The Definitive Source For Instant Noodle Reviews Since 2002
The instant noodle originated in 1958 in Japan, but since that time, they’ve expanded in popularity all over the world, including of course, the United States. Seeing this, instant noodle companies thought it wise to start building plants here in the 1970s. Since then, many brands operate factories here in the US, mostly in southern California. This is a list of my favorite varieties produced here, encompassing my over 1,100 reviews to date. With that, here’s your top ten, America!
This year, we’ve got some new fiery additions to this list of spicy and burning hot varieties. If you can find them, you’ll be feeling quite the burn! If you think you’ve found anything hotter or noteworthy of being on this list, please comment below or send me an email. Without further adieu, here’s the 2013 picks for the spiciest instant noodles I’ve found after 1,128 reviews!
Cups were the second instant noodle innovation that really took the world by storm. Nissin founder Momofuku Ando of Japan decided that a cup would be a really handy way to have instant noodles on the go. His creation came to the market in 1971. Forty-two years later, the instant noodle landscape is filled with many different cup designs and contents – some all inclusive only needing hot water,m and some requiring a little more with packets – and some even with forks! Of all the varieties I’ve tried to date, here are my favorite ten.
Here’s one that I’ve waiting to review for a while. This is a variety specifically marketed for the summer months – cold South Korean noodles! Thought I’d consult Wikipedia to give some more information on South Korean cold noodle dishes:
After more than a year of pondering and reviewing since the last list, here’s the new top ten instant noodle bowls. This encompasses all instant noodle bowls reviewed up to today, June 15th, 2013. With no further adieu, the top ten instant noodle bowls of all time, 2013 edition.
Another from my trip to Canada for my birthday. Wow – what a past two days here! The Top Ten 2013 list came out to a clamor of Taiwanese disapproval – Taiwan didn’t make the list. But, hopefully out of it all I’ll get contacted by one of the companies in Taiwan, but so far nothing. On to other things though – that being this interesting bowl by Nongshim. This one’s made in Shanghai, China. Let’s check it out.
So these last two days have been crazy – so many people from Taiwan just coming in droves to the site and declaring their passion for the instant noodles of their country! You should be proud of yourselves; I’m never going to look at Taiwanese noodles the same again, that’s for sure! I’m sure I’ll be reviewing more very soon so keep your eyes on The Ramen Rater!
Another one I got while in Canada for my birthday. I’m sure many folks will immediately ask ‘where did you get this’ and ‘where can I get it,’ and I’ll just say I’ve only seen this in Canada. See, they get stuff in the Vancouver area from not only the Nongshim plant here in the states but the one in Shanghai, China. Got a couple more coming down the pipe of reviews soon that hail from China. Let’s check this out!
It’s been over a year since the last Top Ten List came out and it’s time for a new one. You’ll see some from the old list and some new ones! With that, Welcome to the new Top Ten Instant Noodles Of All Time – 2013 Edition!
The FedEx guy knocked on my window the other day with a package!
Holy cow – a flat of Neoguri and a flat of Chapagetti! I did a review of Chapaguri a couple weeks ago and to say thanks, they made sure I can make it whenever I like! Thanks!
I read an article about the dangers of instant noodle cups a long time ago which prompted me to write an article last year. Well, I recently saw another one so I thought it was time for a rebuttal. I emailed ConsumerAffairs.com and they were interested, and so without further adieu, here is my article! Thanks to Jim H.! If the link isn’t working, click on the image below for a large image of the article.
Hey look at that! The new Shin Ramyun Black cup! Been wanting to review it since I first saw it. I reviewed the other Shin Ramyun Black cup (which was onion flavored) a while back and really enjoyed it immensely. This one’s being promoted by PSY! Yep – Mr. Gangnam Style himself. Let’s check it out…
The FedEx guy apologized for the box getting a beating…
Its contents however were resilient!
