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This one was on the global top ten list last year, but under a different brand name. This time, it’s by Red Chef. But does it taste the same? One easy way to find out! I remember a strong prawn flavor that was just relentless – and if you like sweet prawn sauce like me, you’re going to really lose it over this. Let’s check it out!
I got a few of these during a Lunar New Year promo at 99 Ranch recently. Special thanks to Annie T. for help in translation. Let’s check it out!
Right now it’s about 3 weeks until Lunar New Year aka CNY. This is another neat variety found at 99 Ranch Market. They’ve got lots of treats and specialty items to celebrate the holiday and to be honest, this is one of my favorite times of year. This will post probably 3 months afterwards though. Special thanks to Annie T. for help in translation! Let’s check it out!
Here’s another one I hauled back from the wonderful land called Taiwan. God, I love it there. It’s generally hot and sticky humid, but I don’t care – I would happily acclimate to live there. Anyways enough emoting over that wonderful place. This is a variety I found in RT-Mart, which is a gigantic grocery store I visited in Taipei. In fact, it’s an everything store. Let’s crack this open and see what we have in here.
We tried this new grocery store (new to me at least) in Bellevue called Asian Food Center. Thought we’d give it a peek and found they had quite a few neat things. This is one of the noodles I found. I want to send a really big thank you to Bobby Y. up in Canada for help translating this one – mystery solved, thank to you! Now here’s a note on contention between me and the entire country of Taiwan. If you look in the lower right corner, you’ll see a little warning. It reads: This product is not the instant noodles. Please boil the noodles before eating. They can’t be steeped; okay, we got that. What is kind of ridiculous is the fact that they only take 3 minutes to cook. That’s the same amount of time as noodles that can be steeped. Logically, the amount of time needed to cooking something should be relevant to whether it is deemed instant as well, don’t you think? I would call these instant noodles – that require a different cooking method than other instant noodles. But I digress – I don’t think Taiwan is going to get on board with this, and that’s alright with me. I’m thinking next year I might to a split Taiwanese Top Ten list – half the ones that can be steeped and half the ones that can’t, basically a pair of Top Five lists. It seems to really matter to them, and far be it for me to poo-poo any country with such a fervent passion for noodles. Let’s proceed!
I’ve reviewed quite a few instant by this brand. They’re made in Taiwan and they come with four of everything; four noodle blocks, four of each sachet. The Interesting twist with this one is that it doesn’t use broth; it’s a stir noodle! I don’t think I’ve found one of those yet. Let’s check it out!
Now for something completely different. Jah jan noodles! What’s jah jan? It’s a black bean (or soybean) sauce rich with flavor – popular in China, Taiwan and South Korea. This one’s from Taiwan. Let’s check it out!
