Category: United States

#697: Meet The Manufacturer – Nissin Spoon it Rich & Hearty Savory Chicken Flavor Ramen Noodle Soup

Whoa check this out – Spoon it? This is something brand new from Nissin. Apparently, it’s been released on the east coast. I was told that noodles like this do better in colder climates (funny how the weather worked this year!). A box of noodles… Let’s check this out! ...see full post

Meet The Manufacturer: Interview with Nissin Foods USA – Makers of Top Ramen, Cup Noodles & More


Welcome to the second installment in the ‘Meet The Manufacturer’ series! This one’s with Nissin, makers of the ever-popular Top Ramen, Cup Noodles and the like. They sent a nice package of different instant varieties to sample – most of them new to me. The following interview is with Senior Marketing Manager, Linda Chung, facilitated by Senior Marketing Coordinator Scott Akazaki. ...see full post

Big Donation: Nissin USA

This big box was at the office today for me to pick up after work – it’s samples from Nissin USA! I’ve been talking with one of the people in their marketing department lately and we’re going to do a Meet The Manufacturer week pretty soon – just waiting for the answers to the interview questions to come back from the Sr. Marketing guy! Well, let’s open it up and see what’s inside! ...see full post

The Ramen Rater: Nongshim America Visit

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! ...see full post

Ramen For What Ails Ya – Special Recipe

You may have been wondering, “why so few reviews this week?” Well, to put it mildly, I’m sick. Had this horrible nagging cough for three weeks. Didn’t make it to work two weeks ago, made it this week and then the whole thing kicked into ultra overdrive. We’re talking about staying in bed all day people. Mucus flowing like the Mississippi. I’m starting the slow path to recovery thanks in no small part to my wife and my sister’s kindness. Today I decided that after being upo for quite a while I’d better make myself eat something. I decided to go with some chicken Top Ramen. ...see full post

The Ramen Rater Top Ten Instant Noodles Of All Time 2011 & 2012 Editions

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! ...see full post

#656: Nissin Ramen Bowl Hot & Spicy Flavor

It’s really funny; someone just emailed me asking if I had noticed that Nong Shim’s Bowl Noodle had changed since they repackaged – I haven’t tried it yet. One thing they also said was they couldn’t find the Hot & Spicy variety anywhere anymore. I picked up a few of these Nissin Ramen Bowls at H Mart the other day. 99 cents apiece and they’re very much like the size of the Nong Shim – and lo and behold, Hot & Spicy! Let’s see if it’s a good one. ...see full post

Happy Momofuku Ando Day!!!

Well, today’s the day! The first Ramen Rater Momofuku Ando Day! I hope people out there are enjoying noodles today! Been a great day here – had some good noodles (which you’ll see shortly in the video) and was featured on the Seattle Weekly’s blog! Today I decided to review the closest thing I had to the 1958 Nissin Chikin noodles – the first instant noodles that were produced ever. I went with Nissin’s Top Ramen Chicken flavor; kind of the great grandchild of the Nissin Chikin! So sit back, relax, and check out the video. Happy Momofuku Ando Day! ...see full post

#632: Mr. Udon Oriental Udon Noodle Japanese Miso

Mr. Udon, I presume? I was looking in the fridge yesterday putting groceries away. A couple sodas wouldn’t fit – something was blocking them. Two packs of Mr. Udon noodles  that I got early lasrt year. Hmmm… I wondered if they were still good – May 2012 exclaimed the expiration date! So let’s give this stuff a try before it goes bad! ...see full post

Re-Review: Nissin Top Ramen Chicken Flavor Ramen Noodle Soup

From time to time, it’s a good idea to revisit a baseline. Top Ramen Chicken is something I compare all noodles to in one way or another. The noodles themselves are classic – they’re not bad and soak up the flavor well. They’re not mushy although not exactly what one would call chewy. When reviewing chicken instant noodles I always think to this stuff. Of course, when I see an article someone has blogged or written on the Internet about ramen, a good 80% of the time there’s a nice big picture of the product you see above. Youtube’s no stranger to this either; there are about a zillion videos telling you simply how to prepare a packet of instant Top Ramen. It’s not only good but its everywhere. Eaten raw or cooked, people seem to like it. Well, I like it too and so I revisit it with a sore throat and runny nose. Here we go! ...see full post

#519: Snapdragon Pan-Asian Cuisine Beijing Vegetable Rice Noodle Soup

Sheesh – almost 20% through the 500’s – didn’t expect that to happen so quickly! So here we have the Snapdragon cup, Beijing Vegetable. I got it locally but if you want to try it you can get it here. These have been pretty good so far – let’s see how the veggies do… ...see full post

#500: Mexi-Ramen Soupless Ramen Shallot Teriyaki Flavor

9/28/2024 – Update – Back on September 9th, 2011, I published this post – it was an early time in my reviewing – many things have changed since then; I used to use a phone to take pictures of products – I think it was a Blackberry Curve at the time. As I’m only a handful of reviews to #5000, it’s really weird to look at this compared to how I present reviews now. Anyways, there’s a video at the bottom I made at the time. ...see full post