#4518: Maruchan Yakisoba Teriyaki Beef Flavor Japanese Home Style Noodles – United States

#4518: Maruchan Yakisoba Teiryaki Beef Flavor Japanese Home Style Noodles - United States

Eventually, I’ll get through everything I want to do for the Maruchan Meet The Manufacturer series – there’s a lot of them to go through and then unite all together. I’m cobbling everything together slowly. I got this one at the Kenmore, Washington Safeway store – your standard American domestic grocery store. In these stores, there are two areas you will commonly find instant noodles. There’s the soup aisle, and the ethnic foods aisle. These are in the soup aisle. They’ve got a few varieties of trays – some Maruchan, and some by a competitor . I think I’ll have to see what other Maruchan ones they’ve got, but thought this might be a good one for the trays. Let’s check it out! ...see full post

#4514: Nongshim Bowl Noodles Ramen Noodles With Seasoning Mix Hot & Spicy Flavor – United States

#4514: Nongshim Bowl Noodles Ramen Noodles With Seasoning Mix Hot & Spicy Flavor - United States

New clothes for the classic! Originally, it was a foam bowl with a paper lid in shrinlkwrap. Then, they reformulated for microwave and had a cardboard sleeve. Now, it’s a plastic wrap with the graphics on that. This is classic – ubiquitous with gas stations and little corner shops, many o which are run by Korean Americans. I used to live in a place that had a little grocery/deli mini mart across the way. The fellow there was Korean American and he had these in there, but with a ridiculous markup. I asked him why once. ‘Because that’s my lunch!’ ...see full post

#4509: Cup O’ Crazy Gummy Noodles United States

#4509: Cup O' Crazy Gummy Noodles United States

In December, we went to Party City. They had a new one opened up next to us and so we were getting stuff for our daughter Miriam’s birthday. Well, they had two candy noodle things and this was one of them. A Cup O’ Crazy. That’s pretty weird. It’s got goo, edible chopsticks, and gummy noodles. I really don’t like things like this so much but I have to review it of course. Qho knoqa; it could be masterfully crafted; like a jelly noodle with a sauce that’s made from fine ingredients and chopsticks of sweet coconut powder that melt in your mouth. But I wouldn’t count on it. Let’s commense this, the 4,509th session of my personal congress of noodling. ...see full post

#4507: MyKuali Penang Black Curry Noodle – Malaysia

This is a review I’m rushing out as kind of a special ‘grand re-opening.’ For the past couple of months I haven’t done more than a small handful of reviews. I’ve been dieting and walking a lot – like over 500 miles in May a lot. With the kids ending their school year today and a couple of months with them at home, I’m back to attempting to do three reviews a day Monday through Friday. I thought I would push this one through because it’s brand new and I know a lot of your will be interested. There’s something else brand new here I’m very excited about which you will be seeing in a while. The finished picture here has a background I created using AI. The ability to make my own backgrounds this was is really something else – I’m stoked. Spent an hour yesterday trying different things – prompts like ‘tranditional Malaysian style wallpaper centered with dark colors’ – things like that. You’ll see them regularly in the fall as even though I’ve taken all this time off, I’m still almost 150 reviews ahead. Yesterday I make a ton of new intros and outros for Instant Noodle Recipe Time, plus a new set of music for the show. So that’s coming up. On with the review! ...see full post

#4505: Maruchan GOLD Spicy Miso Ramen – United states

#4505: Maruchan GOLD Spicy Miso Ramen - United states

It’s a couple days after Christmas and one of the last reviews of 2022. Obviously, it’s not coming out in 2022, but that’s when I did this up. I used some things I got for Christmas, including leftovers from dinner – let’s give this one a try – I reviewed it quite a while back but figure it’s due another looksie. ...see full post

#4504: Kikkoman Noodle Kit With Sauce Teriyaki Sesame – United States

#4503: Kikkoman Noodle Kit With Sauce Teriyaki Sesame - United States

This is a gluten free product we found at a local store. My wife does the gluten free thing, so making this for her today. It’s currently 23 degrees outside with a wind chill as low at 15. That’s pretty cold for these parts. I’ve got to go to the store to get some stuff, so I’ll probably be talking about how cold it is. Anyways, let’s cook this one up. ...see full post

#4502: Quickchow Pancit Canton Toyomansi Flavor – Philippines

#4502: Quickchow Pancit Canton Toyomansi Flavor - Philippines

Toyomansi is a combo of soy sauce and calamansi flavors. Calamansi is a kind of citrus kind of similar to lime. This is great – rarely come across Filipino varieties and they’re some really good ones to try. Found this one at HMart with my daughter after her birthday party this year. We took her to Chuck E. Cheese – what an interesting place – very throwback. Let’s check this one out! ...see full post