I’ve been wanting to re-review this one for a while, and so here we are. Potato noodles! Chewy! Let’s check it out.
Kristen W. of Arizona sent me some noodles she got while she was in South Korea!
This is a great little collection of South Korean varieties you can’t easily find here! Ottogi Cheese Ramyun and Spaghetti bowls – been wanting to try them for a while! The two above are Paldo Korea varieties – I think Rabokki and Jjajang. The Nongshim Shin Cup in the lower right is the South Korean version. Thank, Kristen! Soon as they’re made, some The Ramen Rater stickers will be coming your way!
I reviewed the original version (non-microwavable) quite a while back and really liked it – it even made the Top Ten Instant Noodle Bowls list. Today I’m going to check out the new version.
My Aunt and her daughter went to an Asian store in San Francisco and picked up some noodles for me! Here’s one of them. Been wanting to re-review therm for a while! Thanks!!!
I got a couple of these family packs sent as samples from Nongshim America the other day…
Hey – a package from Nongshim America – but what’s inside?
This just came out for sale in the USA and I can’t wait to try it! If it’s the same as what they make in Korea (see review), then it’s some serious 5.0/5.0 star stuff. Made for sale here in California! Awesome! Thanks to Ray A. and Hanna C. over at NSA! Might do this review later today!
I am in charge of throwing the turkey in the oven this year at noon. I figured breakfast shouldn’t have anything turkey like involved and pardon the turkey at least ramen-wise for a day. Then Black Friday will be a day that the turkeys will cower – planning on using turkey in some ramen meals for the next week or so – should be awesome! But for now, here’s something I decided to make for breakfast. By the way, here’s what I did for 2011’s Thanksgiving.
Ok so what is this madness I speak of? Well, in Indonesia, there’s Mi Goreng which are fried noodles. I thought since my last recipe got a write up today in Fox News Magazine ( link), maybe I should get a pack and experiment. I thought since Indonesian instant noodles are my all time faves and I really really enjoy Korean ramyun, why not try a mash-up?
You’re probably wonder ‘gee, he sure reviews that Jinjja Jinjja quite a lot – what gives?’ Well, they sent me a lot of it and since I really like it, I want to enjoy it before it expires. Well, actually it expired in September, but I’m just about out of it. Here’s the last full review of it.
Here’s the last of the new Nongshim cups – looks like a good one too!
Here’s a close-up of the lid.
Lunch (click to enlarge)!!!So I decided to have some of the Nongshim Jinjja Jinjja that they sent me a while back for lunch. I’ve reviewed it before – here’s the link. I added a slice of cheese, Crystal hot sauce, some Urashima Sesame & Salt furikake, an egg that I boiled with the noodles, some new odeng and onions. Oh – and of course kimchi! This is the first instant noodle that I devoured with the help of chopsticks! Yep – The Ramen Rater is going to be a chopstick eater! Funny; I wasn’t able to use them very well before but I tried them with kimbap, then some yakisoba I had at a restaurant and finally today and I’m stoked! Woot woot!
If you look at review #911, #912 and now #913, I think you can see a theme here. Yeah – shrimp! I don’t usually have any shrimp on hand so I thought I should take advantage of it. This is a new one from Nongshim – spicy shrimp. Let’s check it out!
Unless you’ve been hiding under a proverbial rock for the last couple of months, you have heard the song ‘Gangnam Style‘ by South Korean pop star PSY at one time or another, seen the horse dance, etc. Well, After he sent Nongshim a video asking if he could do a commercial for them, they said yes.
Here’s something new – Neoguri Spicy in a cup! Kind of interesting; Neoguri usually has a wider Udon-like noodle and I don’t know that I’ve seen anything like that in a cup form before. Well, let’s have a look.
10/17/2012
I saw a video recently about PSY being a huge fan of Korean instant ramyun – Nongshim’s Shin Ramyun in particular. He sent a video showing him eating their noodles with a definite excitement and pride. He wants to be the next representative of their products! I got to say, this was really was cool to see. I feel a definite kinship with PSY on this matter – instant ramyun is amazing stuff!
