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You know, my favorite foods always have ambiguous and generalisms in them. Well, not really, but my favorite titles do. Miscellaneous sauce? Could be assorted sauce? This is one where the distributor’s label has a bit of a translation error I’m guessing. But this is how you’ll find it if you get it here in the United States, so I’ll leave it. Anyways, let’s give it a try.
A while back I discovered some of this brand’s Big Boss varieties – and it looks like there are more now, so that’s neat. Spicy and sesame sounds good enough – let’s find out.
Well, folks – this is it. The end of the road on these Hai Chi Jia varieties with Bobby Yip on them. At least the last one I’ve got. They’ve been pretty good – I get it. Definitely. Let’s check this last one out.
This is the second of four varieties, very popular in China and now abroad. I still am not sure who the man on the packaging is just yet, but I will say the last one I tried was absolutely wonderful. Let’s give this one a try – everything I’ve found about it points to it having a clam flavor.
I’m hoping that this variety does not do to the idea or history of Chinese cuisine what they did to Japanese teriyaki. Chow mein and teriyaki are generally not known to have soup, or a ton of gravy in excess. Let’s find out what we got here, folks.
Found a whole series of these locally at 99 Ranch Market (yeah that’s how you say it). They all have this fellow on them who I’m pretty sure is a comedian or a magician – I’m not sure. This one is immensely popular in China and features a mala (spicy) broth with chicken notes and special crisp rice. Let’s look within…
I’m unsure where this one came from, but I’m going to make a guess that it came from an Exotic Noods subscription box. Ya should head over there and use the coupon code THERAMENRATER – he’s got some great subscription boxes and they represent many countries around the world – very much worth a look.
Went through my bins and found everything I’d not reviewed. Guess what? Only four things. Yep – I’ve all but caught up! Which is good because more should be here tomorrow with more on the way. I’ve been on a roll lately – really found my groove again. Here’s how my day goes (if anyone cares). Get up, get stuff ready for kids, get stuff ready for reviewing. Review. Get my boy on the bus. Have some oatmeal and peanut butter with my daughter. Edit images and video for the reviews I did. Do some walking back and forth in the apartment. Get my daughter ready. Get her on the bus. Walk ten miles. Get home and get my daughter off the bus. Then my son off the bus. Then start taking pictures of the stuff I’ll review the next day and get those posts ready. Then we get the kids dinner done, put em to bed, have our dinner, try not to fall asleep/wake up on the couch and then start the whole thing over. Today is a little different. Today is a new tradition I started a couple of weeks ago. It’s B-roll Sunday. What’s that you probably don’t ask? Well, I go out walking with my rucksack on my back with my monopod, the phone I use to shoot Instant Noodle Recipe Time, and a battery brick in search of benches that have decent views and shoot ten or more minutes of video to do time lapse videos. Today I walked to Seattle – and should have some good intros and outros in store for this and the next couple of episodes of the show. But enought about me and this behind the scenes look at things you probably aren’t interested in. Let’s try this one from China.
First, off a huge thanks to Kyle over at Mom’s Dry Noodle for help in translating this. According to him, this is a special dish – here’s what Wikipedia had to say about it –
This is a Shaanxi cold noodle. So, what’s that? Well, it’s from a region of China. It’s really quite good, but a bit of trouble to cook. But I’m going to cook it. You can always watch me battle with it in the episode of Instant Noodle Recipe Time at the bottom of this post. You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel as I have a new episode of the show every single day. Anyways, let’s give it a try!
A company I’ve seen for a few years called King David connected with me a while back about sending samples – and they did! These are special non-fried noodles in chicken and beef. It looks like King David does a lot of ‘private label’ products. So, say you had Joe’s Snacks To Go or something like that – you could contract with King David and they would put your logo on instant noodles and you’d be selling instant noodles now. It’s interesting stuff. Well, let’s crack this box open and have a look inside! Thank you!
One noodle, one soup. You get some dry noodle with sauce and a bowl of soup on the side – okay? This is the last of this series I found just before Lunar New Year. Let’s check it out!
