When I saw this variety at our local 99 Ranch Market, I definitely wanted to try it out and so I contacted the manufacturer. I was a little confused, but a lot enthused! Thai food from Taiwan? But I remembered I did have some really great Thai food while I was in Taiwan in 2017. Thai Town is a Thai restaurant in Taiwan and looks like they have some very good varieties of food to try. They, like many other restaurants, have branched out to create varieties you can make at home. This one sounds right up my alley. Thanks to the folks at Thai Town for sending some packets over! Let’s give this one a try on the cusp of my 4,000th reviews.
Tag: tainan
#3756: A-Sha Hakka Noodle Original Sauce – Taiwan
Here’s one A-Sha sent – thanks! It’s from one of their boxes you can get at Costco. Neat to see noodles where I know the sellers in a place like that. So these are super thick and chewy with a non-spicy sauce. Let’s give them a try!
#3523: Little Couples Dry Noodle Sesame Flavor – Taiwan
Little Couples sent me two varieties – an Onion one that was about as good as can be, and this one which I’m curious about. This one won’t be noodles with sesame oil. Instead, in Taiwan sesame is more of a sesame paste with peanut notes and soy sauce which pulls it all together. My wife found this out in the early years of my reviewing one time when we got some sesame noodles and she was very excited, but when she tasted peanut she was really quite unhappy. She is not a fan of peanut butter, and that’s what it reminded her of.
#3485: Taihodien Restaurant Spicy Sesame Noodles – Taiwan
Here we are, yet again. It’s hard – I really like the packaging at least. I’ve tried two of these Taihodien varieties and hoping this will be one I like. Thus far, they’ve been just to violently filled with Sichuan pepper. Just mean stuff! Hopefully for them the third time is the charm. Let’s give ’em a go.
#3450: Taihodien Green Chilli Paste Noodles – Taiwan
It’s been a while since I had the original Taihodien spicy mala noodles. On those, the noodles themselves were decent but the flavor was just such an onslaught of Sichuan peppercorn. Just too much. This one sounds much different – green Sichuan peppercorn and a lot of other chilli pepper action going on. Hoping to like thing one! Let’s check it out.
#3157: TIEasy Traditional Scallion Sliced Noodle – Taiwan
I got an email asking if I’d like to try a new noodle and of course I said yes. Turns out the fellow who wants to distribute it is up in Vancouver, BC. So I emailed him while we were up there and we met up at Foodyworld in Richmond. He gave me this and another variety as well as a pack with different kinds of noodles that contain vegetable – like a purple yam noodle, pumpkin noodle, etc. This was really cool – we chatted for a few and two days later, I’m giving these noodles a try. Let’s check them out! By the way TIEasy is short for Take IT Easy.
#2888: Meet The Manufacturer: Three Meters Noodles Sesame Paste
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Today we’ve got the last of the four varieties sent by Three Meters Noodles. It’s been a tasty ride! Let’s give this final variety, a sesame paste noodle a try.
Unboxing Time: Guanmiao Noodle Samples From A-Sha Of Taiwan
five years ago, there was a big kerfuffle involving myself and the entire island of Taiwan. They weren’t on the Top Ten 2013 Edition and they were angry – to put it mildly. I decided that a little noodle diplomacy was the ticket here and so put out a call for Taiwanese companies to contact me, send me samples and see how it goes. A-Sha was the first company to come calling and since then they’ve kept me updated on their new offerings – let’s have a look at their new Guanmiao noodle!
Unboxing Time: Happy Noodle From Taiwan
Today, it’s another installment of Unboxing Time With The Ramen Rater. We have some interesting things from Taiwan to check out! I thought it would be fun to have a special guest on this unboxing, so my son Andy has joined me today. Impressively, he’s sampled some of the spiciest noodles in the world – the number one from my top ten spicy list – and handled it pretty well earlier this year! Well, let’s get to the unboxing – I’ve started a new video series called ‘Unboxing Time With The Ramen Rater’ – I hope you enjoy it!
The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Taiwanese Instant Noodles Of All Time 2017 Edition
It’s been quite a year of reviewing as far as Taiwan is concerned. I brought back a trove of varieties I’d never had the chance to try before. Really opened my eyes many varieties that people had recommended I try over the years. This is the top ten – the best Taiwanese varieties I’ve tried from the over 2,500+ reviews I’ve posted to date. As always, if I’ve not tried your noodles, please contact me! I’m interested! Let’s check it out!
The Ramen Rater Visits Taiwan – Day 2: South To Tainan
Product Samples From Tseng Noodles Of Taiwan
Today started well, then got a little crazy then got better – I started at 5am with reviewing some noodles. Then the power went out around 7am for over two hours! A bit later, the mailman knocked on the door with a big package of Taiwanese noodles! Tseng was in The Ramen Rater’s top Ten Instant Noodles Of All Time 2016 list this year – and they have some new products! Let check them out!
#2158: A-Sha Chow Mein Original Flavor
Here’s another one of the newer A-Sha tray designs. This one’s original flavor, which is kind of a soy sauce flavor I believe. Let’s check it out!
