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Here’s an interesting one. Now ‘easy’ is English, ‘fideos’ is Spanish. Fideos means noodles. It looks like if you had it in reverse, with the first word Spanish and second English, you’d end up with ‘Fácil Noodles.’ I think Easy Fideos sounds a little better. Anyways, I’m hungry – the big posts I’ve been doing recounting my trip to Malaysia have been taking a long time every morning before I get to noodles! Let’s check it out!
Day 1 * Day 2 * Day 3 * Day 4 * Day 5 * Day 6
Feasting on Penang’s succulent culinary treasures continues, with a lot of prawn-tasticness! Here is the United States, we often call them shrimp, but looks like everywhere else, they’re prawns. Did you know that the translation of the Chinese word for lobster is ‘dragon prawn?’ Well, now you do. I for one will be calling them prawns from now on. Let’s check out day three!
Here’s another one sent by a kind reader in Sweden! Thank you! Master Kong is really popular in China and what surprises me is that there are no places that I’ve seen that you can get their products here in the United States. Luckily, people send them to me from time to time, but it seems to me that I really need to figure out a way to contact them and do a Meet The Manufacturer with them. The Chinese consume billions of packages of instant noodles a year and I’ve never done a Chinese Meet The Manufacturer yet! It’s about time. Well, let’s check out these pork ribs Master Kong instant noodles!
Day 1 * Day 2 * Day 3 * Day 4 * Day 5 * Day 6
I was planning on doing a post each day consecutively, mirroring the prior week when I was actually in Malaysia, but I hit a snag yesterday. I’d always heard of this thing called ‘jet lag’ and now I can tell you, it’s real. Shifting from timezones and different days really messed us up! We woke up at 2pm yesterday! Haven’t slept in like that since I was a punk kid! Well, we went to sleep at a realistic Pacific time zone time last night and so this morning I’m doing day two! This is a long post folks! Here we go!
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.
Day 1 * Day 2 * Day 3 * Day 4 * Day 5 * Day 6
From September 29th to October 4th, my wife Kit and I were treated to a visit to Malaysia by the kind folks at Sky Thomas Food Industries Sdn Bhd, makers of MyKuali Penang White Curry Noodles. The purpose of the trip was not to promote for them, but to show us the foods of Penang. Here is the first day of the trip!
During the trip, I got a lot of instant noodles in Malaysia! Unfortunately on the journey home, the baggage handlers are moving fast and not super worried about luggage with instant noodle in them, so some cups got a little banged up. This one has been on my list to find for a long time – Indomie’s Pop Mie. It’s a basic chicken noodle cup, but it’s been hard to find it or get a sample. Well, here it is! Let’s have a look at Pop Mie and give it a try! I should mention also that this is my first instant noodle I’ve had since September 26th – so long!
We have returned from our journey to Penang, Malaysia!! Our flight from Taipei, Taiwan arrived in Seattle around 7pm last night. This is a picture of where we were waiting for our shuttle to the parking light where we left our car. The flight left at 11pm Taiwan time, which is the same for Malaysia too – and then arrived the same day but 4 hours earlier! So we got back 15 hours all said and done which was kind of odd – time traveling! Over the next week starting Monday, I am going to do a new daily noodle review, and then a post highlighting everything of that day during our trip. At the end, I’ll be reviewing the new MyKuali Tom Yum instant noodle – my 1,500th review. Stay tuned!
Tonight at 11pm, we leave for the airport! I didn’t expect how our first leg to Taipei would go north then south. One thing I just realized is that body of water at the top left. When I was a kid, I had a map on the wall of my room. I would look at it and found that body of water fascinating – just the name – The Sea Of Okhotsk. It sounded so strange and so far away. I never expected I would be that close to it; really quite amazing to me.
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 –
Usually if I’m really trying to get my hands on some noodles to review, I’m going to find a way. There have been a couple though which have eluded me for a while. This is one of them – Wai Wai’s Quick Zabb. There are four of these varieties, all with a different main color and different character. They’re kind of like Powerpuff Girls, but a little meaner looking. I’m stoked – got all four at a store only 5 minutes away yesterday! Sometimes walking down that noodle aisle you’ve been down a million times before with no luck pays off. Let’s check it out!
