another one of these self heating/self cooking hot pots from China. I’ve found so far that the draw of these for me seems to be more of novelty than an thorough enjoyment of the innards of these. But hey – all it’s been up til now is mala – now we’ve got sour turnip duck vermicelli! Let’s check it out!
Here’s one sent to me by Ippin, a purveyor of lots of different Japanese products. This is definitely a fancy variety from a set of Kanto region varieties based on popular ramen shops. Not a lot of boxes come across my desk so this should be interesting! Here’s what the Ippin website had to say about this variety:
Here’s one sent by the Butlers of Illinois! Thank you again! They got this and many more for me during a trip they took to Illinois! This is actually made in Italy. Yep – Italian yakisoba! I’ve long known of this brand’s existence, and now it’s time to give it a try – let’s do it!
This one came by way of the halalfoodblog.com – thank you! I’ve followed them for a while on Instagram and they’ve done posts about noodles before. They were in Uzbekistan visiting and showed some noodles in a shop – and I commented and they offered to send me some – and here is one of them! Very nice of them. So after a little research I’m finding that these are made in Russia – at least I’m 99% sure. This is the first Russian variety I’ve reviewed! Let’s check it out!
I haven’t seen my friend Matthew Bellah in quite a while and he’s stopping by today to hang out. So he’s a writer (you can read some of his stuff at www.matthewbellah.com) and also an odd sort as far as food goes. He’s a vegetarian, however I’ve known him to enjoy bacon and Jack In The Box tacos regularly. Anyways, I thought this myramen would be a good one to let him try.
Found this one up at China World in Richmond, BC. This one’s confusing as it seems to say it’s a rice cake snack, however it has flour. It doesn’t say whether it’s rice flour or wheat flour. Anyways, I thought this was relevant since it was next to ramen snacks. Let’s take a look!
A big thanks to Daniel down in Brazil for sending this along! It’s been really hard to find varieties from South America over the years. So Daniel told me to be wary of the labelling that this is HOT as Brazilians don’t tend to eat a lot of spicy foods. This kind of surprised me; I would have thought they would have. Learn something new every day! Let’s take a look at this Mexican themed variety from Brazil.
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Today we’ve got the last of the four varieties sent by Three Meters Noodles. It’s been a tasty ride! Let’s give this final variety, a sesame paste noodle a try.
Shallots are one thing I have always enjoyed. Kind of like an onion, really oily and strong flavor. This one says it’s got shallot flavor to it – and I’ve had a lot of shallot flavored Taiwanese varieties to date. Let’s see how it is!
It seems like every dry noodle company has a spicy one. Usually these are Sichuan peppercorn-infused, logical and tasty. Let’s have a look in this brown bag and see what is within!
Sesame oil flavor is one I’ve had before when it come to dry noodles. This ios a really fancy package – thick paper and a yarn handle – wow! Hopefully what’s inside is high end like the packaging – let’s find out!
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Today we’ve got one from Sarawak! I’ve reviewed only one other by this brand before. I found this at China World up in Richmond, BC. I tell ya, if you’re a noodle fan, Richmond is the place to go. Let’s crack this one open and see what we have.
This is one that’s been in the Top Ten Spiciest Instant Noodles Of All Time lists for quite some time. It’s also now in the Gourmet Ramen Club Spicy Pack – a box that I’ve selected the varieties for! I thought it was time for a Re-Review as I’m going to be rolling out the new spicy list in early August! Let’s check out this hot one!
Here’s a new one from Taiwan! Taihodien Restaurant is known as a hot pot place that has some of t he spiciest stuff out there. Here’s a bit about the restaurant from their website:
Hey look at this! This is most definitely the largest yakisoba I’ve seen to date! This came by way of Hobby Link Japan, a great site that has all sorts of amazing Japanese things including instant noodles! Thank you very much! Here’s what they had to say about this unique variety on their website –
When I first noticed these on Samyang Foods’ Instagram feed, I was really curious. I’ve had the hot Samyang Ramen in the past and liked it. But I thought I should give it a look, especially with the new red look to it.
