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Here’s one I got at the 99 Ranch down in Pleasanton, California a couple of weeks ago. So the GGE stands for Good Good Eat, as in ‘everybody loves good good eat.’ Yeah, I know – kind of weird. But hey – this is a Taiwanese snack noodle and they can be pretty interesting (see Leisure Meatballs). Anyways, let’s crack this bag open and look inside.
Today, we bid a fond farewell to the Love Cook Meet The Manufacturer. Been nice to try some new varieties from Taiwan lately! Oleum sesami is the scientific term for sesame oil. Very curious about this one! Let’s take a look!
Ah now here we go – spicy! Spicy sounds good today – it’s been cold, rainy and windy lately – not a very nice combo. Every morning Miles wakes up and I wheel his bassinet over to the window to spend a few minutes looking outside – usually it’s a cloudy day. But that’s weather in Washington state for you – winter’s like that. Spicy sounds good – let’s check it out!
So you might be wondering what ‘authentic sauce’ might be. I think this will be more like a soy based variety – with a few added spices. I think this is also referred to as Taiwanese sauce. The second review is ready to go!
To start things off, I thought something sesame sounded good. Today alsol marks the start of regularly using my new camera/copy stand setup. I’m hoping this will allow for much higher quality photos! I suppose we’ll see! Anyways, let’s check out this noodle from Taiwan!
A couple weeks later, I received another box…
A new bowl! Hooray! Really nice – thank you so much!
A box came in the mail from Love Cook! Let’s look within…
Wow what’s in here? Pictures of suggested garnishes (always helpful), a CD with them as well. Also, a card.
Interview With Love Cook * Product Samples From Love Cook 1 * Product Samples From Love Cook 2 * Love Cook Guanmiao Dried Noodles With Shallot Flavor * Love Cook Guanmiao Dried Noodles With Authentic Sauce * Love Cook Guanmiao Dried Noodles With Spicy Sauce * Love Cook Guanmiao Dried Noodles With Oleum Sesami
Instant noodle… snacks? Yeah! Snacks of all kinds have come from instant noodles – candy, crunchy bits, you name it. They’re popular all over Asia and also the United States; have you ever taken a pack of instant noodles, crushed them and added in the seasoning and shaken the bag up and eaten them like potato chips or popcorn? Well, this is popular elsewhere as well! Let’s check out my favorite instant noodle snacks from over 1,900 reviews. Enjoy!
The last one from the trip we took to Canada for my birthday. This is a Taiwanese variety I found up there. I see a picture of a chicken on the package, but that’s as far as it goes as the serving suggestion doesn’t look very ‘chickenny.’ Let’s see how it goes!
Today, we bid a fond farewell to another Meet The Manufacturer. Forest Noodles products all have one thing in common – they’re all dried in the sun. They also highlight nature which is pretty great as well. Let’s have a look at the last in this series, their sesame oil sauce variety with sunbaked noodles.
I think one of my favorite things are noodles that have something differe – like these. Purple noodles are pretty fascinating – first off, they’re purple. I remember hearing about ‘Space Potatoes’ a while back – somehow crossing the stuff that makes eggplants purple with a potato. I think blue potatoes would be kind of neat, but how would they taste? Well, let’s see how these noodles taste!
Today, we’ve got a sunbaked noodle. Forest Noodles dried their noodles in the sun – which means no sun, no noodles. This variety is served cold – let’s check it out!
Today, we start with Forest Noodles’ sweet potato noodles. They’re sun-dried (no sun, no noodles). I think it would be neat to have a sun-dried noodle company here in the Seattle company, but it’s so cloudy around here that it probably wouldn’t work very well! Maybe in the summer months though… anyways, let’s see what we’ve got here!
A big box from Taiwan! What’s inside?
Nicely packed with bubble wrap!
A Forest Noodles brochure.
I was contacted a while back by a Taiwanese company I’d never heard of called Forest Noodles. I thought hey – I live near the forest! They had samples sent and I sent interview questions and so here we are! I interviewed MingYo, Founder of Forest Noodles – welcome to a new Meet The Manufacturer – on with the interview!
Today, we finish off this trifecta by Zeng Noodles with a straight Sichuan Pepper variety.
Here’s the back of the package (click image to enlarge). Looks to be meat free but check for yourself. To prepare, add noodle block to 800ml boiling water and cook for 5 1/2 minutes. Drain. Add in contents of sachets. Stir and enjoy!
I think when people here in the United States usually think of something sesame flavor, they think immediately of sesame oil. In Taiwan, sesame is something much different; sesame paste like tahini and peanut combine. The first time we found this out was when my wife got some noodles a few years ago that said sesame flavor and were like this – she’s not a fan of peanut butter, so it didn’t work out so well for her. Very curious about this one though – let’s check it out!
In the past year, I’ve tried quite a few varieties with Sichuan Pepper in them and really gotten a feel for this kind of flavor. In a way, Sichuan Pepper has almost a minty taste to it; it’s really quite different and unique. Let’s check it out!
A new year brings the The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Taiwanese Instant Noodles Of all Time 2015 Edition. After reviewing over 1,750 different varieties, these are my favorites hailing from Taiwan. Taiwan’s instant noodles are different from those of any other country; so curious about what direction their flavors go next. With that, let’s dig in to the new list for 2015!
