Over 5,000 Instant Ramen Noodle Reviews Since 2002
Well, today is the last day of the Meet The Manufacturer for Sakura Noodle Inc. It’s been interesting – I don’t think I’ve had udon so many days in a row – I was surprised how much I enjoyed it! One thing that was nice was that there’s only one gram of fat in these, which is a far cry from the amounts I usually have. Anyways, let’s have a look at this one – beef!
I got some really good sized shrimp the other day at the store thinking they’d go really well with this. I like shrimp – they’re tasty! The ones I’ve been getting are frozen and have a thin layer of ice all around them so they don’t stick together. Pretty brilliant – quite enjoyable. Anyways, today it’s shrimp. Let’s shrimp it up!
Here’s some more noodles I picked up last July in Canada. It’s been a while now, so I’ll tell you the story of the July trip. I saw a blog post from a guy up in Vancouver, BC who was talking about my top ten list. He had a really neat little graphic icon that looked cool, so I tried to figure out where it was from. Finally, he was the one who let me in on it. It was a graphic someone had made of my top ten list! I was curious to find out where it had come from…
Here’s one that Annie T. from MyKuali sent me from Malaysia – thanks again! It’s been a lot of fun trying varieties from Malaysia and Singapore in the last year. Usually they’re pretty hard to come by where I live, so new stuff is always welcome. I’d never heard of Adabi brand until a couple of months ago. The first one I tried was #1276: Adabi Mi Bandung Prawn Mee – and it was really good! I’m curious if this is going to be your standard chicken curry or something a little different. Let’s have a loot inside!
Korean beef soup is usually something that isn’t spicy; a departure from what people usually see in most ramyun varieties. Gomtang translates to ‘bear soup,’ but there’s no bear in there! It’s been – boiled for a long time. The ‘men’ at the end of gomtangmen is where the noodles come in. Men, myun, myeon and myon are all suffixes that mean noodles in Korean. I’ve had Paldo’s Gomtang variety in the gold packaging – that stuff is quite good. I’m very curious to find out how this one is. Let’s have a look.
Here’s a new one from Nongshim for the vegetable crown. At first, I thought it would be a tofu based variety; the reason was that I’ve gone to a local Korean restaurant and ordered ‘Soon Tofu’ a few times, which is a spicy soup with tofu in it. Well, ‘soon’ translates to ‘soft.’ Well, tofu is a vegetarian friendly construct, so I thought I’d give it a try today with this new one. A few people have been asking about this one, so with that, let’s check it out.
Pork! Purple! Sounds good! Let’s hit it!
Here’s the back of the package (click image to enlarge). Contains fish products. To prepare, cook noodles in 500ml water for 3 minutes. Put sachet contents into a bowl. Pour out water from noodles into the bowl and stir, then add noodles. Enjoy!
Here’s one with a flavor I’ve never heard of – well, except for the tom yum part. Here’s what Wikipedia had to say about the yentafo:
Wow – number 1300! Would’ve ever thought I would’ve done this many reviews; seems like I did the 500th review not very long ago. Let’s check this one out – a spicy South Korean jjampong!
Here’s another one sent by Annie T. of MyKuali! Thanks! This one sounds interesting, and I have something neat to go with it considering my recent fascination with fish balls – prawn flavored fish balls! These noodles are from Singapore, as are the fish balls! Let’s check it out!
In March of 2012, I tried this new Garlic Teriyaki Udon by Nongshim – review #683. It was really great stuff – my wife Kit absolutely loved it (she doesn’t usually go crazy like I do for noodles, but this one was her fave). Well, a little while later, it was discontinued. Well, now it’s back and a little different. The first one had a whopping 3040mg of sodium per pack, but this new one has only 720mg for the whole thing. Let’s see how this one stacks up against the old version.
Hey check this happy looking guy out! I’m thinking he’s happy because today’s my sister’s birthday! Happy Birthday Sue! This looks like one she’d probably like. Last year, I made her some birthday noodles – maybe I’ll see if she wants to have some again this year! The happy guy on the package’s name is Kumamon, a mascot that the government of Kumamoto, Japan invented. Let’s check these out.
Here’s one my wife got for me for Christmas! Thanks, Kitten! There are a myriad of these noodle trays in the US market that I’ve not reviewed and this is one of them. Let’s have a look!
A new one from Deshome! Not only is it new, but it’s curry! However, it’sd also chlorella. I put one variety on instant noodles on my bottom ten list that was a green tea and chlorella combo. I’m not sure if it was the green tea or the chlorella I dislikes, but I really disliked that one! So I guess we’ll see! As far as chlorella, Wikipedia has this to say:
Here’s something from a brand I’ve never tried before called Adabi. It was sent to me by Annie T. of MyKuali in Malaysia – thank you! This is a take on a traditional dish – let’s check it out!
At the beginning of this year, I’d never tried any of their products. When I did, I was blown away; so much so that they ended up ranking 1st and 2nd place on my Top Ten Instant Noodles Of All Tiume 2013 Edition list. I’m very curious how this one will fare. Chilli Crab is considered to be the signature dish of Singapore. To ring in the new year, I thought I’d start out with this one. I decided to post it right when the clock strikes midnight the very first time of 2014. Where’s that? Turns out it’s in Kiribati, which is GMT+14! For those in my timezone which is GMT-8 (Seattle time), that will be 2am on December 31st. With that, I wish everyone a happy and prosperous 2014 – let’s check this out! By the way – I just found out there are a couple new ways to cook this one – check them out here!
