Bland floury noodles, and a murky undefined flavouring that is mainly MSG. This is an odd beast - it's not exactly ugly - you can eat it, but it's not terribly enjoyable as it's such poor quality, and so all over the place. It feels like they're really trying, but they just getting it all so wrong. This is a chicken noodle, but they use artificial chicken flour (mostly onion and MSG), so that sounds OK, but read on and there's dried fish cake added and - get this, there's textured soya lumps which look like meat and are flavoured with beef extract! WTF. You make a chicken product with artificial chicken and then put in artificial beef chunks flavoured with real beef. I'm confused as to the intention, but it's not 100% veggie for sure.
When I first had Nongshim I thought they were the dog's knees, the bee's bollocks, and everywhere in between. But I'm wondering of what I was reacting to was the hot spice rather than what was underneath it. Less spicy Nongshim products I've had have really revealed their weakness. The noodles are air-dried, so become tasteless flour paste. And the flavour combinations don't work as they are not clearly defined, and are too artificial.
This was edible, but only just, and it left me feeling dirty due to the high level of MSG. It has that effect on me - it leaves a greasy false taste in the mouth and a sense that the body has just been poisoned. It does have
umami, but a very little goes a long way!
2/10