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I’ve long been a fan of the Soon line of products from Nongshim. If asked whether I’d want Shin Ramyun or Soon, I’d hit the Soon. Why? It just has a really nice smooth finish (it sounds like I’m describing a beer but really it does). This time they’ve got a trifecta of new versions – kimchi, a spicy tomato and a miso tofu. Today kimchi is on the menu – let’s check it out.
Well, here’s the last of my Nissin India products. Sad to see them end but it’s really been fun. If you happen to work for Nissin India, please contact me? Heck, if you’re with any instant noodle company in India – I’d love to review all your products. I foresee some happy day doing a top ten Indian varieties list! But until then, here’s the last of the Nissin stuff I found at India Supermarket in Bellevue, Washington.
Here’s what I think is the last of the Gurimi varieties I found up in Canada at FoodyWorld… I really miss Canada. Hope I can go back soon. The bonus will be that there should be a ton of neat new stuff to try at least…
Here’s a closer look at some of the sample items sent by Palmetto Gourmet Foods for this special Meet The Manufacturer series! Thank you!
A trip to the grocery store awhile back yielded some nice results. It’s pretty rare I go to our local store and find something new, but I found these Ramen Express cups – which said they were from the United States! This required swift action to reach out and learn more, and that’s how this Meet The Manufacturer was born. A big thank you to Reza Soltanzadeh, CEO & President, Palmetto Gourmet Foods for granting this interview – let’s get started.
I was contacted in July 2020 about a new variety of noodle hailing from Taiwan. I was very interested in trying and gave the company the go ahead. Fast forward to mid September and I’m going to give it a try – they arrived last week. These sound interesting; they’re Vegan friendly and have a minced pork sachet which is made with so protein, mushrooms, white fungus, celery and other vegetables. A chewy noodle and a ‘secret sauce’ with Sichuan pepper is mentioned in the promotional sheet that accompanied these. Let’s give it a try!
Was happy to hear about new varieties coming from Mom’s Dry Noodle of Taiwan! They sent them over for me to try which was nice. Notice the rabbit on the picture above – we’re about to enter the year of the rabbit! Pretty cool – I was born on the year of the rabbit – let’s check these out!
I was curious about a variety that it turns out has been retired, but happily a few new ones are now in the game – Nongshim sent those over! Thank you very much! Let’s have a look.
Well, here we go!I did a Meet The Manufacturer with Mr Lee’s a couple of years ago, and now they’re going to be producing in the USA! Sounds like starting May 2020 their products will be available (and also made) here as well as in the UK. They’ll be available on Amazon and I’ll do reviews of the Us made versions when they become available. I should note though that this particular variety will not. This one’s Vegan and only 217 calories! Not only that, this is one of the few manufacturers that use freeze dried rather than dehydrated bits. Let’s check it out!
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.
Today, we have one that was part of Japan Crate’s Umai Crate. So Japan Crate is a subscription service which has all sorts of different options for you. Pretty neat stuff from Japan! There’s a coupon code for you too – just use THERAMENRATER to get a special discount at check out.
I think I found this in Canada but I could be wrong. But I’m thinking I’m not. Either way, this looked interesting and any chance I get to try out something from Taiwan I’m on board. Let’s check it out!
People have been asking me for a list of healthy varieties for a long time. I decided to give it a try, and had mixed results. I’ve found things ramen/instant noodles, and things that aren’t and listed them here. There aren’t ten things, but over the next year I’m guessing more will present themselves. It appears this is an ever-evolving market as a couple that were going to be included went off the market while I was editing this list! Not everything presented is for everyone, but I’m really hoping there’s something that will work and interest everyone. If you have any ideas for things that should be on next year’s list, please email me. With that, here (in no particular order) is The Ramen Rater’s Healthy Options 2020 Edition.
Today, we have one that was part of Japan Crate’s Umai Crate. So Japan Crate is a subscription service which has all sorts of different options for you. pretty neat stuff from Japan! There’s a coupon code for you too – just use THERAMENRATER to get a special discount at check out.
The third of the Vite Ramen offerings. The first time around when I sampled the prototypes, this was my favorite – curious how I’ll like it this time around as full fledged version 1.0! I should mention that I hear that there will be an updated version coming soon – 1.1? 2.0? Not sure but definitely will be giving the three another go when they update them. Let’s get started.
Here’s the last of the Sakurai Foods varieties I was recently sent. The other two were really great – especially the spicy one! Let’s see how a Vegan friendly tonkotsu tastes!
I reviewed this one on February 10th, 2019. This has been a crazy week – we’ve got layers of snow here and haven’t been able to even move the car since Friday. It’s Tuesday and probably we won’t be going anywhere today, either.
I was contacted in January 2019 by the nice folks at Sakurai Foods in Japan. They’ve sent samples before and participated in Meet The Manufacturer as well. They’ve released a series of three varieties of Vegan friendly products – thought this sounded good and would make for a good mukbang as well! Let’s give it a try!
Today we kick things off on this interesting Meet The Manufacturer series with Vite Ramen’s Vegan option. If you didn’t know, there are three varieties from Vite Ramen – at least initially. Also, just so you know at the outset of this and the following reviews, these are prototypes. From what I’ve been told, this is what you’ll be getting, however the sachets in the final iteration will look different. So let’s give this first one a try!
