Category: Other

Re-Review: Indomie Mi Goreng Fried Noodles

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On my last trip to the Asian grocery store, I had a though. I thought maybe I ought to toss in some of the varieties I’ve not reviewed in a while that I’ve recommended quite a bit to people since they’re relatively easy to source and quite good. This one’s a perfect example. My first favorite instant growing up was the Japanese Nissin Chickin Ramen. After trying a few varieties, I found Indomie Mi Goreng line and was all about it. When we’d go to Seattle we’d come back with a couple bags full of them, and I don’t think my parents minded too much since it was around 25 cents a pack. I tried many different varieties in the Indomie Mi Goreng line – there are quite a few.  I used to go for the Satay flavor mostly, but then found the Barbecue Chicken one to my liking. Then there’s the Rendang which is a really great one, gracing the top ten list a couple times I think. This one today is the original version. If you’ve not tried this stuff, you’ve got to; it’s a real treat and easily modified to taste. There’s five sachets ioncluded- quite a few in an instant noodle pack and I’ll explain them all here. Anyways, let’s bring on the Indomie Mi Goreng! ...see full post

#1549: Sapporo Ichiban Chow Mein Japanese Style Noodles Yakisoba

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Here’s another one my wife got me during my annual birthday trip to Canada this year – thank, Kit! So this is the Canadian version of Sapporo Ichiban Chow Mein. There are a couple differences between this and the version for sale in the United States packaging wise, but does it taste different? I’m guessing it’s going to be about the same but it could be different. Let’s find out as I tear into the Canadian version of Sapporo Ichiban Chow Mein! ...see full post

#1548: Samyang Foods Curry Noodle

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Here’s one my wife got me during my birthday trip to Canada earlier this year! Thanks, Kit! This is a neat one. First, it’s a South Korean brand, but it is definitely for thye Japanese market; everything on the label is in Japanese for the most part, and a curry cup falls in line as well. This line also has a Shoyu cup, another Japanese ramen flavor. As I’m sure all who follow my blog know, I’m a big fan of curry, and so my hopes here are high! Japanese curry is much different from Indian or Malaysian curries; it’s usually not spicy and has a sweetness to it. Let’s see what’s under the hood of this Samyang Curry Noodle! ...see full post

#1544: Thai Pavilion Pad Thai Instant Rice Noodles & Sauce

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I believe my wife got me this one for Christmas last year – thanks sweetie! What’s so nice about instant noodles is that they have such a long shelf life, and so they can sit in my noodle hamper for a while before I have to get to them. Anyways, here’s one that sounds good today – Thai Pavilion Pad Thai. This one is made in Thailand but made for the US market. Let’s check it out! ...see full post

#1543: Maggi 2-Minute Noodles Hungrooo Masala Spicy

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Hungrooo! This is great – a new noodle word! It evokes a thought of a big monster that’s really hungry, or what a stomach might say. It’s fun to say too – Hungrooo! I recently did a Meet The Manufacturer with Maggi Singapore and have reviewed many varieties from Maggi Malaysia as well. Maggi is a brand from Nestle, a Swiss brand and seems to have many instant noodle varieties catering to the local flavors seen around the world. This one’s from India, and since not everyone’s familiar with Indian food, I thought I’d grab a snippet from Wikipedia about masala: ...see full post

The Ramen Rater’s MyKuali Penang White Curry Pizza

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One thing that really surprised me during our trip was seeing that a lot of the fast food chains that are popular here in the United States are also popular in Malaysia. Burgers, fried chicken and even pizza were well represented by popular chain restaurants over there (I will say that there was no sign of the ubiquitous taco chain here). They all had different ways of serving things to fit with the local taste; like spicy fried chicken with rice or seafood pizza. This got me thinking that maybe a fusion of pizza and MyKuali White Curry might work in some way. I thought about it for a while and decided today was the day. We got the ingredients together and The Ramen Rater’s MyKuali White Curry Pizza was born! Check it out! ...see full post

#1533: Miliket Sate Flavor Instant Noodle

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Okay so first off, I want to thank the person at the company who made the decision to use paper as the material for the outer packaging. One of the big tasks I have for the reviews is to do a lot of editing in Photoshop, mostly removing glare from packaging. Since they’re plastic wraps usually, they pick up the lighting and so angling the packs to get  the least glare and reflection is key, but then sometimes it’s just not possible to get rid of all of it. Then I have to scan the packages and there’s always a good amount of glare there. This will be the first review I’ve ever done of Miliket instant noodles, so let’s check therm out! ...see full post

Meet The Manufacturer: Re-Review: Lucky Me! Instant Pancit Canton (Chow Mein) Extra Hot Chili Flavor

