Indomie Special Chicken Flavour

30p for 75g. No dead animals. Easy to make. Deep fried noodles. Decent chicken flavour. Bingo! They don't tell us what the artificial chicken flavour is, but there's  a little bit of five spice , with fennel notes, and there's celery, and there's fried onion, and there's MSG. The celery and onion are listed in the ingredients, which suggests that the chicken flavour is mix of five spice and MSG. Anyway, it works. I like this, and would be happy to have it again as an everyday nood. There's nothing "special" about it, but it works fine.
April 2014

Yeah, I like this. Edible and tasty enough, if a little bland and a little artificial. It's not one to shout about, but is OK to eat. And no chickens were harmed.
Feb 2015

***As of May 2014, this is the Noodle Delight top chicken flavour nood ***

The best Chicken flavour instant noodles

Indomie noods

Indomie Mi Goreng Satay Flavour

Mi goreng is the Indonesian version of chow mein, so the idea is to eat these fairly dry. The instructions tell to cook the noodles first, then drain and add the blended seasoning. There are five flavourings packets, and you can use them in any combination you prefer.  No animals were minced into powder in order to make this product. That's nice.


April 2004
Wow, these are yummy. There's the peanut, but there's also fresh lime notes. This is very tasty indeed. I would love more of this. Great combination of flavours. I left out the chilli. Nice chewy noodles as well! Good one.
8/10

Feb 2015
I put all the ingredients together and covered with boiling water. I used too much water, and it didn't end up well. I also used some chilli, which then dominated the flavour. Best thing for me is to leave out the chilli, and to either use less water, or to more closely follow the instructions. Doh!
4/10

May 2015
This is the cup version. Same noodles, same ingredients. Plus a fork. There's a bit of fussing around with the ingredients, but you can vary the flavours to your own taste. I minimised the amount of chilli. I wasn't hugely impressed. Tasty enough, certainly, with savoury peanut notes and the very attractive lime flavour, but on the whole it didn't sing to me as it clearly did the first time I tried them.
6/10

Other reviews
*Ramenator
*CheaperThanFood
*RamenRater
*BJRamen

Best instant noodle chow mein

Indomie noods

Nissin Yakisoba

Wow! This is incredible. Really yummy stuff. Good noodles, and a fantastic tomato and herby sauce with just enough heat to lift it, but not scorch it. Very satisfying yet very moreish. I love this. Nissin are streets ahead of the bulk of instant noodle manufacturers. This is proper instant noodles. Easily stored and distributed. Low cost. And yet very tasty and stimulating when prepared. Some protein and veg can be easily added to make this a rounded, satisfying and nutritious meal.

Cost of 40p for 100g - great value for money. Ingredients sadly include pork. I'm sure they could do without that. Yakisoba is a Japanese version of chow mein. Preparation is a little unusual in that you cook it in water in the frying pan until all the water has been absorbed, when you continue to fry it for a bit. It's really easy - and I may try that method with some other packet noods as a comparison with the usual simply pour on boiling water...

Score: 9/10.


Other reviews
*RamenRater

Best instant noodle chow mein

Nifty Nissin noodles

Nongshim Shin Ramyun Gourmet Spicy

Good chewy noodles, and a warming spicy sauce. I enjoyed this. The noodles took a while to become edible - they need to be left (or cooked) for a little while, but it's worth the wait. I'm not a fan of  little bits of dehydrated veg, but these did soften down adequately and add some texture and flavour interest. Nice one.

5/10

Nongshim

Nongshim Chapaghetti

I so wanted these to taste wonderful. I have been really impressed with my two previous Nongshim products, and this one sounded so wonderful: "Korean Black spaghetti with roasted black bean sauce". It's actually a poor description of what it is attempting to be. It's intended to be a fusion of East and West, with Western style noodles (or spaghetti), which is where the air-drying comes in, and a Korean black soya bean sauce called chajang or jajang. Put the two names together chajang and spaghetti, and you have "Chapaghetti" - cute, huh? Hmmmm.

There are some fiddly cooking (yes, proper cooking) instructions which is not in line with my idea of an instant noodle (which should be simply pour on boiling water, stir, wait, eat), but I followed them so that I could experience these as Nongshim intended. Fair do, the dried veg does end up quite soft, but so does the noodle. The noodles end up an insipid floury paste, just like UK noodles - so I checked. Sure enough, as part of an aim to be healthier,and more in line with Western expectations and prejudices, the noodles are not dried fried, but air dried. Bum. Rant coming up:

Rant:. Research is coming round to the point where fat as a proportional part of the diet (and where the fat is kept away from sugar)  is healthy for us. We need fat. Fat helps us feel full, and the absence of a reasonable amount of fat in our diet sends the body into a response where it gets alarmed and starts to store the fat it does consume, under the principle that fat must be currently in short supply, so it should be conserved against even leaner times ahead. It also makes flour paste taste nicer. Seriously guys, if you're going to air-dry the noodles, make them taste nicer. Use better quality flour - how about using duram wheat, and a bit of egg? Hey, yes, let's do pasta instead, eh - that actually tastes good, so it doesn't need frying. Air-dried flour paste tastes REALLY FUCKING BLAND AND FLOURY! Either use pasta ingredients, or deep fry your noodles. This is not rocket science.  Rant over.