When the Very Veggie line came out, my first thought was that it would just be varieties for Vegans and Vegetarians. Surprisingly, there was no option for this crowd. Well, it seems that that has changed! This one was sent to me by Robert Z. from Kentucky – thanks man – go check out his cooking blog www.dadbert.com! He found this at a local grocery store – nothing about this and the other new Cup Noodles he found and sent on their site or mentioned on Instagram. This has led me to think that perhaps he’s in what’s called a ‘test market.’ In some areas, a product will be introduced to meter how it’s received by the public – if it sells really well, it’ll go nationwide. If not, it might be pulled. Let’s pop the lid and look under the hood.
I haven’t seen my friend Matthew Bellah in quite a while and he’s stopping by today to hang out. So he’s a writer (you can read some of his stuff at www.matthewbellah.com) and also an odd sort as far as food goes. He’s a vegetarian, however I’ve known him to enjoy bacon and Jack In The Box tacos regularly. Anyways, I thought this myramen would be a good one to let him try.
Here’s one that’s new to me – my ramen. my ramen is a range of Japanese instant ramen that are Vegan, HALAL, animal free, dairy free, shellfish free, fish free, alcohol free, and dairy free. That’s a lot of bases covered. I was very happy to say that the miso variety they produce is very good – and now we try the Salt variety. This is what is usually known as Shio ramen – here’s a little about Shio from Wikipedia –
Found this one up at Hen Long Market up in Canada recently. It was kind of spendy, actually and I remember seeing they had a miso variety too. These are made in Taiwan by Chering Chang- I had a little trouble figuring out what the brand was/what they’re called, but on a bar code search I found them on a Vegan website, so I’m guessing they may be Vegan friendly. Anyways, let’s take a look and give these a try!
Here’s one that’s new to me – my ramen. my ramen is a range of Japanese instant ramen that are Vegan, HALAL, animal free, dairy free, shellfish free, fish free, alcohol free, and dairy free. That’s a lot of bases covered. But of course the question is: is it good? Well, let’s find out!
Today, we say goodbye to Meimen and their trifecta of instant noodle varieties as we take a look at their hot & sour variety. As I mentioned previously, all three are Vegan-friendly varieties. Let’s dig into this, the final noodle from Meimen for Meet The Manufacturer.
Here’s another one – the second of three varieties from Meimen of Taiwan for this Meet The Manufacturer series. As mentioned previously, all of these are Vegan-friendly. I should also mention – I really like the artwork on these! Let’s take a look at this soy bean paste variety.
To start things off, we have a tomato variety from Meimen. Just as a reminder, all of the Meimen products are Vegan.
Can’t do a Meet The Manufacturer series without samples! Here they are!
I was recently contacted by a company asking if I’d like to try their noodles. I get a lot of noodles – but I always want to try them all! These noodles were supposed to be Vegan, HALAL certified, 100% natural and a few other tags like no MSG. Pretty impressive! Let’s take a look at this interesting variety.
I thought it a no-brainer to pick Hakata Ramen to try with the miso. The other I’ll try with it will be the Tokyo Ramen. Anyways: Hakata Ramen. What is it, Wikipedia?
Thought it would be logical to try these Tokyo Ramen noodles with the Miso Ramen Broth – I mean, it makes sense. These noodles and broth are Vegan, however, I’m going to lay it on thick with some toppings that will not be so Vegan. Let’s give it a go!
I thought it a no-brainer to pick Hakata Ramen to try with the miso. The other I’ll try with it will be the Tokyo Ramen. Anyways: Hakata Ramen. What is it, Wikipedia?
Went to Uwajimaya, a local Japanese grocery store chain in the northwest the other day. So I found that you can get chashu pork there – it’s really nice for Japanese instants since I can slap one on top! Indeed what I do is get a few packs of it from the deli and then bag them individually and throw them in the freezer – it’s pricy stuff, but done this way it really stretches it a long way. So $15 or pork will yield me about 18-20 slices and since it’s frozen, it’ll last nicely until I’ve done that many Japanese reviews.
Well it’s been quite a while since I’ve reviewed anything by Dr. McDougall’s. Why? Well, the first one I tried was a disappointment. I saw this one recently and thought maybe I should give them another chance. I am not expecting this will be one I like very much though; the two lines in large print immediately contradict eachother: ‘Pad Thai’ and ‘Noodle Soup.’ This just sounds wrong. But hey – maybe this is really good stuff. Let’s give it a look.
A lot of people these days are giving up meat and switching to the Vegan lifestyle. So, what’s the difference between Vegetarian and Vegan? It seems like there are many different ‘flavors’ of Vegetarianism. For example, I have a friend who claims to be vegetarian, however he eats bacon, eggs and Jack In The Box fast food tacos. Here’s what wikipedia has to say about Veganism:
I think I should explain the symbol in the upper right hand corner before anything else. While the symbol may bring up thoughts of World War II, this actually has nothing to do with oppression; this is a Buddhist symbol denoting that it is safe for those who practice strict vegetarianism. Here’s a little from wikipedia about it:
I really loved the Nyor Nyar non-vegetarian PWC a lot – a whole lot! Very curious as to how this vegetarian variety will be. Let’s give it a look!
I don’t remember where or when I picked this one up, but it was towards the bottom of my hamper and peering up at me a little bit ago and so I figure hey – I’d better give it some attention! It’s kimchi, it’s Vegan friendly – plus its microwavable! Let’s check it out!
Can’t remember where I got this one, but it’s been a long time since I’ve reviewed anything by Koyo so I thought I’d check it out. So lower sodium, organic noodles, Vegan… But how will it taste? It’s tough to cover all these bases and make something that’s going to have a lot of flavor. Let’s find out!
The last of four varieties especially made for the Nine Emporer Gods festival time of year. During the festival, people take only vegetarian dishes – no meat! Let’s have a look in this one and give it a try, eh?