#2156: A-Sha Chow Mein Oyster Sauce BBQ Flavor
The next edition of The Ramen Rater’s top Ten Taiwanese Instant Noodles Of All Time will be coming out in about a month, and so I’ll be cramming in as many late ones to arrive as possible. Today, one of a trifecta by A-Sha Dry Noodles – microwavable trays! Definitely something I’ve not seem out of Taiwan before that I can think of. Anyways, let’s give it a whirl in the ol’ microwave!
#2071: A-Sha Tainan Noodle Original Sauce
Here’s something from Taiwan today. A-Sha makes quite a few different sauces and styles of noodles and this is one I don’t see very often. They’re very thin as you’ll see, and they come with the original sauce which has a nice soy sauce component. Let’s check it out!
#1667: Deshome Aloe Thin Noodles With Camellia Oil Vegetable Sauce Flavor
Camelia oil – this is a new thing to me. I was curious – why camelia oil? Wikipedia had this to say:
#1640: Long Jun Hang Tainan Yi Mien With Onion Oil Sauce
These tend to be a little hard to figure out; what flavor? What brand? Luckily, I had help from Bobby Y. on the first of these I found, and knowing some of the standard flavors of Taiwanese instants, the translation I got of a page that came up from the bar code on Google was logical. Anyways, Let’s try this onion oil flavor Taiwanese noodle offering.
A Message To Taiwanese Instant Noodle Manufacturers
After being asked ‘how can Taiwan make the annual The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Instant Noodles Of All Time lists,’ I decided a video with an idea was in order. Here is a special message for Taiwanese instant noodle manufacturers.
#1511: Long Jun Hang Tainan Yi Mien With Sesame Oil Sauce
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!
#1328: A-Sha Hello Kitty La Wei (Spicy Flavor)
This one was sent by the folks at A-Sha – thank you very much! I’m always on the lookout for Hello Kitty instant noodles. Why? Well, my wife really likes Hello Kitty. They wanted me to be sure to let people klnow that these cannot be found for sale in the United States – sorry folks – gotta pack your bags and fly to Taiwan! This one’s spicy – which seems a little funny to me. I would think anything Hello Kitty would be very light in flavor and tame for the kids. I think the kids over in Taiwan can handle their spicy stuff! That’s rad! Let’s check it out!
#1280: Deshome Sun Dried Noodle Chlorella Powder Noodle With Curry Sauce
A new one from Deshome! Not only is it new, but it’s curry! However, it’sd also chlorella. I put one variety on instant noodles on my bottom ten list that was a green tea and chlorella combo. I’m not sure if it was the green tea or the chlorella I dislikes, but I really disliked that one! So I guess we’ll see! As far as chlorella, Wikipedia has this to say:
#1210: A-Sha Dry Noodle Hell Spicy Mala
Happy Halloween! Today, I thought I’d go with something spicy – and not just spicy but hell spicy! But what about Mala – what’s that mean? Here’s what Wikipedia had to say:
#1166: Unif Man Han Feast Sichuan Chili Eel Flavor Instant Noodle
Here’s one from T&T Supermarket up in Vancouver, BC! Many Taiwanese extolled the virtues of these Man Han Feast varieties, especially a beef version. I had the Spring Onion Eel flavor a while back and this is the only other one I’ve seen available in North America. So what does Man Han Feast mean? Wikipedia says:
#1058: Meet The Manufacturer: A-Sha Dry Noodle Mandarin Noodle – Original Sauce
Here’s the last of the varieties that A-Sha sent. This has been a really interesting Meet The Manufacturer – I’ve immersed myself in Taiwan documentaries and listening to music from Taiwan and checking out the architecture. I really never knew anything to speak of about Taiwan, but I must say it looks like an amazing place! Today, I’ll try the original flavor – A-Sha told me it’s their most popular.
#1057: Meet The Manufacturer: A-Sha Dry Noodle Hakka Noodle – Spicy Sesame Oil Sauce
The A-Sha Meet The Manufacturer is winding down here is the next to last of the varieties I’ll be reviewing. Spicy and sesame – two words I like! Let’s check it out.
#1056: Meet The Manufacturer: A-Sha Dry Noodle Mandarin Noodle – Onion Oil Sauce
As most of you have probably noticed, I like onions. I usually pick sweet onion since it tends to smell up the freezer a bit less as I get a ton of them, prep them, then put them in a freezer bag. One time I got some at a grocery that were simply called brown onions, and they stunk up the entire fridge! Looking forward to this one by A-Sha – onion oil flavor!
#1055: Meet The Manufacturer: A-Sha Dry Noodle QQ Thin Noodle – BBQ Sauce
Today we’ve got the thinnest noodles I think I’ve seen in a pack. I was curious about the whole QQ thing so I looked it up and found this on Quora:
#431: Unif Tung-I Chinese Onion Flavor Instant Rice Noodles
I’ve reviewed a ton of the Unif noodles, but it’s been quite a while. Here’s a Unif rice noodle – Chinese onion.