The sauce is nice, even if it lacked impact, and needed help from a bit of salt. It was moderately savoury with a flavour akin to French onion soup. Not the greatest taste in the world, and not quite what I was expecting, but it did taste reasonably natural and pleasant.

I suppose there was a little bit of unfulfilled expectation in the experience, which coloured my response; this is, after all, a decent quality product, where the makers are making something of an effort, and at 70p for 140g, it's good value; but I came away from this feeling disappointed and unsatisfied. I shall still seek out more Nongshim products, but shall temper my next indulgence with a little a caution.

3/10

Other reviews
*RamenRater (the rated product was made in the American plant where they use pork - the Korean made product uses soya)
*Amazon.com (American made)
*RamenLovers The reviews on this blog are somewhat more worth reading than RamenRater - more thoughtful, considered, informative and insightful. I don't think RamenRater has much of a palate, nor any sense of judgement or good taste. He's a fat guy who eats instant noodles - often shoving in other food at the same time, so the reviews are likely to be skewed anyway.
*KoreanWiz
*RamenButterfly Another quite thoughtful blog worth reading
*OfficalRamenHomepage
*TheRamenReview
*QTRamenReview

Most reviewers disliked it. Some loved it. Each to their own.

Nongshim

Nongshim

Nongshim are a Korean company founded in 1965 who have become the most popular and successful nood maker not just in Korea, not just in Asia, but in the whole wide world.

Nongshim Shin Cup Hot & Spicy

Score: 9/10

Nongshim Big Bowl Noodle Kimchi Flavour

Score: 8

Nongshim OoLongmen Beef Flavour

Score: 6

Nongshim Shin Ramyun Gourmet Spicy

Score: 5/10

Nongshim Kimchi

Score: 4/10

Nongshim Chapaghetti

Score: 3/10

Nongshim Chicken Oolongmen

Score: 2/10

Average score: 4.6

Battle of the brands

Indomie Instant Noodles Onion Chicken Flavour

This is like the regular Chicken Flavour, but with more pronounced artificial savoury flavour which is a bit fake oniony and a bit fake chickeny. They are edible, but not good. Unless you like low quality noodles and cheap and nasty artificial flavouring. I know noods are meant to be a basic dirty snack, but as I have been discovering more and more about instant noodles, I know that manufacturers, like Nissin, are capable of producing quality product at a low price. There is no need to endure the poorer quality of noods like these.

Date: April 2014  Score: 3

Chewy noodles with some bold flavourings. Rather greasy and artificial. The noodles are not the best, and the flavouring, though quite pronounced, and not offensive, is cheap and nasty. Edible - and I enjoyed these more this time than I did back in April, but not a quality experience.

Date: Oct 2014  Score: 3


Other reviews
*RamenRater
*RamenButterfly
*RamenLovers

Indomie noods

The best Chicken flavour instant noodles

Ko-Lee Go Noodles Bombay Masala

Wheaty noodles, quite earthy. Moderate flavour. Faint curry heat. Some dehydrated veg, which are reasonably soft, but on the whole add little. This is OK, but lacks impact.

4/10

Kohlico

Best curry flavour instant noodles

Indomie Instant Noodles Chicken Flavour

Standard instant noodles. Noodles are edible and inoffensive, but no more than that. Flavour is savoury, but chemical - tastes quite cheap and artificial. 30p for 70g. Indomie noodles are popular in America, especially among nood reviewers, so I  expected a bit more than this. Perhaps this is not one of the good flavours.

The Indomie brand is owned by Indofood, and is the largest noods company in Indonesia, with a 72% market share.

Score: 4

Indomie noods

The best Chicken flavour instant noodles

Maggi Assam Laksa flavour

Another poor Maggi nood. Pale tasteless noodles with vague somewhat sludgy savoury sauce with sharp chilli. The chilli is simply crude heat - just breathing it in makes me cough. There is only one powder packet so you can't adjust how much chilli to put in. You either get it hot, or you don't eat it. Through the heat and the sludgy MSG there is some sweetness and tomato paste flavour.

Assam laska is a spicy sour fish noodle soup, and there is powdered fish in the ingredients - though no chicken brains or cow shit.

I've not been impressed with the three maggi noods I've had so far, so I'll be unlikely to buy any more. It's 40 for 78g, so it's an OK price, but the noodles are wishy washy, and the flavouring powders are too hot and ugly.

Sept 2014   Score: 2

Thin sweet packet  tomato soup and chilli with noodles. A little too spicy for me. And the base tomato soup was a little insipid.

Jan 2015   Score: 3

Noodle girls