The Definitive Source For Instant Noodle Reviews Since 2002
A lot of people enjoy visiting Trader Joe’s and trying their products. Actually, there aren’t many products if any that I think are actually ‘their’ products – they get companies who make a good product to do a ‘private label,’ often the same product or some with a couple tweaks and then packaged with Trader Joe’s graphics. I believe this one to be actually a cup of Mike’s Mighty Good Craft Ramen. Anyways, let’s check this new cup out!
Here’s one that was sent by James B. – thank you very much! What have we here? Well, it’s Thai flavor noodle cup action from the Netherlands! Thom Khakai is coconut chicken flavor. Let’s have a look!
I know a lot of people are really into Trader Joe’s. What I’ve seen is that they find brands and products they think would be good with their packaging and then get the company that makes it to do a private label for them and sells it under their name. I think that’s what it looks like here. In fact, maybe these should be known not as Trader Joe’s but Trader Mike’s – as everything looks about the same as this one. Yup – I’m pretty sure these are made by Mike’s Mighty Good. Anyways, let’s have a look and give it a try!
Here’s one from Wes up in north eastern Canada – thank you again! He has time and again sent really interesting varieties by Kinchan of Japan – really hard to find stuff. This one’s a shoyu tonkotsu – let’s check it out!
Today we have a Zenpop.JP variety – so what’s Zenpop? They’re a subscription service for all things Japanese! Definitely, check them out. By the way, use coupon code RAMENRATER to get $2 off! Here’s what they had to say about this one –
Today we have a Zenpop.JP variety – so what’s Zenpop? They’re a subscription service for all things Japanese! Definitely, check them out. By the way, use coupon code RAMENRATER to get $2 off! Here’s what they had to say about this one –
Today, we have one that was part of Japan Crate’s Umai Crate. So Japan Crate is a subscription service which has all sorts of different options for you. pretty neat stuff from Japan! There’s a coupon code for you too – just use THERAMENRATER to get a special discount at check out.
When the Very Veggie line came out, my first thought was that it would just be varieties for Vegans and Vegetarians. Surprisingly, there was no option for this crowd. Well, it seems that that has changed! This one was sent to me by Robert Z. from Kentucky – thanks man – go check out his cooking blog www.dadbert.com! He found this at a local grocery store – nothing about this and the other new Cup Noodles he found and sent on their site or mentioned on Instagram. This has led me to think that perhaps he’s in what’s called a ‘test market.’ In some areas, a product will be introduced to meter how it’s received by the public – if it sells really well, it’ll go nationwide. If not, it might be pulled. Let’s pop the lid and look under the hood.
Here’s another one from Zenpop.JP. Zenpop offers a lot of diverse Japanese boxes – lots of assorted things like ramen and also stationary among other things. Here’s what they have to say about this variety –
This one was sent to me by YumYum in December of 2017 – thank you! Nothing I like more than getting non-export versions of products. Why? Well, they’re more exotic to begin with. The non export varieties are the ones that can be found on store shelves in the country of origin. It’s not like I can walk down the street and go to a Thai grocery store in Thailand, so this is very helpful for me. Here’s a little about tom yum from Wikipedia –
Okay you definitely know Samyang Foods by now – fire noodles and all. They keep coming out with new products all the time and keep sending them my way which I thoroughly appreciate! Thank you! Let’s crack this big box open and have a look!
Well, today we’ve got the last of the cup versions. I thought ending up with beef sounded like a good way to go. Why? Oh, I don’t know. Actually, it just sounds nice to sample something beef flavored today to be honest. Let’s give it a try!
Here we have the cup version of the flavor we started this Meet The Manufacturer series with – original flavor. This is soy sauce flavor, aka shoyu. Here’s a little about shoyu ramen from Wikipedia –
Time for some chicken! Actually, there are quite a few chicken varieties in this range and they’re about to start showing up in this review series. Today,m we’re going to start off with their chicken instant ramen cup. Sounds like a plan – just so you know, the last time I tried this was way back at review #405! Let’s get to it and give it a try!
Sapporo Ichiban offers four standard pillow pack style noodles, four special varieties, and four cup varieties. It makes it easy to do a different one every day during this Meet The Manufacturer series. I have, however, reviewed them all before, but it was a very long, long time ago. I usually don’t like to do re-reviews, but I think in this case I’m very happy to make an exception. I’ve been wanting to do a Meet The Manufacturer with Sanyo Foods America for years and getting the chance to has been a lot of fun!
This one comes by way of Japan Ramen Box. Japan Ramen Box is a new subscription box outfit with neat varieties to check out! Go visit their website and have a look!
Today we have a Zenpop.JP variety – so what’s Zenpop? They’re a subscription service for all things Japanese! Definitely, check them out. By the way, use coupon code RAMENRATER to get $2 off! Here’s what they had to say about this variety:
Today, we have one that was part of Japan Crate’s Umai Crate. So Japan Crate is a subscription service which has all sorts of different options for you. pretty neat stuff from Japan! There’s a coupon code for you too – just use THERAMENRATER to get a special discount at check out.
Okay so I’ve reviewed this one in the past, however they’ve changed the recipe. Nissin Singapore sent me samples for review (thank you!) and so I’ve been going through many of these new version cups.
Here’s one I got up in Canada a few months back. Yeah – lately we go up to Canada almost once a month. It’s fun up there – I’m thinking though we’re going to have to venture outside of just going to Richmond and hitting Vancouver one of these days.