Decided to do up a video of the nice Golden Pot that was sent to me by Mr. Shin, President of Nongshim Holdings – very kind thank you! Thought it fitting to try it out with some Shin Ramyun Black. Check out the video!
Realized I haven’t reviewed the new version of the Shin Bowl. A lot of people have asked if I noted any difference from the old version (non-microwaveable) and the new one. Well, I guess we shall see!
Here it is! This is the Chapagetti Bowl Noodle from Nongshim America. Pretty cool – got to sample this during my trip to Nongshim
America in May – even got to see them made. Let’s have a look at this new product!
Today I got a big box in the mail from Nongshim America! Wonder what’s inside…
Bowl Noodles! But wait – Chapagetti in a bowl? Yep! This is one of the things I got to try while at Nongshim America in May. Not only did I get to try these new bowl products in their R&D department but was able to watch them being made – from raw ingredients to wrapped bowl all in an efficient straight line. Twas amazing! I’ll be reviewing these very soon! Keep your eyes peeled! Thanks go to Mr. Ray Adams and everyone else at Nongshim America for sending these along!
Click image to enlarge. Not a new review today – here’s the last full review of Nongshim’s Jinjja Jinjja. Today I thought I’d add some peanut butter, a could slices of processed cheese, some oven baked chicken, an egg and some veggies. Was really good. Hope everyone’s having a good Saturday! [AMAZONPRODUCTS asin=”B00DSXERRI”]
Been a while, but here we go with the 17th edition of The Ramen Rater Noodle News!
I search the ‘net for interesting news and view on instant noodles and beyond. Here you go!
Well, time for another try with cold noodles! Been really enjoying them recently – curious how these will fare – look pretty fancy!
Thanks to Moon Hee Wi of the JoongAng Ilbo for sending me these! She wrote this article about me. So I’ve reviewed the Chapagetti that’s available here in the US, but this is the Korean version so it gets its own review. I’ve always done this and now I’ve got more reason to. I was talking to a manufacturer of instant noodles from Korea and they said that they use chicken in their instant noodles. The only problem is that the Food & Drug Administration doesn’t like Korean chicken for some reason. So they have to import chicken from a big poultry supplier in the USA into Korea, process it and package their product and then ship it back to the US for the blessing of the FDA. Not sure if that’s the case here, but regardless, it’s interesting to think that this kind of this has to happen to bring instant noodles to us from abroad.
It’s been a couple months since our trip to Nongshim in Rancho Cucamonga, California. I was sent a very nice gift from the president of Nongshim America to thank us for visiting and for our reviews! Thank you! This is a golden pot, a very standard cooking item in Korea used to make ramyun!
Good news and bad news. Bad news: no reviews for about a week (we’re going on vacation). The good news: I will leave you with the first ever bacon monstrosity!
* UPDATE * See here.
A couple of days ago, I received an email from a man who was angry. He was angry that the instant noodles he bought said that they were spicy Chicken flavor but weren’t spicy whatsoever and that I needed to change the seasonings ASAP. Every once in a while, I get a comment or email from someone who thinks that I make instant noodles or am affiliated with an instant noodle company. I decided to reply and do a review of the product he had problems with, adding some hot spices, sauces and peppers from around the world to really heat it up. It then occurred to me that a lot of people really like spicy instant noodles and that there’s really no list of the hottest ones out there. I figured I’d better do something about that, and so here’s the Top Ten Spiciest Instant Noodles Of All Time!
Here’s another one that Moo Hee-Wi from Korea sent me. she was the one who wrote the JoongAng Ilbo article about The Ramen Rater last month! Thanks again! So this is what you would find in the Korean superkarket if you wanted to get some Mild Neoguri. A while back I reviewed the US version. Let’s give this one a try!
