The Definitive Source For Instant Noodle Reviews Since 2002
Well this is a little different – but cool. Hot Ones is a YouTube show where celebrities go on and do an interview while eating increasingly spicy chicken wings. Gorden Ramsay practically cried and had a tantrum. Anyways, these are in a series – there’s three cups and three bowls. I’ve got the cups, so I’ll be trying them (yes, mukbang) in short order and seeing how they go. These are made in Vietnam for the US market. Let do this.
Here’s the first of a slew of A-Sha varieties. This one is a collab between Momofuku, a hoidy-toidy restaint chain and A-Sha. While made in Taiwan, this is specifically for the US market. Shall we?
The second of two new fresh varieties from Myojo you’ll find in the refrigerated section. Let’s give it a try!
My friend The Fat Hipster told me about Kenchan Ramen recently, so as I do when I hear about anything new in the ramen realm, I reached out. They replied and sent samples – thanks! I’ve tried everything and you can see them in this video. Thank you very much – they’re really good! Let’s check ’em out!
Here’s another one of the new Myojo bowls! Really curious about how spicy this will be. Should be good – let’s give it a try!
Here’s one I got out of the huge box Nissin sent me for National Noodle Day. I figured I’d reviewed everything in there, but nope! There’s a few! Let’s give it a god.
Here’s something new that arrived in a refrigerated pack from Myojo USA – thank you very much! It’s hard. I always want to embellish a bowl of tonkotsu with egg and chashu, fish cake, you know… But although I’m guess they’d all compliment this, I want to keep it on the plant-based side of things. This is a refrigerated section item and should be able to be found at the store in the United States. Anyways, let’s give it a try!
I’ve seen this on Amazon and elsewhere kind of recently but never in the ‘wild’ until this last weekend. Well, as I type this I mean September 28th 2024 last weekend. My lovely wife Kit took us over to S*Mart in Bellevue, Washington for a quick noodle hunt and three varieties of this range were lurking. It wasn’t really a quick hop over there – there was some insane traffic on the way home. However there was a bit of rain and a nice rainbow for the kids to enjoy on the way back while we sat in traffic. This one is made in South Korea by Samyang let’s check this out!
Here’s a new one from Myojo – sounds good and definitely in the mood – let’s give it a try!
Big thanks to James from Lakeside for this one! Jjamppong is a favorite of mine and this sounds like a Nagasaki jjamppong. Let’s cook it up!
Found this at a local Dollar Tree store here in Kenmore, Washington. This one is fascinating and odd – it says it cooks quickly, however when you see the steeping time you might be a little surprised. Let’s check it out.
My last review was a Japanese cold noodle, and now we have a Korean style cold noodle from the United States. The sweet spicy gochujang sounds kind of like bibimmyeon. Let’s give it a try – it’s summer right now as I type this, by the way.
We arrive at the last of the three fresh varieties from Yoko Street. Miso! Let’s give it a try.
Here’s something you’ll find on the instant noodle aisle, however it is obviously not a noodle. This could be good stuff – very curious. Let’s nuke it and give it a try.
Funyuns and Maruchan got together and made a food baby. This is fascinating and very different. It came to be at the same time as the new Maruchan Chili Cheese Yakisoba which I used these for garnish with.I have seen snack and chip collabs with instant noodles before and they either work or they don’t. Prior to sampling these, I saw an article saying they were so absolutely wonder; really gushing over them. Well, I’ll try them out and give you my honest opinion. Let’s do it.
So Yoko Street sends fresh ramen to your door – here’s their website. I tried a few varieties a little while back and was enthused! Let’s try this and a couple more!
Here’s the second of three sent by Yoko Street. I think this is the first udon I’ve tried from these folks – I could be wrong. Looks like the good stuff too – thick and chewy. Guess we’ll find out!
Found this at the local Grocery Outlet store – 50c. Cheap and I’m kind of poor right now so figured why not. As it turns out, this one is interesting. This is distributed by Albany Farms. Ring a bell? Albany Farms was the distributor for Panda Signature, archenemy of ravenous Maruchan fans who shop only at Walmart during the pandemic.. Well, I’ve had the chicken version of this and it was pretty abyssmal. Let’s see what the beef does.
The second of two varieties of egg white noodles. These are much thinner – really curious if they’ll do well when made dry with some Hae Bee Hiam sambal from MAlaysia? I suppose we will find out!
I don’t normally review noodles – I review noodles and seasoning. But when I caught wind of this, I thought maybe I should reach out to the company. Sure enough, they sent samples – so I’m going to give ’em a try. What’s fascinating is that these are egg white noodles. That’s pretty much it – egg whites and water. Let’s see what happens.
Well, this is interesting. Nissin USA sent me a pack of this stuff – thanks! What’s interesting is that I’ve had this before; sort of. Nissin Indonesia has a Geki range as well – here’s a link to their carbonara flavor. I think you might be putting it together pretty quick – fiery hot chicken, carbonara… Yup. Definitely popular flavors these days. Let’s give this a try – there’ll be a mukbang at the bottom.
A final big thank you to the person who sent me these – they work in a prison and didn’t want to be identified, so if you’re reading this, thank you very much! This is the last of the four prison varieties they sent. A little background – they’re clear so as to make it hard to smuggle in or hide contraband – stuff you mustn’t have in prison. This flavor is one you won’t find outside of prisons or correctional facilities; period. A special distributor deals with these for Maruchan. They definitely aren’t interested in hearing from you – I called them up once and they were very uninterested in selling or sending me samples and said try going to prison. So don’t bother them as you’d be wasting your time. Well, with that, let’s try this one.