Well, hello there! I haven’t been reviewing a lot lately – weather’s been nice and I’ve been walking a lot – did 22 miles last week – on Thursday! Luckily, I’m over a hundred reviews ahead so by the time you see this, it’s probably close to 4 months later than when I wrote this here. Anyways, this one came from Asian Family Market on Aurora a couple days before Lunar New Year. Let’s check it out!
The last Kings Noodle variety I tried was absolutely phenomenal, so I’ve got high hopes for this one. This is a single serving variety with a whole lot going on in the box – let’s check it out!
This is a tricky one to translate. Big thank you to Kyle over at Mom’s Dry Noodle for your help! I found this one 2 days before Lunar New Year – fancy stuff. XO sauce is really nice stuff too. Let’s give this a go.
This one came from an Umai Crate – check ’em out at www.japancrate.com and use the coupon code THERAMENRATER! So this sounds good – a Chinese take on miso – or a miso with Chinese elements? Fascinated! Let’s give it a try!
Found this one right before Lunar New Year. Looked interesting and there were three of them we could get, so we got all three. The last one I tried said it was spicy, but didn’t seem to be so much. Luckily, this time I got some really great advice on what this was and how to cook it from Annie over at Red Chef – thanks you! Let’s give it a try!
Thank you to James of Lakeside, California for sending this. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I heard about this stuff and have really wanted to review it for a couple months after Stumpy of N Little Rock, AR told me about it. He wasn’t a fan and by the looks of things, I probably won’t find this to be the second coming either. But the thing is for me, my favorite instant noodle is the one I haven’t tried yet – and this is not only one I’ve not tried, but a brand I’m completely unfamiliar with. This is made in China. Let’s check it out!
Another one found just before Lunar New Year at a local market. These have all been fun to review as they’re all very mysterious; the way to translate and research these is always different and usually requires a lot of digging. Let’s check it out!
Here’s another one I found at Asian Family Market in 99 in Shoreline. We got so many that day. Wow. Still a ton to do! Let’s check it out!
Lots of people enjoy bowls full of noodles from around the world. They often come with a utensil, and all you need it hot water. For a quick meal, they’re hard to beat insofar as convenience. Some bowls however go above and beyond a utilitarian sense and are truly gourmet. This list is comprised of my favorite bowl varieties from all reviews up to #4120. All scoring is done prior to garnish being added. Do you want me to review something I haven’t? Drop me a line! With that, let’s peruse my top picks on The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Instant Noodle Bowls Of All Time 2022 Edition!
This is another one I found a couple days before Lunar New Year. The bar code came up with nothing which was a little troublesome, but I did manage to find the website on the packaging. The XO definitely is a reference to XO sauce, and it being blue and pics of the bowl definitely mean it’s gotta be XO sauce seafood. At least, I think so. Let’s check this one out!
Another one I found during sales on Lunar New Year products. Very curious about this one and kind of confused as to how to prepare it, but I’ll figure it out. Let’s give it a look!
It’s been a while and thought hey – today is Lunar New Year so I’m doing Chinese reviews today. This is a very popular street dish – the noodle is called Liangpi. It’s a cold noodle dish, and really quite tasty – let’s get started!
I’m getting this post ready to go the day before Lunar New Year – – we went to a big Asian grocery just north of Seattle yesterday and shopped for noodles. They usually have some really neat things in store for the special holiday! This is supposed to be an extra spicy salted egg variety – very curious about it – let’s check it out and see if it’s truly ultra spicy! I should note that I had no clue my lens was so greasy – which is a bummer since I did three shows and a mukbang while it was like this… So, forgive me. It’s clean now, although a little late…
You know, I’ve had the pack version of it and I recall I did enjoy it, so hey – why not the bowl? I found this over at the local 99 Ranch Market and though wow I haven’t done the bowl – let’s do it! So, here I am, doing it as it were.