I’ve tried quite a few tomato flavored instant noodles over the years. What’s kind of interesting s that many of them hail from Taiwan – including this one I’ll be trying today, I can count three in all, and that could be missing one or more. I like tomatoes – they’re pretty tasty and have a seemingly endless global appeal. Let’s have a look at this Taiwanese variety with a tomato taste.
Here’s another new one from Mom’s Dry Noodle. This one’s got something inside none of the others do – FIVE sachets. Five. That’s a lot! Let’s crack the bag open and see what’s inside.
I gotta say it’s been a lot of fun reviewing all of this veggie series by A-Sha – so many flavor profiles I’ve not tried before! We finish with their carrot noodle. Carrots are good, but how do they do in a noodle? Well, let’s see!
Here’s a new one that just was released! These varieties by Mom’s Dry Noodle have been pretty impressive. This one’s spicy and sour – sounds quite interesting. I’ve tried such flavors from Malaysia before – kind of a description of Laksa, but being from Taiwan I think this is going to be a lot different. Like curry, spicy and sour flavors are different whever you go. Let’s check out this new one from Mom’s Dry Noodle!
I pride myself on trying a new instant noodle every day, but it’s really special when I get to try a new one with a flavor I’ve never tried before. Behold noodle enthusiasts: Baby Grass. I’ve been wanting to try this since I’d heard of it. Here’s what A-Sha’s website has to say about it: “Our Baby Grass Noodles with Toona Sauce bring out a fresh, earthy flavor. An extra source of fiber and a light healthy taste” The noodles have the Baby Grass flavor, but what is Toona Sauce? I think this snippet from Wikipedia has something to do with it – “T. sinensis (Chinese Toon) is used in Chinese traditional medicine and eaten as a vegetable in China (leaves and shoots).” Anyways, let’s have a look at this truly unique variety from Taiwan’s A-Sha!
A box showed up a couple days ago from Hann-wei over at A-Sha! Let’s see what’s inside!
Got some really fresh new samples from Kyle over at Mom’s Dry Noodle a couple days ago! Let’s check ’em out!
Here’s yet another I got up in Canada during my birthday trip this last year. This one sounded especially good – chow mein! BBQ pork! How can you go wrong? Well, my hope is that one can’t go wrong! Let’s find out.
Here’s one we found up in Canada during my birthday trip earlier this year. This one’s a little tricky to figure out; the distributor/import sticker mentioned shiitake, but another site I saw mentioned carrot, and indeed there’s a carrot on the package. Anyways, this one looked kind of interesting so let’s have a look.
Well lookie what we have here. This is the ubiquitous Taiwanese Wei Lih Men bowl. In fact, it’s two bowls. Let me demonstrate.
This year, Taiwan made The Ramen Rater’s top Ten Instant Noodles Of All Time 2015 edition for the first time with A-Sha’s Veggie Noodle Tomato variety. This one is part of the same line, which also includes carrot and ‘baby grass’ flavors which I’m also hoping to try soon! Let’s have a look at this interesting variety.
I had a different version of this variety make The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Taiwanese Instant Noodles Of All Time last year – I don’t know if it’s just a different way of packaging or what, but I’ve got high hopes on this one! Let’s check it out! It’s curry time!
Wow – number 1,700! Only 300 more to try until I hit the big 2000. Today, it’s a variety from A-Sha Dry Noodle of Taiwan. These are ‘Hakka’ noodles. Here’s a little info on the Hakka from Wikipedia:
Here’s one I got from the folks at Exotic Noods. It’s one big bowl, that’s for sure – and heavy, too! Let’s see what’s inside.
Some days are tougher than others. This is one of them. This has been the focus of my ire for the past hour or so. I have been trying to figure out what it’s called exactly, and hoping to find an ‘official’ website for it. No dice. I asked some people on facebook and got a little help, though. The brand is 力山食品工廠. From what I gather, you steep these, but with how much water I am unsure. It’s also got some other interesting things inside, aside from the swastika on the package and twin dragons. The swastika isn’t a reference to Nazi Germany, however to Buddhists who are vegetarian, as well as not allowed to eat ‘fetid’ vegetables like garlic or shallots. Anyways, let’s look inside this unique Taiwanese variant!
Camelia oil – this is a new thing to me. I was curious – why camelia oil? Wikipedia had this to say:
This is one I got last month on my birthday trip to Canada! What’s interesting is that it’s one I tried to get along with a couple others from one store up there the previous year but there was some kind of thing that to use a card you’d need to spend at least $20 or something, and since the noodles I found were a far cry from that, I skipped it. I really was bummed – this is nowhere to be found here in the USA so thought this time around I’d see if the place had it – and it did! Let’s check out this Wei Lih onion variety.
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.
Got this sample recently and been really wanting to try it. Well, today’s the day. They told me that it has a very strong tomato flavor and is ‘robust.’ I have been asked by people quite a few times ‘so whatever happened to the tomato flavor instant noodles? They were really good!’ I’ve never really figured out what the heck they were talking about, guessing that they were referring to a domestic brand most likely. Well, let’s check out A-Sha’s take on tomato!