#4500: Nissin Miojo Lamen Doce Sabor Beijinho – Brazil

#4500: Nissin Miojo Lamen Doce Sabor Beijinho - Brazil

A long time coming, this one. A reader named Cian sent me this one (thanks again!) as well as a few other Brazilian varieties. He sent the chocolate version of this which was a real score – but this one led me down a research rabbit hole, but yesterday I caught the rabbit. Beijinho is a Brazilian treat – see those little balls in the bowl? Beijinho is basically condensed milk and powdered sugar mixed with unsweetened coconut, chilled, made into balls, and then rolled in more unsweetended coconut and topped with a clove. Problem is the cloves alone were kind of spendy and all the coconut you find here is sweetened. It seemed that making it myself would be a little tricky as well as expensive. I asked in local groups and people mentioned Kitanda, a Brazilian cafe/bakery/mini store in Kirkland, Washington. First time we went, no dice – they only had the chocolate ones. The second time, however – they had what I was looking for, but sans clove and that’s what I’ll be using for garnish. So, let’s do up this 4500th review! ...see full post

The Ramen Rater Diet: How I Lost 56lbs in 92 days

I’m sure you’re a little confused, so here goes. I was told by my doctor back in 2018 that I needed to lose weight – I was at 364lbs and looking at pre-diabetes and going on a statin drug as well. So, I got a stroller and started pushing my daughter around a lot and limited intake. In six month, I’d lost around 60 pounds. I ended up down to 200 pounds in the next year which was pretty good. Well, In 2021 my mom died and early the next year I got COVID and ended up in the ICU. I gained 88 pounds back – definitely not what was on the menu but it happened. In early March, I saw my doc and he said I was back at 288lbs and said to lose weight again. I modified the diet I had done back in 2018. The next visit was in June and I’d lost 56 pounds which is an average of 0.6 pounds per day for 92 days. ...see full post

#4498: Nissin Miojo Turma Do Chico Bento Sabor Caldinho De Feijao – Brazil

#4498: Nissin Miojo Turma Do Chico Bento Sabor Caldinho De Feijao - Brazil

Pretty stoked – found this locally in Kirkland (no, not Costco, but the city of which is where Costco started, actually) at a coffee shop/store called Kitanda. What’s kind of a bummer though is that caldinho de feijao is a creamy black bean soup and what it appears is a standard garnish is nothing I have in my kitchen. Hmm… Well, I’ll make do with what I’ve got . ...see full post

Umai Crate Ramen Subscription Box – July 2023 + Coupon Code

Check this out!  These subscription boxes come straight to your door and have some neat stuff inside! It’s a pretty great thing to get people who are into ramen for the holidays! Check out www.japancrate.com and use the coupon code THERAMENRATER to score a sweet discount and get some neat noodles! Here’s the latest unboxing of the March 2023  Umai Crate! ...see full post

Zenpop.jp Japanese Ramen Unboxing – June 2023

It’s time to unbox a Zenpop.jp box – you get seven varieties of instant noodles to try! I would say that almost every time I’ve gotten one of these, I’ve never tried any of them before which is really awesome. Great as a gift or to hoard for yourself! Use coupon code THERAMENRATER for a groovy discount! Let’s check it out! ...see full post

Umai Crate Ramen Subscription Box – June 2023 + Coupon Code

Check this out!  These subscription boxes come straight to your door and have some neat stuff inside! It’s a pretty great thing to get people who are into ramen for the holidays! Check out www.japancrate.com and use the coupon code THERAMENRATER to score a sweet discount and get some neat noodles! Here’s the latest unboxing of the March 2023  Umai Crate! ...see full post

#4492: Nissin Miojo Turma Da Monica Sabor Galinha Suave – Brazil

#4492: Nissin Miojo Turma Da Monica Sabor Galinha Suave - Brazil

I’m very happy to say that I found this one locally! Brazilian instant noodles only a town over! So, I’m trying to find something specific to go with review #4500 – abd the only place I can get it is a coffee joint called Kitanda. Really great place with coffee and acai smoothies and a baklery and a small grocery selection – all Brazilian. They’ve got instant noodles! What I’m looking for is something called Beijinho – so that’s a giveaway for what it’s going to be. Anyways, let’s do up this one which is flavor of young hen. ...see full post

#4489: Dara Urai Flat x Cipratasa Rasa Ayam Bawang – Indonesia

#4489: Dara Urai Flat x Cipratasa Rasa Ayam Bawang - Indonesia

So this is a noodle with no seasoning, however the company that make this makes seasoning as well, so that works out great! These are made by Suprama of Indonesia – the same folks that make Best Wok – a great line of mi goreng varieties I really like. Let’s try this noodle in concert with some special onion chicken seasoning! ...see full post

Zenpop.jp Japanese Snack Box Taste Test June 2023

Zenpop.jp Japanese Snack Box Taste Test June  2023

It’s time to unbox a Zenpop.jp box – this is a new one. I usually do unboxing of their ramen boxes – which I will still be doing. However, they’re also sending me their new snack boxes which have a noodle variety, and then a ton of candy and snacks. What’s cool is I’ll be not only doing the unboxing, but inline with it will be a taste test with my daughter Mimi. Great as a gift or to hoard for yourself! Use coupon code THERAMENRATER for a groovy discount! Let’s check it out! ...see full post