The Ramen Rater On Local TV

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I was on KOMO TV, an ABC affiliate recently! How did this come to pass? Well, I posted a pocture that was sent to me by Samyu Group, a noodle company over in Malaysia. They have a wall of clocks for important timezones like London, Tokyo, New York, etc. Well, They’d done one for Kenmore, WA for where I live! The PR person contacted their PR agency who contacted KOMO TV and in a few weeks, I had a few people over and a big light pointed at me and a huge video camera in here! I want to thank Leslie Harris from the City Of Kenmore, Eric Schudiske from Gallatin Public Affairs, and Leslie Cohen and Eric Jensen from KOMO TV Seattle!  Here are some videos and the story on their website. ...see full post

#2129: CarJEN Hot & Spicy Dry Curry With Chives Soup

CarJEN has come up with something new! This one has not only a dry mee goreng, but a companion soup that you can enjoy alongside it. I’ve seen this before, but never in Malaysian varieties. There’s a popular Taiwanese instant that has a noodle and a soup separate kind of thing going too. Very curious about this one indeed. Let’s see how this all works! ...see full post

#2128: Sapporo Ichiban Taimeiken Yousyoku Yasangatsukutta Omumen

Here’s another one from BoxFromJapan.com. They’re a subscription service where you can get a box of noodles from Japan every month (they also have neat candy boxes from Japan as well). Still to this date I haven’t gotten a repeat or anothing I’ve ever reviewed in the past – pretty awesome! Here’s what they have to say about this one: ...see full post

#2126: Nissin Mennippon Oumi Chanpon

A lot of Meet The Manufacturers lately! Nice to get back to going through my hampers and picking something different every day! This one hails from Japan and was sent to me by Javier of www.BoxFromJapan.com. You can go there and subscribe to a monthly box of instant ramen – really a great deal! I’ve never gotten a repeat or one that I’ve reviewed before – pretty awesome! Here’s what Javier has to say about this one: ...see full post

The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Spiciest Instant Noodles Of All Time 2016 Edition

Every year, I review a ton of instant noodles – and every year I come out with quite a few lists. This list tends to change the least of all my lists – I’ve had a lot of spicy instant noodles in my time and just seems like nobody’s getting any spicier products to market. Could be that they don’t want to melt people’s faces off perhaps. Anyways, here’s this year’s list – the spiciest varieties out of over 2,100 reviews. Enjoy – if you dare! ...see full post

Meet The Manufacturer: #2118: Nissin Chilli Noodles Tom Yum Shrimp Creamy Soup Flavour

Creamy shrimp tom yum is one of my favorite flavors of Thailand – definitely my favorite of the tom yum varieties. It looks,amazing, tastes amazing from the strong tom yum flavors and has that cream… Ahhh! Let’s check this one out – with a noodle that has chilli infused into it! ...see full post

Meet The Manufacturer: #2117: 7-Select Nissin Instant Noodles Shrimp Ma Nao Lui Suan Flavour King Cup

7-Eleven in Thailand was a fascinating place to visit last year. It’s different than what we have here insofar as there is a whole aisle of instant noodle varieties inside! I wish we had that here – it’d be so awesome! Lots of different brand partner with 7-Eleven there and have special flavors only available at 7-Eleven – kind of an exclusive. This one sounds interesting – really unsure about what it will be like – the manao sounds like lime perhaps, but aside from that… I do see shrimp! Hey! Let’s crack it open and delve into the mysteries within. ...see full post

Meet The Manufacturer: #2116: Nissin Instant Noodles Tom Yum Shrimp Saab Flavour

Kind of a weird day today. Why? Well, this is review 2116. Today is the 16th. It’s 2016. Aside from that, just another day. This looks like a good one – I definitely like tom yum, but what is saab? I looked around a bit and have come to the conclusion that it’s something denoting sourness. Am I right? I guess we’ll seee! Let’s check i tout! ...see full post

Meet The Manufacturer: #2112: Nissin Chilli Noodle Spicy Tom Yum Shrimp Flavour

To kick things off for Meet The Manufacturer: Nissin Thailand, I thought how could I go wrong with some spicy tom yum? Tom Yum is the signature flavor of Thailand; lemongrass, spiciness, shrimp – they all go together in a harmony that I really enjoy. Let’s give this one with an extra spicy hit a try! ...see full post