I think I recently did another version of this a little while back – that’s usually means it’s been months. Anyways, pretty crazy here now what with Omicron – so I’ve gotten two emails from the kiddos school district saying be prepared if things get worse they’ll be back home with their school tablets again. That would be incredibly unfortunate; they get so much out of socializing. Then again I don’t want my kids getting sick. My son’s fully vaccinated and my daughter got her first one a day after her 5th birthday just before Christmas.
I thought I would do three reviews in a row from China. Why? Well, it’s January 3rd here and I just got done with the arduous Christmas and New Year’s happenings and I want to show off my new musical instrument. You can watch the video below and on the next two reviews. Be kind – never played a bowed instrument before in my life and never a traditional Chinese instrument.
Konjac noodles generally are very chewy and rubbery – unless they have a gauge that works well with them. That being said, they’re also quite low in calories – extremely low. This one seems to marry konjac and rice together for the noodle. However, if it were simply konjac, it would be much lower. Anyways, let’s see what we have.
Here’s the second of the Artisan branded varieties I’ve come across recently. Neat flower pot style big cups with a ton of sachets within. I think I found this at Asian Family Market on 130th Aurora in Shoreline. Let’s check it out.
Found these at Asian Family Market on 130th & Aurora. Don’t really know anything about these. What I can say is that they also have a crawfish flavor variety. There are so many Chinese brands that show up these days with a single variety and very little info. I should say though lots of English on this one which makes translation painless and cooking instructions are included in that. Let’s give ’em a go!
Here’s one I found at Asian Family Market on Aurora near Shoreline. Pretty rad place to find neat new stuff to review. Never seen this Artisan branding before – let’s check it out!
Alright so first off – this is made in China, however the package is definitely made for sale in the United States. Second, I found this at Asian Food Center on Hwy 99/Aurora by Shoreline, WA – definitely a great place to visit every couple of months. I’ve found tons of unique variants there. Let’s check it out!
Here’s one that came from an Exotic Noods subscription box! Use coupon code THERAMENRATER for a discount. I haven’t had anything by this brand in probably a decade – but I remember I liked this brand’s products. I remember that, but I don’t know where my keys are at the moment. Fascinating. Well, let’s give it a try!
One thing I’ve noticed – spicy is in. This list tends to be the most popular on my website The Ramen Rater every single day. People just want to get all the spicy they can get. Why is that? Spicy is intense. Spicy compliments flavor. Spicy will knock you on your butt. The challenge and chase for the endorphin rush that ultra spicy things give people is extremely tempting for many. These are the spiciest varieties I’ve had the opportunity to sample as of my 3,950th review. Ready to burn? Let’s get to The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Spiciest Instant Noodles Of All Time 2022 Edition.
Found this one at the Asian Family Market on 130th & Aurora in Seattle. They’ve got a lot of premium varieties – this one is in a little box which is pretty neat. I’ve had some from this brand in the past I really didn’t like but I’m hopeful – I mean, they’re mentioning night market in the title and night markets are really, really cool – at least when I visited Taiwan. Let’s check it out!
This one looked interesting – saw it at our local 99 Ranch Market… Was really struggling with the translation of the directions, however my friend Bobby from Toronto came through right when I needed clarification and here we are – thanks! Let’s give this a try!
Here’s one that came via Exotic Noods – check ’em out and use coupon code THERAMENRATER for a discount!
An apron, glasses, and a sunny demeanor. Yes, this is Uncle Fun. Fun? Foon? I’m guessing it’s pronounced Foon. When I opened this, the aroma was definitely nice. But what was difficult was the cooking part. I found a new way to image translate, but it was through google, so very confusing. Boiling noodles in cold water seems a little strange to me, but they’ve got some mad tech in China, yo… I hope I can figure out how the heck to cook this stuff… UPDATE – big thanks to Kyle K. over at Mom’s Dry Noodle for huge help in cooking instructions!
Yup – another Chinese flower pot. I like these so much – they’re interesting things. Lots of sachets and bits and pieces to taste. Let’s check it out!