Thought this sounded good for today. Made in Thailand for the UK market. Gonna use a new bowl that was made in Thailand I received from my sister in law Dee for Christmas. She just had her birthday! Happy birthday!!! Let’s check it out!
I’ve been really wanting to review this one before now but I decided to do it for the Christmas review quite a while back. I don’t usually barge in with a different review during Meet The Manufacturer, but it’s Christmas so here it is. The ABC President Meet The Manufacturer will continue after Christmas. For now, let’s check out this cup. I’ve had cups that have come with little doo dads before; a ticket for a contest, a sticker, a little card… But this is something completely different. A little model kit! Let’s check it out!
As I said in the last post, today is the anniversary of the first time my wife and I spoke to eachother, four years ago. More on that in the video at the bottom. I had the fortune to be able to try real rendang yesterday! They make it at Waroeng Jajanan! I’ll do a special post about it soon! This one was really good last time – let’s revisit it!
This is an interesting one; there’s ABC and there’s President. I’ve seen the logo on products made in other regions too – Taiwan most notably. Let’s see how this one tastes!
This is a really good one – it placed #8 in my Top Ten Indonesian Instant Noodles 2013 Edition! Let’s revisit this one!
To begin this Meet The Manufacturer, I decided that curry chicken flavor sounded good today. One thing I’m a big fan of is curry; from India, Britain, Thailand, Japan and of course Indonesia. In the past, I’ve been pretty amazed at everything that they put inside these Eat 7 Go cups. Let’s see what awaits within!
Wow a noodle review on Thanksgiving? Yeah – although I did it yesterday and scheduled it to auto-post… Rest assured as you read this I’m probably helping make Thanksgiving dinner up at my mom’s. Sesame ramen eh? I bet turkey would go good with it… I’ll do some kind of turkey recipe soon. Let’s check this one out.
Here’s another from my friend in Indonesia – thank you! I asked my son if he would pick which one I’d review today and this was what he picked – he wanted to make sure it was a spicy one. I did some looking and found this on Wikipedia:
Another one from my friend in Indonesia! Milk chicken soup – sounds interesting. I had another milk chicken soup variety awhile back which I enjoyed, so maybe this one’ll be good too. Let’s see what’s in this cup.
Here’s another from my friend in Jakarta, Indonesia – thanks! I’ve got high hopes for this one. Why? Well, the Spicy Chicken version placed on my Top Ten Instant Noodle Cups of 2013. Also, Indomie’s Rendang placed in the Top Ten Instant Noodles of 2013 list. I guess we’ll see how this does! Let’s check it out!
Been a little while since I reviewed anything by A-Sha. I did a Meet The Manufacturer in May, but nothing new since then. Well, today’s the day! Curry. It’s always been a favorite flavor of mine and I think this is the first time I’ll be trying a Taiwanese take on it. Let’s give it a try!
Here’s a brand new one from Samyang Foods of South Korea. They sent instructions on how to cook them as well as a little info about this new variety:
Robert F. of Hoboken, NJ was kind enough to send one of these – thanks! Very curious how it will be… Only one way to find out!
A month or so ago I read an article mentioning a new book about instant noodles. Books regarding instant noodles generally fall into a couple categories: recipe books written and published by individuals and recipe books that are mass-produced and published by the millions.
Here’s one sent from Japan by Ichiro Yamoto of Yakantei! Thank you! This one was a little tricky to translate – I want to thank Courtnay N. of Canada and Mari S. of Tennessee! Tan tan men is more widely known as dandanmian. It heralds from China and is named after a pole street vendors would use to carry their wares. It’s usually a spicy broth with oil and minced pork affair. After some research, I figured out who the woman on the lid is. She’s part of AKB48 – here’s what Wikipedia says about them:
Here’s something new from Paldo of South Korea – cheese noodle! I am a big fan of cheese! I also like noodles obviously, so this should be a nice pairing. Let’s dig in to some cheesy goodness!
Whoa hey what’s this? Here’s another snack made from instant noodles! This one’s from South Korea – let’s check it out!
Here’s one that my friend Scott A. sent me – thanks again! Been a long time since I’ve had any of the Chukazanmai varieties – fancy shmancy stuff – let’s check this one out!
You might be thinking, ‘hey – didn’t he already review this?’ Nope – I reviewed the Shin Ramyun Black cup from South Korea. This is the one that is manufactured here in the United States in Rancho Cucamonga, California.So what is this ‘Pot-au-feu’ flavor? I consulted Wikipedia and found this:
Here’s something new – green barley noodles. I’ve had noodles that were green from a myriad of ingredients before (wonder if someday there’ll be blue?). These are supposed to be for the health conscious. Let’s check ’em out!
Here’s one from T&T Supermarket up in Vancouver, BC! Many Taiwanese extolled the virtues of these Man Han Feast varieties, especially a beef version. I had the Spring Onion Eel flavor a while back and this is the only other one I’ve seen available in North America. So what does Man Han Feast mean? Wikipedia says:
Here’s another I got at T&T Supermarket up in Canada recently. This one’s frozen! Chanpon is a special thing; seafood and pork are sauteed and special ramen noodles and a little broth is added. Sounds awesome – let’s check it out.
Here’s one I received from Mika in California – thank you! I really like yakisoba and this looks interesting. I read that this is considered ‘the soul food of Japan’ – let’s check it out!
Here’s one I’ve been hoping to try for a while! Thanks to Joe B. of Nottingham, UK for sending this my way! Beef & Tomato! Let’s check it out.