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Today, we say farewell to the Monde Nissin Meet The Manufacturer! It’s been really neat to try all of these different varieties one right after the other – this is the 15th review! I do up to 15 in a row during an MTM. I thought today would definitely be fitting for something hot and spicy. Why you ask? ...see full post

Friday Video: How to Cook Cebu Lechon

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So when I post my reviews on instagram, I use hashtags. I usually try to find ones that are decent, relevant and get the most eyes on the reviews of course, and I then look at the pics others post and like them, in hopes that hey will look and like the ones I have posted or even follow. Pretty basic method of growing a viewer base. Well, I also look at the hashtags that those people use, and I saw an interesting one – #lechon. Wasn’t sure what Lechon was, so I looked at a bunch of people’s pictures and found that it was roast whole pig. I decided to take this to YouTube and have a look. After perusing quite a few, I found this video about how Cebu Lechon is made. I’ve never tried this, but I think I would love to give it a taste someday. Anyways, enjoy and Happy Black Friday! ...see full post

Meet The Manufacturer: #1529: Lucky Me! Special Instant Curly Spaghetti With Yummy Red Sauce

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I have tried a few quick spaghetti in the past – from South Korea, Japan and Indonesia, but never from the Philippines! I had a look to see if there’s a particular way in which spaghetti is enjoyed in the Philippines and as it turns out, I found some recipes that included hot dogs. Interesting! Well, let’s have a look at this unique instant variety = Lucky Me! Curly spaghetti! ...see full post

Meet The Manufacturer: Re-Review: Lucky Me! Instant Pancit Canton (Chow Mein) Original Flavor

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Pancit Canton is a Filipino favorite whose roots began in China. It is also very much like Mi Goreng, an Indonesian dish. Basically, noodles and cooked, drained, and then combined with a dry powder and oil and sauce combination to create a tasty broth-free dish. These Lucky Me! Pancit Canton come in a variety of flavors, this being their original flavor. I’ll be reviewing more of these during Meet The Manufacturer as well, since it’s such a prominent product of theirs. Let’s check out Lucky Me! original Pancit Canton. ...see full post

Meet The Manufacturer: #1527: Lucky Me! Special Baked Mac Style Instant Macaroni

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Macaroni is used in a lot of Filipino cuisine. One I’ve tried in instant form is Sopas, a soup with macaroni in it. The weather here is really quite cold (at least for Washington). It’s gotten down to as low as 26 degrees Fahrenheit the last few nights. This looks like a nice warm stick-to-your-ribsy kind of thing. Let’s check it out! ...see full post

Meet The Manufacturer: Re-Review: Lucky Me! Instant Pancit Canton (Chow Mein) Chili & Citrus

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It’s been a while since I had any Lucky Me! Pancit Canton. This is a re-review of the 40th instant I ever reviewed! That puts it around 2002 or 2003 being the last time I tried this one. Not only that, it’s been about 1,000 reviews since I had any Pancit Canton. So what’s Pencit? Wikipedia has this to say: ...see full post

#1521: Maruchan Gotsumori Sauce Yakisoba

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Okay, I’m familiar with yakisoba, but what’s Gotsumori sauce all about? After some scouring of the Internet, I didn’t find a whole lot. I found on the manufacturer’s site that the sauce is spicy and also has a sachet of Kewpie karashimayonnaise (kind of a mayo-mustard thing). Anyways, yeah I’m definitely coming up short on this one! Let’s have a look. ...see full post

#1520: Yum Yum Oriental Style Instant Noodles Wasabi Flavour

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Another one sent by a kind reader from Sweden – thank you! I’ve had Yum Yum noodles in the past, but I’ve never seen any instant noodle that was wasabi flavor. I did have a Zaru Soba once that had dipping sauce that had a strong wasabi flavor, but none where wasabi was the only flavor! Yum Yum is a popular brand in northern Europe – I heard recently that people refer to many brands of instant noodles there simply as ‘Yum Yum.’ Wasabi eh? Let’s check it out! ...see full post

#1518: Mamee Chef Gold Recipe Bihun Kari Seribu Rasa

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A week or so ago, I reviewed Mamee Chef Gold Recipe Mi Kari Seribu Rasa. This however is Mamee Chef Gold Recipe Bihun Kari Seribu Rasa. What’s the difference? Well, ‘mi’ means noodles – as in instant wheat flour noodles. Bihun is the Malaysian term for rice vermicelli. Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about bihun: ...see full post