Here’s one I picked up while waiting to go to Din Tai Fung at the Taipei 101 – this was at the Jason’s Market there. First off, it’s curry – a flavor I always gravitate towards. Second, the graphics on this one just kind of dragged me to it. Never seen this brand or anything before so I guess the only thing to do now is crack it open and give it a try!
I’ll be first to say that I enjoy almonds, usually the smokehouse ones. You know the ones I’m talking about. I’m pretty partial to chocolate ones too although I don’t usually have them. I’ve had ones with crunchy candy coating too. I also tasted almond milk the other day – tasty but just seemed so weird – but I liked it.
Hey it’s a self heating hot pot! I got this one at China World on St. Patrick’s Day this year. The weekend before, we drove up to Canada and checked out China World in Richmond, BC. It was amazing – awesome! Got two baskets of noodles. Went tot he front and boom – cash and Canadian debit only. That sucked. So we came back the next weekend! I found about eight different varieties of these hot pots and so here’s the first. I’ve reviewed two others in the past. Let’s open this thing up and see what makes it tick – yeah – it cooks itself!
Here’s one sent to me by Ippin, a purveyor of lots of different Japanese products. This is definitely a fancy variety from a set of Kanto region varieties based on popular ramen shops. Not a lot of boxes come across my desk so this should be interesting! Here’s what the Ippin website had to say about this variety:
Another Man Dashi variety today – this time it’s BBQ! Here’s what they have to say about this one –
Time to turn up the heat again – this one claims to pack some spiciness. Here’s what they have to say about it –
Today we have the last of the straight noodle varieties from Wu-Mu’s Man Dashi range. Here’s what the company has to say about it –
Here’s another one of the straight noodle varieties from Wu-Mu’s Man Dashi Noodle Master range. Here’s what they have to say about it –
Next up is a BBQ flavor noodle – here’s what Wu-Mu has to say about these –
The middle of wavy noodles are thick, while the both sides are thin, that is why the sauce is more easily stuck in the noodle itself, creating different layers of the tastes!
The sauce is made of 100% pure sesame oil, soy sauce and Mirin, simmer until the Cantonese BBQ sauce is cooked. Sweetness and light spiciness blending harmoniously in the mouth, the BBQ sauce is finger-licking.
In addition to the line of straight noodle varieties in the Man Dashi range, there’s also single serve packs of wide gauge broad noodles. Here’s what Wu-Mu has to say about this variety –
Today I try a straight dry noodle in the Man Dashi (mian da shi) range . The name translates to ‘noodle master.’ Here’s a little info from Wu-Mu about this one –
Today we have a Zenpop.JP variety – so what’s Zenpop? They’re a subscription service for all things Japanese! Definitely, check them out. By the way, use coupon code RAMENRATER to get $2 off! Here’s what they had to say about this one –
We start this series with a classic flavor – jah jan. Here’s a little about it from Wikipedia –
Today, we have one that was part of Japan Crate’s Umai Crate. So Japan Crate is a subscription service which has all sorts of different options for you. pretty neat stuff from Japan! There’s a coupon code for you too – just use THERAMENRATER to get a special discount at check out.
Hey look at this! This came by way of Hobby Link Japan, a great site that has all sorts of amazing Japanese things including instant noodles! Thank you very much! Here’s what they had to say about this unique variety on their website –
Here’s one sent by a fellow named Jay from Taiwan – thanks! I did see these and another variety at Uwajimaya in Beaverton, OR on our way back from California a couple of months ago. So these are dry noodles. Dry noodles are prepared by cooking, draining, then adding sauce and stirring. Pretty easy to do. These sound interesting – basil! Let’s have a look and give these a try.
Thanks as always to Aunt Cindy for watching our rugrats and giving us an fternoon out ! It’s been awhile – last time we had an outing just us was around review #2761 – another ramen restaurant – in December! Further back we went to Hokkaido Santouka in Bellevue, WA and people there as well as at the mall mentioned this Kizuki place. So this time we thought we’d give it a try.
