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Here’s another interesting one from Zenpop.JP – thanks! So Zenpop is doing monthly boxes of all sorts of things Japan-related including instant ramen of course. This one looks particularly interesting in that it’s an instant yakisoba made with noodles made from… Mochi? Here’s a little about mochi from Wikipedia –
Here’s one I got up in Canada in 2017. It’s pretty awesome – a quick drive and we’re in another country! Some might say ‘that’s Canada – it’s not so different.’ Well, it is. It’s full of nice people and interesting things. I like it.
Here’s one that came by way of Zenpop. Zenpop has monthly boxes of instant noodles from Japan you can get as well as a very popular line of Japanese stationary. Here’s what they have to say about this variety:
Today, I’m happy to be unboxing some samples from Maruchan!
Maruchan has recently come out with some new additions to a couple of their ranges. Two new bowls from Taste Of Asia and a new Instant Lunch. Check out the video as I unbox them for your viewing pleasure! Thank you very much to Maruchan Consumer Affairs for sending these my way – really appreciate it!
I’m really stoked – Nissin Germany sent a few new Soba varieties! I like these – not only are they really good, they have neat plastic cups with draining lids. But Sukiyaki Beef – let’s see what Wikipedia has to say about sukiyaki –
Here’s another one I found in Taiwan on my trip in November of 2016. Yakisoba is one of my favorites – and my wife Kit likes it quite a bit as well. As I’ve said before, I’m usually quite a few reviews ahead as normally I do two reviews a day but only post one. Right now It’s February 20th, 2017 and our new President Trump has only been in office for a month. I have to assure my friends from all over the world that indeed not all of us are rude and boorish as he is and respect other people’s rights. That being said, let’s talk more about this one!
We recently took a trip to Asian Food Grocery in 130th & Aurora and found this one. My wife likes yakisoba a lot and so I like to make it for her. This one has a little interesting thing though. On the sticker, it mentioned ‘This product contains chemicals known to the state of California to cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm.’ Wait, what? So I took a look at the ingredients list and found something I’d not seen before – an ingredient called Rebaudioside A. I looked that up and wikipedia had this to say:
It’s kind of interesting. Indeed, I review two products a day but generally only post one. This ensures two things. First, I get to everything before it expires. Second, I have a buffer in case I don’t have time to do a review. Meanwhile, the buffer has grown and is quickly reaching 80 reviews! I did this review on November 13th, 2016 and today is Inauguration Day, January 20th, 2017. It’s kind of funny; I did this review about as many days before my daughter Miriam was born as days since she was born (December 17th). Another interesting thing is while unplanned, this review follows Momofuku Ando Day yesterday where I did a video about Nissin Yakisoba. Weird. Finally Happy Birthday to my sister Sue!
Every year, I celebrate the life and innovative achievements of Momofuku Ando, the inventor of the instant noodle. This year, I thought it’d be neat to show different varieties of Cup Noodles, a global brand that celebrated its 45th anniversary last year.
Saw this one at Uwajimaya a few weeks ago after visiting the Living Computer Museum and walking around the Seattle International District – good times with my homie Matt B. I thought today I’d make my lovely wife Kit some yakisoba – she really likes yakisoba and she’s been pretty miserable lately so I thought it’d be a nice treat. Let’s check it out!
It’s been a long time since I’ve reviewed anything by Menraku. Alwats bowls and always pretty good stuff. This one’s a yakisoba I got while on vacation in California’s Bay Area! Let’s check it out!
Well, here we are with the last of this Meet The Manufacturer. It’s been a lot of fun and I hope it;s been a neat one for everyone to see! I want to personally thank Mr. Okabayashi for all of his help throughout this process! Many were hard for me to figure out the names on and he was very quick to help. Not only that, he made sure there was a great variety to choose from for Meet The Manufacturer. So again, thank you very much! Today’s review will be this large bowl – the same shape as the Nissin UFO bowls. This is part of their Donbei line. You might wonder – so what’s yakiudon? Well, simply put yaki means fried. So, these are thicker noodles than what you would find in yakisoba. Let’s check this out!
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!
Here’s another one James B. sent me from The Netherlands – thanks again! I’ve reviewed these varieties in cup form, but not the packs and I’m really pleased to be able to. These come from Nissin Germary! Let’s have a look!
Found this one at Uwajimaya, a Japanese grocery store chain up here in the Pacific Northwest. I’m always keen on trying a new yakisoba; I usually enjoy them with a little karashi mayo! So this variety is dashi shoyu flavor. Dashi is used to make broth for traditional Japanese ramen, and shoyu is soy sauce. Let’s have a look at this one from Japanese company Acecook.
