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Here’s one I got a couple weeks ago on my birthday trip to Canada! I’ve had a few varieties by Vedan before but this one sounds really good. Hot beef is always a good bet. I think I’ll try it with some Chinese sausages in the mix! Let’s check out this Vedan Wei Wei A Hot Beef flavor!
Deshome makes some pretty unique noodles, using ingredients I’ve never thought would go into a noodle. Aloe, bee pollen, and now, camellia oil in a sachet.Fascinating! Let’s have a look at this camellia oil variety from Deshome of Taiwan!
Got a box from A-Sha yesterday – let’s see what’s inside!
Hey neat – from left to right, we have a new black sesame variety, hakka noodle with za jiang sauce and a new tomato variety. Sounds interesting!
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.
Today my wife asked me if I had any non-spicy noodles without much broth. It’s pretty rare for her to ask me to make her some noodles; she’s not the biggest fan of them, and really doesn’t like broth – she’s usually game for yakisoba or mi goreng as long as it isn’t spicy. I looked around through my stores of noodles – the ones in my son’s room, the ones under my desk, the ones that arrived the other day that are sitting in boxes in front of the fireplace. So this is the one I thought she might like. These are by a company that ranked high on my top ten Taiwanese instant noodles list that I contacted, asking if they could possibly send some varieties I couldn’t get here – and they did. Let’s see how we like them.
Today’s a very big day for people living in Asia as well as the rest of the world! It’s Chinese New Year! I thought today would be a good day to have this new Mom’s Dry Noodle from Taiwan. I have the honor of taking part in a special Chinese New Year gathering in Seattle this year with a Singaporean group! I’ll be posting about that on Sunday. For those of you unfamiliar with Chinese New Year, here’s a little about it from Wikipedia:
Found this video by accident yesterday – turns out a TV channel called MUCH runs a show called ‘Who Alone Tonight’ in Taiwan. It’s a variety show. Well, they decided to devote this episode to instant noodles and did an in-depth survey of my top ten list for 2014. Check it out and happy Friday!
This little box showed up today!
This is their new Vegan Spicy With Sesame flavor, as well as a little brochure and some of their delicious spicy sauce! There’s also a sheet mentioning my Top Ten Taiwanese list from last year – Mom’s Dry Noodle made the first place spot as well as third. Thanks! Looking forward to trying!
In last year’s Top Ten Taiwanese Instant Noodles Of All Time 2014 Edition, Chering Chang was second place with their Curry La-Men – excellent stuff! What is interesting is that that was the only variety they make that I’d tried. I’m very curious how this one fares – vegetarian. Vegetarian instant noodles can be all sorts of different things; bland, bitter, full of vegetables, focused on mushroom; it’s such a broad flavor that can be interpreted masterfully or poorly. I have high hopes that this will be another excellent offering from Chering Chang. Without further adieu, let’s have a look inside.
Here’s an interesting one which I got some great help in translating from Bobby Y. – thank you as always! I kind of ran into a hitch when I was trying to translate this: 台湾泡面 味丹双响炮 碗装方便面 火山岩烧豚骨汤面110G 6个包邮 and then got this from Google: Taiwan Vedan Pom instant noodles bowl of instant noodles volcanic burning dolphin soup surface 110G 6 个 shipping. Volcanic burning dolphin soup does sound interesting though! Another thing he was able to verify was that there’s a little sachet that is to be enjoyed as a snack while you wait for the noodles to steep and aren’t actually an ingredient – we’ll go more into that in the directions. Anyways, let’s check this one from Taiwan out!
Here’s one of these Wu-Mu 4 packs I’ve not reviewed before – steam pork. I think there’s steam, simmered, stewed and maybe another one. That’s quite the array! Anyways, let’s check this one out!
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!
Welcome to the 2nd annual The Ramen Rater’s top Ten Taiwanese Instant Noodles Of All Time – the 2014 edition. In the last year, I’ve tried a slew of new varieties from Taiwan that were just amazing. Really discovered some great new products that I think everyone should try! What’s special this time is that I’m actually going to be in Taiwan during a layover on my trip to Malaysia! Figured I’d put this out a week early as it’ll be quite hard to post when I’m overseas. This is a list comprised of the best of the best of the 127 different varieties of instant noodles that I’ve tried that were made in Taiwan. As a side note – I’m also going to be traveling through Singapore and then my destination of Malaysia – there will be top ten lists for those two countries coming as well as soon as I’ve reviewed enough varieties to have a wide sampling. I’ve done just over 40 from each so far. With that, let’s have a look at the best noodles I’ve tried from Taiwan!
After trying the other Mom’s Dry Noodle variety a few days ago, I decided I really wanted to give their Sichuan Spicy one a try too. As I researched videos to add to their Onion Oil & Shrimp variety, I kept seeing this one mentioned. I also have been curious because they also sent a couple little jars of the paste – the spicy paste! Thought maybe I’d saute my garnish in it today. Well, let’s get this one started!
I was contacted by a fellow named Kyle from Taiwan a few weeks ago and asked if I’d like to sample his company’s noodles. Mom’s Dry Noodle? Sure, why not! It’s pretty exciting – out trip to Malaysia in coming very soon – like in ten days we’re leaving! There’s a layover in Taipei and I’m really excited to be able to actually be in Taiwan, albeit in the transit area and only for two hours, but it’s going to be amazing! These are what they call ‘dry noodles’ over in Taiwan; they’re served without a broth. I’ve been very curious about what these would be like, and I thought I’d also test out a new kitchen gadget I got with the garnish.
I was recently contacted by a fellow named Kyle over in Taiwan asking if I’d like to sample his company’s noodles. Well, of course I would! Let’s see what we have here.