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!
This is the last of the Nissin Soba varieties that were sent to me by Scott over at Nissin Foods USA a while back – thanks again, man these have been fun! These are made by Nissin Germany and are really neat. Let’s get to it!
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!
Welcome to the 2nd annual The Ramen Rater’s top Ten Taiwanese Instant Noodles Of All Time – the 2014 edition. In the last year, I’ve tried a slew of new varieties from Taiwan that were just amazing. Really discovered some great new products that I think everyone should try! What’s special this time is that I’m actually going to be in Taiwan during a layover on my trip to Malaysia! Figured I’d put this out a week early as it’ll be quite hard to post when I’m overseas. This is a list comprised of the best of the best of the 127 different varieties of instant noodles that I’ve tried that were made in Taiwan. As a side note – I’m also going to be traveling through Singapore and then my destination of Malaysia – there will be top ten lists for those two countries coming as well as soon as I’ve reviewed enough varieties to have a wide sampling. I’ve done just over 40 from each so far. With that, let’s have a look at the best noodles I’ve tried from Taiwan!
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!
Here’s another one that was sent by a kind reader in Sweden – thanks! This is pretty exciting – my first Swedish instant noodle review. I wouldn’t have thought of a connection between Sweden and instant noodles really; until I realized something a while back. You’ll see lots of Taiwanese instant noodles that have Scandinavian words ending in -smak a lot – that’s flavor in Swedish. So, here we are with kycklingsmak, which means chicken flavor. Anyways, let’s see how the chicken instant noodles sold in Sweden are!
I’ve recently seen a whole lot of misinformation being spewed lately about the instant noodle. Why do I care? Well, primarily because I’m really into instant noodles. I’ve been a fan of them since a child and been reviewing them since 2002. A kind of strange obsession, but there are definitely stranger ones out there. What gets me is information that is presented by news and social media sources often is really quite inept; lack of research and frankly poor quality journalism on their parts. So, I’ve decided to come out with an annual list of ten facts about instant noodles starting today! Ready? Well, here you go.
Meet Matt Stonie. This guy has eaten a lot of different things, stressing on the term ‘a lot.’ He’s got a ton of videos of him eating amazing quantities of food, competitive eating style. I have to take my hat off to him on this – there’s just so much instant noodle that he puts in his gut. I don’t think I could come close to doing this, nor would I attempt it – I’ll leave it to this pro.
I was contacted by a fellow named Kyle from Taiwan a few weeks ago and asked if I’d like to sample his company’s noodles. Mom’s Dry Noodle? Sure, why not! It’s pretty exciting – out trip to Malaysia in coming very soon – like in ten days we’re leaving! There’s a layover in Taipei and I’m really excited to be able to actually be in Taiwan, albeit in the transit area and only for two hours, but it’s going to be amazing! These are what they call ‘dry noodles’ over in Taiwan; they’re served without a broth. I’ve been very curious about what these would be like, and I thought I’d also test out a new kitchen gadget I got with the garnish.
Here’s a new one and it’s made here in the United States. Yep – there’s a Nongshim plant here in the US! I was able to visit them a couple years ago and it’s really neat – if you get a chance, you should check out their plant tours! Tonkotsu is a very standard variety of Japanese ramen, however this one’s got a spicy twist to it. Usually tonkotsu broth is made with pork bones that are boiled for a long time and this one does in fact contain pork. Let’s have a look!
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!
Here’s yet another one from a trip to Canada. This company is particularly interesting – they always include a big sachet of seaweed in their packs and bowls of instant noodles. What’s more, their bowl have two noodle blocks instead of just one – they sport some of the largest instant noodle meals I’ve ever seen! This one’s mushroom and beef flavored hot and spicy – which you find out by reading the back of the packaging. Anyways, sounds like an interesting one – let’s give it a try!
So last year, The Ramen Rater was #5 out of 90+ entrants, thanks to your votes! This year, let’s see if we can hit #1 in the Best Of Western Washington Food Blog competition!