Here’s another one my wife got me during my annual birthday trip to Canada this year – thank, Kit! So this is the Canadian version of Sapporo Ichiban Chow Mein. There are a couple differences between this and the version for sale in the United States packaging wise, but does it taste different? I’m guessing it’s going to be about the same but it could be different. Let’s find out as I tear into the Canadian version of Sapporo Ichiban Chow Mein!
Okay, I’m familiar with yakisoba, but what’s Gotsumori sauce all about? After some scouring of the Internet, I didn’t find a whole lot. I found on the manufacturer’s site that the sauce is spicy and also has a sachet of Kewpie karashimayonnaise (kind of a mayo-mustard thing). Anyways, yeah I’m definitely coming up short on this one! Let’s have a look.
I figured since I have some cabbage I need to use before it goes bad, yakisoba would be a good call for today. This is one of those interesting ones. The product is from a Hong Kong company called Chewy, made in South Korea, and a Japanese flavor. Yakisoba is great stuff – vegetables and meats fried with noodles and oil and some flavoring. Time to have some breakfast – let’s check out this one from Chewy.
What does one do after reviewing 1,500 varieties of instant noodles? All I could think of was review number 1,501. Chow mein sounded nice today and I do have an open container of Kewpie mayo in the fridge. I think after trying so many yakisoba varieties that have mayo with them, not including it when having it is kind of a tragedy. This was a strange one as far as translation goes. I looked around and found it called Super Big Cup and then found this one and thought this would be the right translation! If not, please let me know. Anyways, it’s onwards towards review 2,000. Let’s get to it!
To start off, thanks to Raissa T. and Andre L. for their help on translating! Today feels like a yakisoba day. I really like yakisoba! It’s a pretty versatile dish; you can add anything to it and it’s still good! Well, strawberry jelly probably isn’t the best add-in… Then again, with that mention perhaps someone will try it and make it the new craze? The latest weird add-in craze was adding those little pudding cups or flan into a Cup Noodle. Bizarre… Well, let’s see how this comes out – looks good on the package! Especially with the amazingly cool little recommendation to…
I’m pretty excited – we’re moving to a new apartment soon! I’ve been going through everything, boxing stuff up. Actually, I’m currently flanked by a stack of boxes that’s getting really high – and they’re pretty heavy, too. What’s going to be insane is that we will be moving to a place on the top floor – only one flight of stairs, but it’s a decent amount of stairs. Should be quite a workout! What’s nice is that it’ll be close to a nice big Asian grocery – an HMart – so there will be easy access to everything I need to add to my noodles. Anyways, yeah – pretty big thing. I thought I’d have one I found while packing – no idea how it got to where it was as I usually keep everything in a couple big totes. Let’s check out this yakisoba – with black pepper mayonnaise!
Here’s another one of those snack style instant noodles! This one came from a birthday trip to Canada this year. Let’s have a look inside!
First things first: Happy Mother’s Day! Don’t forget to call your Mom today!
This one sounds good – yaki-udon is something really new to me and during this Meet The Manufacturer, the first time I’ve tried it. The one I had the other day was really tasty – curious how this one will be! Basically the different between yakisoba and yakiudon is that it’s a wider gauge noodle. Let’s see how this one with roast soy sauce flavor comes out!
During this week, we’ve been reviewing different types of yakisoba – but what is Futomen yakisoba? Futomen is a variety with a slight wider gauge noodle than the regular soba noodle. Also I am told that the flavoring is a little spicier. Let’s check it out!
Hey it’s curry time! Japanese curry is much different from other curries around the world. Often with a sweet and less spicy hit, it’s really excellent stuff to behold and taste. I’m really curious about this one – let’s dig in!
This was a welcome surprise – shio yakisoba! Shio is a popular variety of ramen, but I’ve never heard of it as a version of yakisoba before. Shio translates to salt in English, but that doesn’t mean that it”s just flavored with salt. Wikipedia has this to say about Shio ramen:
I’ve always liked yakisoba. It’s a brothless soba noodle that’s fried in a skillet with some meat, veggies, and a nice Worcestershire sauce flavor. It’s great stuff! I’ve always been curious though, how Worcestershire sauce made it into Japanese culinary culture. I dug around and found this on Wikipedia:
On the menu today is something I’ve been very curious to try – yaki-udon! As you might surmise, the yaki prefix means fried. Yakisoba are fried soba noodles, and so yaki-udon are fried udon noodles; simple! Anyways, it sounds really interesting – let’s have a look at this one.