#1517: Katoz Instant Noodles Spicy Chili

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Here’s another one sent to me by a reader in Sweden – thank you! This is a Swedish brand – Katoz and is manufactured by MAT Kompaniet. Swedish instant noodles are a new thing to me; this is the second review I’ve ever done involving instant noodles from Sweden. One unique thing about Swedish instant noodles – they are really into the metric system. Usually on the instruction for preparation, the amount of water is called for by cups (more Western) or cc (cubic centimeter) or mL (milliliter). Well, in Sweden the go with decaliter, which is 100cc. This one requireds 4 dl of water, or 400cc/400ml. I’ve NEVER seen decaliters used before, and the only reason I knew what was going on was from elementary school. Yes kids, I know it seems ridiculous at the time, but you will use this information later in life – especially when making Swedish instant noodles! But I digress. Let’s check out these Katoz Spicy Chili noodles from Sweden! ...see full post

#1512: Chewy Japanese Fried Ramen Noodles Kyoto Barbecue Sauce Flavour

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I figured since I have some cabbage I need to use before it goes bad, yakisoba would be a good call for today. This is one of those interesting ones. The product is from a Hong Kong company called Chewy, made in South Korea, and a Japanese flavor. Yakisoba is great stuff – vegetables and meats fried with noodles and oil and some flavoring. Time to have some breakfast – let’s check out this one from Chewy. ...see full post

#1511: Long Jun Hang Tainan Yi Mien With Sesame Oil Sauce

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We tried this new grocery store (new to me at least) in Bellevue called Asian Food Center. Thought we’d give it a peek and found they had quite a few neat things. This is one of the noodles I found. I want to send a really big thank you to Bobby Y. up in Canada for help translating this one – mystery solved, thank to you!  Now here’s a note on contention between me and the entire country of Taiwan. If you look in the lower right corner, you’ll see a little warning. It reads: This product is not the instant noodles. Please boil the noodles before eating. They can’t be steeped; okay, we got that. What is kind of ridiculous is the fact that they only take 3 minutes to cook. That’s the same amount of time as noodles that can be steeped. Logically, the amount of time needed to cooking something should be relevant to whether it is deemed instant as well, don’t you think? I would call these instant noodles – that require a different cooking method than other instant noodles. But I digress – I don’t think Taiwan is going to get on board with this, and that’s alright with me. I’m thinking next year I might to a split Taiwanese Top Ten list – half the ones that can be steeped and half the ones that can’t, basically a pair of Top Five lists. It seems to really matter to them, and far be it for me to poo-poo any country with such a fervent passion for noodles. Let’s proceed! ...see full post

#1508: Mamee Chef Gold Recipe Mi Kari Seribu Rasa

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Today we have a new one from Mamee Chef. Mamee Chef’s products made not only the Top Ten Instant Noodles Of All Time 2014 list, but also topped the Top Ten Instant Noodle Cups Of All Time 2014 list. Really exceptional stuff! They have come out with two varieties in this flavor: one with their ‘mi tarik’ noodles (noodles made in a way to emulate hand-pulled noodles) and a version that comes with bihun (pronounced bee-hoon, it’s a very thin rice noodle). Today I’m reviewing the wheat noodle variety. ...see full post

#1505: Shan Shoop Instant Noodles BBQ Flavour

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This is one I got when by friend Matt B. was kind enough to take us on a trip to a place called Imran’s Market up the road a ways from here. It’s kind of interesting; this will be the third Pakistani instant noodle I’ve reviewed and they were all got within about 5 miles from eachother! I think it does make me want to Shoop, although I’m not exactly sure how to shoop… Regardless, let’s have a look – today we’re going to a new Asian grocery in Bellevue, so I might have a new post about that place tomorrow. Stay tuned, and enjoy the Shoop BBQ! ...see full post

#1495: Super Instant Noodles Mee Goreng

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Here’s another poor cup noodle that got beaten up a bit on the flights back from Malaysia. Could’ve been between Penang and Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur and Taipei, or Taipei and Seattle – probably a combo of all three. Poor foam cup! There was a lot of turbulence last Sunday morning over Japan. Luckily, this is a noodle that gets drained anyways, and so it’ll come out fine. What’s funny is that the cup got banged up, but the noodle block is almost completely intact! Got this one at Econsave in Butterworth!  Let’s check this mee goreng out! By the way – you may have also seen ‘mi’ goreng. Mi Goreng and Mee Goreng are the same thing; they both mean fried noodles – there’s also Mie Goreng you may see as well. ...see full post

#1493: Maruchan Magomi-an Kitsune Udon (Eastern Japanese Flavor)

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Thanks to Yuji Hashimoto over at Takamori Kosan of Japan for helping me to translate this one! Today’s review is one that I think I found up in Canada. It looks to be similar to Maruchan’s regular Kitsune Udon bowl – the red one.Kitsune means ‘fox’ in Japanese. Here’s a little something about the ‘kitsune myth’ from wikipedia – ...see full post