Today I opened up my big hamper of noodles and this one popped into view. To be honest, I don’t know exactly when I got this one – Canada trip I think. Definitely has an interesting name – Korean Salt & Rib Soup. The closest thing I can think of that they might be referring to would be galbitang, which is a South Korean soup with short ribs and made with ox bone broth. Sounds interesting – let’s see what we have here.
Found this one at Uwajimaya in Bellevue. What I found particularly interesting was that it was a curry variant from Taiwan. I think I’ve only had one curry instant from Taiwan before and it was truly excellent. I thought maybe I’d try some of the new stuff my wife is growing with it!
Here’s something from Taiwan. These noodles aren’t fried – they’re steamed. This lowers the fat content by quite a bit, although they will break your teeth if you try eating them like snack noodles! Most of Wu-Mu’s products are this way and they’re usually pretty good. This is a four pack – you get four of everything! Let”s have a look inside.
Last year, Taiwanese were unhappy that they didn’t make it on The Ramen Rater’s Top Ten Instant Noodles Of All Time 2013 Edition, and this year they’re pretty annoyed that they didn’t this year as well. I thought today I ought to review something from Taiwan to at least make them a little happy. I was lucky in that A-Sha was kind enough to get me a neat box set of these and a spicy variety a while back. Instant noodles are kind of like a fine wine to me; you gotta open em at just the right time, and I think today’s the right time for some Taiwanese Hello Kitty noodles! Let’s check em out!
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!
In Taiwan, there is a huge market for snack noodles, among them Little Prince. You don’t cook them; they’re seasoned and crunchy and in little snack baggies. Here’s a great example of them – you get a big bag with 20 little bags inside. Noodles oodles! They come in a range of flavors – original, seaweed, kimchi and bacon. Yes, bacon! Here’s a link to my review of the bacon variety. Let’s delve into this snack insanity from Taiwan! Noodles oodles from Little Prince!
Here’s the last of the A-Sha line of instant noodles they sent. These are a leaner line; not with the different gauges that the other products they make have. Not to say they don’t taste good, though! Let’s see how original this one is!
Pickled mustard? Hmm… I’ve had varieties with mustard stem – wonder if it’ll be like that? Let’s find out!
Thought this might be a good day to take care of a mushroom flavored variety. FYI – these have 4 portions in a pack. Let’s check it out!
Our weekend of trying some of the bigger packaged noodles continues with the one Andy’s gonna try. I figured this shouldn’t be spicy and shouldn’t have any kind of flavor an 8 year old would find too offensive. Let’s check it out!
I’ve just got to face it; I’ve got noodles coming out of my ears here! There’s a big bag of these Wu-Mu noodles next to my bed that I’ve been almost tripping over as of late. They don’t fit anywhere else and each one is a 4 pack! I thought today my son and I would try a couple varieties. I figured I’d give this one a shot. I’m definitely not a huge fan of mushrooms, but the spinach noodles sounded nice. Let’s have a look!
Here’s a new one from A-Sha. They decided to come out with a stright instant variety. You cook it a little differently, too. Shallots! Let’s give this a try!
I saw this neat thing on A-Sha Taiwan’s website and thought hmmm… Wonder if they can find me one…
Shelley S. from Deshome told me a package was one the way a couple of days ago. Let’s look inside!
Here’s one I got up in Canada at T&T Supermarket – thanks! Never tried this before. Looks interesting though – let’s check it out!
Been a little while since I reviewed anything by A-Sha. I did a Meet The Manufacturer in May, but nothing new since then. Well, today’s the day! Curry. It’s always been a favorite flavor of mine and I think this is the first time I’ll be trying a Taiwanese take on it. Let’s give it a try!
Here’s another one I got at T&T Supermarket up in Canada. I find it interesting; I got three pork varieties there – stewed pork, steamed pork and simmered pork! I asked my wife which one I should have as I couldn’t decide. She told me to simmer down and so here we are. Let’s check it out!
Got a box in the mail from the A-Sha guys in California today – wonder what’s inside…
Earlier this year, people from Taiwan voiced their displeasure with not being included in the 2013 Top Ten Instant Noodles Of All Time. They came in droves, shouting the praises of their beloved varieties. They were equally unhinged by having two varieties listed in my Bottom Ten Instant Noodles Of All Time 2013 list. Two were included there. After all of this outcry and seeing the pride and passion about their noodles, I thought it was a must to do a Top Ten Taiwanese Instant Noodles Of All Time 2013 list; these people are easily as interested in noodles as much as I am! This new list encompasses all of the Taiwanese varieties that I’ve reviewed thus far. So, without further ado, I hope you will enjoy The Ramen Rater’s top Ten Instant Noodles Of All Time 2013 edition!
When I’m ready to relax and have some ‘me time,’ there are two words that immediately enter my mind: leisure meatballs. What’s that? Leisure meatballs? Yes. Spicy chicken flavored ones. Let’s have a look.
I recently got a nice box of samples from Duncan T. over at Gemini Food Corp in California. I’d already reviewed them, but I definitely wanted to re-review this one for sure. I last had this in my 97th review – over 1000 reviews ago. Curious about what I’ll think of it these days; it got a low rating at that time and looking at it now makes me think it can’t be that bad! But I guess we’ll see. Let’s check it out!
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:
Here’s another one from T&T Supermarket up in Canada. This one comes with four of everything! Today however, I’ll just be making one of them. Let’s check it out!
Here’s another one from the T&T Supermarket up in Burnaby, BC. I asked for help with the translation on Facebook. Thanks guys! Snack noodles are very popular in Asia and here’s one variety to check out. Yes – it’s from Taiwan! It’s a package with three little packs inside. Let’s check it out!