Okay – so no, you can’t really get this outside of a rison. Why? It’s just the deal. The clear packs don’t allow contraband. Who makes these? Maruchan. Who distributes them? Folks who want nothing to do with you so don’t bother them. I got some from a person who works for a prison as an employee. No. He’s anonymous. Anyways, there’s a lot of interest in these varieties. So, I’ll review it. They’re pretty good and different.
Here’s another one you can only find… In prison. Yup – clear packaging is a giveaway. You can’t get these elsewhere – you will never see them in a grocery store. They are distributed by a company called Keefe Group – don’t call Keefe Group. They don’t want to talk to you – trust me I found out by calling them. This and three other varieties were sent by an anonymous donor – thanks again! Let’s give this a try.
I really wanted to demo this stuff with something like, oh I dunno – Buldak Kimchi – which would’ve been fun. Unfortunately, they have so curtailed their individual pack options at HMart that there were literally only two Korean varieties. Yep. I ended up getting a pack of Meoguri at the local grocery store – pretty sad. I went with Neoguri though because it’s quite nice stuff, and I believe I saw a video of this kimchi mix being used with Neoguri – seems an apt pairing. Well, let’s give it a shot!
I saw a couple new varieties from Ramen Bae coming out and asked for samples – and here’s a couple of them. Today, I’ll toss in some beef mix and the enoki mushroom mix. Today’s an interesting day – it’s national sunglasses day, bingo day, work from home day, and the big debate. It’s about ten a.m. here and I’m really looking forward to making a pizza, having a couple of drinks, and watching 90 minutes of insanity. This will probably come out well after the election is over, so who knows. My prediction is that Biden does really quite well. Whichever side you’re on, hopefully the world isn’t completely broken when you see this. Let’s make some noodles!
Well, the last one of these wasn’t very good. Very salty. Noodle was nice though. This one has a different style noodle and claims to be spicy. Hopefully it isn’t just a spicy rendition of their original flavor. We will see.
Okay so this stuff is cursed. I started writing the post for this one and now I have to write it all over again. WTH??? Anyways, I found it at QFC Supermarket in Edmonds, Washington. It seems this is related to some group or apparel company? That’s a little weird. Anyways, let’s give it a try.
It’s been a while since I tried a bunch of udon varieties and this is the last of the recent varieties sent by Myojo – thanks again! Let us begin.
Chicken udon time! Myojo sent me two of each of these varieties I’ve been reviewing and I have been taking the udon out of the extras and my wife and been enjoying it a lot. She likes to make a cheese sauce and put slices of hot dog with it. True story! I must admit, that sounds pretty good… Anyways, let make some chicken udon!
The second of two fresh ramen varieties from Myojo USA! This you’ll find in the refrigerated section. Looking forward to this – let’s give it a try!
This one sounds good – it’s a rainy day here so something miso should work well.
I reviewed the hot and spicy version recently. I’ve got some different garnish for this one. These are tricky to photograph and last time I went with the wrong bowl as far as I can tell. Gonna try something completely different. Let’s give it a go!
#5000. It took me a long time to decide what to review for #5000, and you might be thinking ‘why this one?’ I found it at a Dollar Tree store, and it had all the hallmarks of something I like to review. First, never have I seen this brand before. That’s a neat thing – I mean after 5000 you’d think I’d seen everything but most certainly not. Second, it’s basic. Really hard to screw up chicken flavor, although I have indeed seen it done before. Third, I got it at a place that was very nearby, in walking distance. That’s pretty cool. The main chunk of my early reviews were fouind when I walked to a 99 Ranch Market. So, it’s kind of a mirror of what got me back to reviewing after my lapse in the 2000s.
You might be thinking ‘almost 5000 varieties this guy’s tried but never this one?’ Yup – never this one. At least not in a paper cup. This is a big change – a timely one as I think there’s a chanbce that unless this change occurres, this wouldn’t be allowed for sale in Washington state. I think. Anyways, yeah – this should be fun to try! Let’s give it a go!
This sounds really good – I’ve had rose Buldak before but this is something very different. I’ve had the pack version of Tangle which is more of a creamy thing without a kimchi aspect. Looking forward to trying this – the last one I’m reviewing this week.
Well, James from Lakeside had one more up his sleeve and here it is – check it out!
Here’s the second of the 99 Ranch Market varieties. I should mention they’ve also got packs of just noodles in different styles like buckwheat, etc. This is by my calculations probably made by Paldo Vina in Vietnam. Let’s give it a try – jjamppong is one of my favorite varieties.
This is pretty neat. I started reviewing instant noodles in 2002, however I only did about 50-60 reviews by 2010. Well, in 2010, Kit and I moved to Edmonds, Washington. It was within a short walk of a 99 Ranch Market location. I’d never had such easy access to instant noodles before, and that’s what caused me to go full on noodle reviewing at that point. This is the first 99 Ranch Market branded instant noodle product I’ve ever seen. It’s made in Vietnam, and I know there’s an arm of Paldo called Paldo Vina over there and I’m going to bet that’s who made these for them. This is called private label. Anyways, pretty cool – there’s also a jjambbong and I’ll be review that soon.
Well, this is it as far as I know. I’ve tried this before (it said new at the time, no longer does) and I wasn’t happy with the finished pics and its possible its changed so here we go. I may do a mukbang as it appears I didn’t in the past.