Meet The Manufacturer: Interview With Nissin Thailand

#2111: Nissin Cup Noodles Chilli Crab Flavour

I put out a call for varieties to review a couple of months ago – my hamper had gone very low on supplies! Here’s one that the folks from Prima Taste in Singapore sent – thank you! Now this one’s interesting – chilli crab is a Singaporean flavor, but this is a Cup Noodles from Hissin Hong Kong. A few days ago I reviewed a Cup Noodles from Japan which was Laksa flavor – another popular Singaporean taste. Interesting! Anyways, let’s crack it open and see what’s going on here! ...see full post

The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Instant Noodle Cups Of All Time 2016 Edition

This is the fourth Top Ten Instant Noodle Cups list I’ve done since 2013 and I just looked at the first one – none of them are still on this list! I will say one thing though – the ones on the 2013 list are all really good too. It’s hard picking a list to be honest; maybe a top fifty? Naw – ten is enough. Maybe when I’ve done 5000 reviews a top fifty might be in order. But for now, here’s the best of the best – my absolute favorite cup varieties from the 2,100+ reviews I’ve done. ...see full post

#2107: Nissin Lamen Sabor Frango Assado Com Toque De Limao

Thank you again to cousins Adriana and Mike O. for sending this one to me! As I’ve said in the past, anything south of the United States has been just near impossible for me to get – until somewhat recently. This one’s from Brazil. As for the translation? Well, Google says frango assado simply means roast chicken – let’s give it a try! ...see full post

Meet The Manufacturer: NuTek Food Science

Lowering sodium without compromising taste: a visit to NuTek Food Science

‘Aren’t you worried about the amount of sodium you’re taking in?’ This question has been following me around for years now – from people commenting on a news article to a journalist interviewing me for a story. I’ve usually shrugged it off in some way as I’ve not had high blood pressure – ‘worst I’ve had has been borderline when visiting a doctor from time to time.’ These days however with my second son here and another child on the way, my thinking has shifted a little bit. I’m in my early forties (I mean twenties, cough cough) and thinking about how I definitely want to be there for my children and watch them grow into adults, live forever, and review instant noodles as long as they keep coming up with fascinating and tasty new takes of the local cuisine of the world. I’ve cut back on how much of the noodles I take in when I review in the last year or so – a slurp of broth, a mouthful of noodles and then the supplied garnishes to get the full feel for a product and review it. I then just try to eat the garnishes I might add in after that, and once that’s done, the rest goes down the garbage disposal. It’s hard though; there are varieties that I just have to eat the whole bowl after reviewing – the really tasty stuff, you know? ...see full post

#2103: Roland Ramen Japanese Style Quick-Cooking Alimentary Paste With Beef Artificially Flavored Soup Base

A big thanks to Colin for finding and sending me this one! Okay, so I have been trying to get this one for a while; anything by Roland honestly. I called them, emailed them, and always got the same reply – ‘we don’t send sample.’ I really love it when companies have such a rigid policy against basically what amounts to free advertising. This one is made in Singapore for Roland company here in the USA, and I have a feeling it’s a private label by Tat Hui/KOKA – all boils down to one aspect which is a giveaway. Let’s check this one out and I’ll show you what that is. ...see full post

#2099: Sanpo Yakibuta Ramen

Here’s another one from the Box From Japan box from March! BoxFromJapan.com is a monthly subscription service – you get 4 neat and very unique bowls of ramen sent from Japan along with a few chopsticks and a little letter! Really awesome – I’ve not gotten any that I’ve reviewed before at this point which is really quite amazing! Anyways, check them out! Today’s variety looks interesting – they mention that the piece of pork is shaped like a heart to show the care they put into their products. Neat! Let’s check it out! ...see full post

The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Instant Rice Noodles Of All Time 2016 Edition

Seems like it wasn’t that long ago I came out with the first Top Ten Rice Noodles list – was thinking I might not do an update since I hadn’t reviewed a ton of new ones in the last year but since a couple were definitely worthy, here it is. Here’s The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Instant Rice Noodles Of All Time 2016 Edition! ...see full post