Here’s another one from Zenpop.JP. Zenpop offers a lot of diverse Japanese boxes – lots of assorted things like ramen and also stationary among other things. Here’s what they have to say about this variety –
These came by way of Snackoo – a company that supplies you with great snack boxes, containing all sorts of fascinating things as well as ramen noodles. Why not check them out?
Today we have a Zenpop.JP variety – so what’s Zenpop? They’re a subscription service for all things Japanese! Definitely, check them out. By the way, use coupon code RAMENRATER to get $2 off! Here’s what they had to say about this one –
Well, it’s been a while since I’ve had a version of Neoguri to review. Actually, wait – not that extremely long – they came out with the Neoguri dry stir noodle one recently. So this is one I got up in Canada a couple of months ago.
Today we have an interesting little cup of noodles from South Korea – a little spicy one. This has been on my top ten spicy list for a while now and it’s some mean stuff.
Today, it’s yet another of the KOKA varieties leftover from the Meet The Manufacturer from earlier this year! I must say that the fact that instant noodle products have long shelf lives is really a nice thing!
Here’s one of those ‘dilemma’ noodles. I don’t know what the heck it is called and the bar code yields absolutely no results which are annoying. Luckily, I do have the resource of my readers and asked on the Facebook page for The Ramen Rater. A few people got they were tonkotsu, which is very helpful, although usually, ones like this are some kind of tonkotsu – like a little more detailed. But people were of the belief this was just their standard tonkotsu. Thanks for the info! Let’s dig in
Oh hey, ramen bokki! So this is a fusion of two foods: South Korean ramyun and one of the words I would say I’ve seen spelled about a zillion different ways, tteokbokki. Tteokbokki are big chewy tubes made from rice flour and they’re really good. Usually, it’s made with a spicy and sweet sauce, egg, fish cake, etc. Good stuff! So this is that but instead of with the rice tubes, you get the noodles. Let’s check it out!
Ahh, Laksa – nothing like it. In fact, there are lots of kinds of laksa; sweet, creamy, curry, fish – every area has their own take on the dish. Let’s see what Wikipedia has to say about laksa –
Here’s yet another one I found up in Canada in July of 2017! Found this at HMart after having a really great dim sum lunch with some new friends at Aberdeen Centre in Richmond, BC. Okay, so Jjajang is a black bean sauce noodle. But Pororo? Let’s look at Wikipedia –
Here is a new Cup Noodles variety from Nissin Hong Kong – Laksa! It’s interesting how a lot of flavors of Malaysia and Singapore are making their way further east lately. Many different Laksa varieties exist, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one from Hong Kong before. Here’s a little from Wikipedia about Laksa –
Here’s another left over from the KOKA Meet The Manufacturer – thanks again for participating For almost a whole year I was reviewing two varieties per day – this is how I got so far ahead in my reviews. Now I’m only doing one at this point and I think I probably will for a while. You see, having a 5 month old baby girl and a very inquisitive 21 month old boy in the house can be a little crazy. He’s really interested in grabbing things and flinging them on the floor. He’s also a big fan of stealing remote controls (we got him a couple just for him, but he still steals ours). He loves the mouse and keyboard too, so I have to put those up when he’s running around.
So Zenpop.jp has sent me another box and I thought I ought to do a video. They asked about this last time and so I figured I’d go ahead and do it. I think if, at all possible, I’m going to do this whenever I get a box from now on – kind of fun to crack these boxes open and see what’s inside! These will be called ‘Unboxing Time With The Ramen Rater.’So let’s check out this box from the noodle box purveyor! I should note that they also do other boxes – stationary for example among other things.
Today we’ve got yet another one from the massive amount of varieties left over from the Nissin Hong Kong Meet The Manufacturer. Seems like I just keep pulling them out of the hamper again and again! It’s a good thing though – the more the merrier and these days, it is getting harder to find varieties locally to review. So gotta make sure to give everything a try. Tonkotsu is a classic Japanese ramen variety. Most of all, tonkotsu is famous for it’s milky pork bone broth. Next, a little more info from Wikipedia:
Here’s one left over from the KOKA Meet The Manufacturer. These soups are interesting; instead of noodles with soup it’s more like soup with noodles! Let’s have a look at this creamy soup!
Recently, I did a Definitive Guide To Samyang Foods Buldak Bokkeummyun series. However, the cup was just mentioned and not one that I have tried. Indeed, there are two I’ve not reviewed of the series – the curry version and the 2x spicy bowl (although I scarf one down in the video).
Most people don’t know, but I’ve been to Singapore. It was in 2014 – and it was a very short visit.
Here’s one left over from the Meet The Manufacturer I did with Nissin Mexico a little while ago. These are very cool – they have little packets of hot sauce in them! Indeed, I think these should be available in the United States as well. I think they’d do really well! Indeed, who wouldn’t like the Cup Noodles here to come with a little packet of hot sauce? I know I would.
Went to Uwajimaya, a local Japanese grocery store chain in the northwest the other day. So I found that you can get chashu pork there – it’s really nice for Japanese instants since I can slap one on top! Indeed what I do is get a few packs of it from the deli and then bag them individually and throw them in the freezer – it’s pricy stuff, but done this way it really stretches it a long way. So $15 or pork will yield me about 18-20 slices and since it’s frozen, it’ll last nicely until I’ve done that many Japanese reviews.