Udon is a very popular noodle in Japan and around the world. It’s characterized by being really thick. My wife’s a big fan of udon – they’re her favorite noodles! But what is katsuo dashi? Well, katsuo is the Japanese name for Skipjack tuna, a variety which is popular all over Asia. Dashi on the other hand is a little less simple. Here’s what Wikipedia had to say
Interview With Takamori Kosan * Product Samples From Takamori Kosan * Takamori Tomato Spaghetti Napolitan * Takamori Katsuo Dashi Udon * Takamori Yaki-Udon Mild Spicy Sauce * Takamori Yakisoba * Takamori Shio Yakisoba * Takamori Chanpon * Takamori Curry Udon * Takamori Hiyashi Chuka Lemon Sauce * Takamori Futomen Yakisoba * Takamori Hiyashi Udon Bonito Sauce * Takamori Yaki-Udon Roast Soy Sauce * Takamori Sukiyaki Style Noodle Stew * Takamori Red Pepper & Garlic Peperoncino
Nissin has factories all over the world – even one in Germany! This is one of the varieties manufactured there. Soba is a type of noodles. Yakisoba is that noodle being fried (there’s yakiudon as well). These cups are really neat – let’s pop it open and look inside!
I’m sure you’re gonna say it – this looks familiar. Well, it’s part of a really neat coincidence that happened recently. I reviewed this one by Takamori Kosan of Japan the other day. Well, it was actually made by Sakura Noodle in Los angeles, California for the US market under their name! This one here is also made by Sakura Noodle but under the Shirakiku name. Are they different? Yep! If you look at the ingredients and nutrition facts on eacvh, there are some subtle differences. What’s interesting is that I contacted Takamori Kosan about doing a Meet The Manufacturer with them and they seem quite receptive, so keep an eye out for it coming soon! A day or so later, I was contacted by Sakura Noodle. I looked at their website and noticed this chow mein and asked if perhaps Takamori Kosan had contacted them, but they hadn’t – neat coincidence!
Here’s the first of the Sakura Noodle Inc. Meet The Manufacturer! I thought I’d start off with chicken. I haven’t been using a lot of chicken lately and it sounded like a nice little departure from the norm lately. Usually I save the chicken varieties for my son to eat when he’s here – chicken noodles are his favorite. Let’s give this one a try!
Walked to the apartment office today to pick up a package.
Wow – no wonder it was so heavy! That little box was chock full of udon and yakisoba! Can’t wait to dig in!
Interview With Sakura Noodle Inc * Product Samples From Sakura Noodle Inc * Sakura Noodle Inc Chikara Brand Udon Chicken Flavor * Sakura Noodle Inc Chikara Brand Udon Oriental Flavor * Sakura Noodle Inc Chikara Brand Udon Mushroom Flavor * Sakura Noodle Inc Chikara Brand Udon Shrimp Flavor * Sakura Noodle Inc Chikara Brand Udon Hot & Spicy Flavor *
Here’s some more noodles I picked up last July in Canada. It’s been a while now, so I’ll tell you the story of the July trip. I saw a blog post from a guy up in Vancouver, BC who was talking about my top ten list. He had a really neat little graphic icon that looked cool, so I tried to figure out where it was from. Finally, he was the one who let me in on it. It was a graphic someone had made of my top ten list! I was curious to find out where it had come from…
A co-worker named Joan at my wife’s work recently went to Hawaii and went out of her way to find something I hadn’t tried yet! She looked through the Big List and lo and behold, I hadn’t tried this chow mein! Thank you very much! These are fresh noodles, usually found in the cold section. They’re also a broth free variety. You might be more familiar with them as yakisoba, a noodle dish that can be found at little teriyaki joints all over. Let’s give this a try!
It’s only a few days until Momofuku Ando Day, and what better time to introduce the very first Japanese Top Ten Instant Noodles Of All Time list? In 1958, Momofuku Ando initially brought these convenient products to the world. At first seen as an overpriced novelty, they’ve grown in popularity; 100 billion instant noodle products were enjoyed in 2012! Here are my favorites, manufactured in the instant noodle’s birthplace of Japan.
Here’s another my friend Scott A. over at Nissin USA sent – thanks! These neat cups are made for sale over in Europe by Nissin Germany. Let’s check it out!
Yakisoba is great but add some mayo with wasabi? Man that sounds really good! Let’s have a look at this one!