I think this is the last of these I got when I went up to Canada last year. Shoyu translates to soy sauce, so these are soy sauce flavor ramen noodles. Shoyu is one of the standard flavors of ramen from Japan, such as miso and tonkotsu. Sounds pretty good to me – let’s have a look inside and give ’em a try!
Here’s one that was donated by a reader from Sweden! Thanks! It’s funny; you really can’t find any Master Kong noodles here in the United States which is a real bummer. They’re really good – hopefully they’ll be here at some point. What’s tough about Master Kong packs is that they don’t seem to say how much water to add in. For a pack this size, I’ve gone with 500ml before, so I’ll go with 500ml again.
For this Friday’s video, here’s something I found posted by a commenter on a recent HuffPost article. I’ve found myself doing a LOT of commenting on HuffPost article as of late, usually because people either writing them or reading them and commenting are so confused about instant noodles. Anyways, this fellow posted a link to this YouTube video which chronicles his one month of eating nothing but instant noodles. It’s pretty cool and I thought folks might like to check it out.
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!
After two weeks of Thai reviews, I thought I’d bring it on home. This is a new line by Nissin Foods USA – Easy Fideos! Fideos is Spanish for noodles and the flavors are designed to appeal to the Hispanic market. Anyways, let’s check it out!
My friend Moses over at Paldo America sent me a package!
Wow these are really big bowls! Jjajangmyen is a noodle with spicy black bean sauce and Jjamppong is a spicy seafood noodle soup! Thanks!
I was recently contacted by a fellow named Kyle over in Taiwan asking if I’d like to sample his company’s noodles. Well, of course I would! Let’s see what we have here.
I was contacted by a reader from Sweden that wanted to send me some instant noodles I hadn’t tried before! Thank you very much! Here they are!
Well I’m really excited today! My wife and I have been invited to visit MyKuali in Penang, Malaysia! Wow! Our flight’s booked and we’re getting ready for it later this month! The furthest from home here in the northwest I’ve been was the east coast in Georgia way back in 1995, and the only other country I’ve visited has been Canada. This is going to be really amazing! Thank you so much to MyKuali – this is absolutely great and I can’t wait to share pictures and words about our trip with everyone when we return! It’s still a few weeks away and we’re really excited!
I was a little surprised today to realize that this is the last of the Thai President Foods Meet The Manufacturer! I’ve gotten used to having something ‘tom yum’ almost every day for a couple weeks now. It’s gonna be interesting to going back to the rotation of varieties from my hampers of noodles! Well, let’s check out this one and bid a fond farewell to this Meet The Manufacturer. I still have more varieties they make that I’ve not reviewed yet, so you’ll see them coming along.
Moo Nam Tok – this sounds familiar… It looks like I reviewed a rice vermicelli version a while back. So, what’s Moo Nam Tok? Let’s consult Wikipedia:
Thai Chef is a line by Thai President Foods that’s sold in Germany and the surrounding area. Everything on the pack is in German. Seems that people all over the world are big fans of instant noodles! It still surprises me to find varieties in areas I wouldn’t have expected them. Beer and sausages are what I come to think of when I think of German food choices, but I’m finding out more and more that people around the world are looking east to try new things. Let’s have a look at these noodles!
Here’s another of the Bamee line, one that appears to be for the Northern European market. Bamee looks to mostly be comprised of classic flavors – beef chicken and duck. Chicken seems to be one meat that people in just about every country eats as well as makes in an artificially flavored form such as this. I think a nice relaxing cup of chicken noodles sounds nice. Let’s have a look!
This is one of the easiest to find varieties of MAMA noodles here in the USA. The ubiquitous ‘silver pack.’ What’s different about this one is it’s the 90g Jumbo Pack as opposed to the smaller 60g size. If you’ve been following my recent Thai President Foods reviews, you’ll note that there are lots of Tom Yum variations. Here’s a list with some different ones to note:
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:
When I think tom yum, I think spicy, seafood and citrus flavors. When I think extreme thrown into the mix, I’m guessing that it’s going to be ultra spicy. One thing that Thai varieties tend to have in common is that when they say they’re spicy, they really mean it! Let’;s have a look at this new variety for this year by Thai President Foods’ MAMA brand and see what it’s got.