#1491: Ottogi Potato Ramen

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Woot woot – potatoes! These sounded good today – potato ramen… I really like the little Ms. Potato Head on the packaging. Ottogi makes some interesting varieties – I reviewd many of them waaaay back when I moved to Edmonds, WA. I would walk every day and pick up a single pack and bring it home, cook and review. Those were in the #100-#300’s. Seems like forever ago! These noodles are made primarily with potatoes, which give them an extra chewiness. Let’s check out Ottogi Potato Ramen! ...see full post

#1489: Maggi Vegetable Multigrainz Noodles Spice Remix

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Haven’t had one from India in a while! These Maggi noodles were found at a little market here on Highway 99 called Imran’s Market. I had wanted to check it out for a couple years, but when I used to ride the bus I would see it, and when riding in the car I couldn’t. It’s kind of weird. Perhaps the height of the bus? I dunno. But finally made it there a couple months back thanks to my pal Matt B. and found some interesting stuff. Let’s have a look at these Maggi Multigrainz noodles! ...see full post

#1488: Mom’s Dry Noodle Sichuan Spicy Flavor

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After trying the other Mom’s Dry Noodle variety a few days ago, I decided I really wanted to give their Sichuan Spicy one a try too. As I researched videos to add to their Onion Oil & Shrimp variety, I kept seeing this one mentioned. I also have been curious because they also sent a couple little jars of the paste – the spicy paste! Thought maybe I’d saute my garnish in it today. Well, let’s get this one started! ...see full post

#1484: Ibumie Mee Baa..Gus Mi Goreng Spicier Original Flavour

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Here’s one that Annie T. of MyKuali sent me a while back from Malaysia – thank you again! I’ve been very curious about this Ibumie Mee Baa..Gus, mainly from the packaging and name. So first off let’s translate a little. Mi Goreng is fried noodle (mi being noodle, goreng being fried). Perisa Asli Pedas is spicy original flavor. But – what about Mee Baa.gus? Well, mee is also noodle, and bagus would be gorgeous or wonderful. So they’re going for something like ‘wonnnnderful!’ with the little extra punctuation in the middle of bagus. Another term on the front of this pack is ‘Shiok.’ Shiok basically is an exclamation – you might have a really great bowl of noodles and say ‘wow – these noodles are really shiok!’ Urban Dictionary said it is a way to express pleasure and happiness. So! Now that we’ve had a little language lesson, let’s see how this mi goreng variety comes out! ...see full post

#1480: Paldo Jjol Bibim Men

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Here’s a new variety of Paldo’s Bibim Men line to come out recently. Jjol means ‘chewy.’ Bibim Men – now this is slightly trickier but isn’t that hard. Bibimbap is a mix of vegetables, meat and an egg topped with gochujang (a spicy sauce) over rice. It’s one of my favorite Korean dishes, often served in a stone bowl and sizzling like nothing else! Well, the ‘bap is rice. In Jjol Bibim Men, the Men is the same as -myun or myeon, which means noodles. So what you have here is a cold, spicy, chewy noodle dish. I’m hungry – let’s get to it! Bring on the Jjol Bibim Men! ...see full post

Meet The Manufacturer: Re-Review: MAMA Instant Noodles Yentafo Tom Yum Mohfai Flavour

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Here’s a good one – it’s on The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Instant Noodles Of All Time 2014 Edition! Seriously good. One thing that will confuse many is the name – it certainly did confuse me. Yentafo? Mohfai? Tom Yum – that I knew, but the others…  Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about yentafo: ...see full post

Meet The Manufacturer: #1470: MAMA Instant Cup Noodles Spicy Cheese Flavour

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Soon as I saw this one in the box, I was instantly curious. Spicy cheese flavor from Thailand? I didn’t know they liked cheese in Thailand! Ah, well everyone likes cheese I suppose. Spicy cheese is even better in my book – spicy and tasty’s where it’s at. Well, let’s see what we have here inside this fascinating new cup from MAMA! ...see full post

Meet The Manufacturer: #1466: MAMA Oriental Style Instant Noodles Green Curry Flavour Jumbo Pack

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To start things off, I’m sure you have all heard of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. What it is for those of you who haven’t, is a campaign to increase awareness of ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), a motor neuron disease which causes the connections between the mind and muscles to degrade. The challenge involves a person having a ton of icewater dumped on them, and then nominating three people to do the same. Yesterday, my sister nominated me after she was nominated. Usually, you have 24 hours to accept and carry out the challenge. Today, I’m going to be getting a lot of icewater dumped on me! At the bottom of this review will be my sister’s challenge, and tomorrow’s review will feature me getting drenched! If you want to help, please consider donating to ALSA.org. ...see full post