Itsu Thai Yum Yum Crystal Noodle (Cup)

I had the Itsu Noodle[pot] Thai Original Flavour in January 2014 and absolutely hated it, and so did everyone else.  The company have made adjustments and relaunched. The new range was on offer at Tesco for a £1 (normally twice that), so I bought three. The company still has the silly pink spork, but at least now they have a tasty sauce - it tasted fresh, authentic, and warmly spicy. The noodles were not so good. Wiry tasteless plastic. When made up it takes a while before it is cool enough to eat. The instructions suggest adding cold water, and that's a good idea. It's not that the sauce (or soup) is hot, it's that the noodles are really tricky to get into your mouth, and you sort of burn your lips and chin. Not nice. On the whole this doesn't really work because the noodles are so inedible and awkward to eat. Throw away the noodles and drink the soup and it works. But then it's not a cup noodle, it's a cup of soup.

O crap, I just looked at the ingredients, and it's mostly decomposing chicken. Yugh! Come on folks, it is possible to make edible food without using dead farm animals.

Score: 3

Batchelors Super Noodles Taste Adventures Zingy Peri Peri Chicken

Second one in the Taste Adventures series, this one is a "New kid on the block", so I assume it's a flavour that Super Noodles have not used previously. I didn't follow the instructions - I just poured on boiling water, stirred and waited. No need for extra boiling. The taste is savoury with onion and tomato notes, then comes in some lime. It's sweet, yet warm and spicy with growing heat that never quite burns. Noodles are soggy and floury even though not cooked as per the recipe. I've joked about Super Noodles are crap for years, but to be honest they are growing on me. You get a decent portion, and even though it's more noodle than flavouring, and the noodles are bland and floury (air-dried rather than deep-fried as Asian noodles are), and sometimes - as here, the flavouring is OK. The touch of lime is a nice touch - quite modern that. No lime in the ingredients, but they do use lemon and citric acid, so that's how they're getting it.

I'm not going to lie. This was OK.

Date: Jan, 2016  Score: 4

Cooked per the instructions and the result was a stodgy mess. It's savoury and has warmth, but it's stodge. Quite edible, but ready my previous experience, it seems it's better just to pour on the boiling water and wait.

Date: July 2017  Score: 3

Super Noodles are crap

The best (and worse) Chicken flavour instant noodles

Batchelors Super Noodles Taste Adventures Aromatic Thai Green Curry

A new series from Super Noodles: Taste Adventures. Picked this up on offer, and I have to say it's not bad for a Super Noodle, though not that good in general. The instructions have you boiling it for a long time in order to get a kind of sludge. Not sure why you'd want to do that, and if were ever to eat this again I would simply prepare the classic way. The flavouring is mostly chilli, but while spicy it isn't savage, and does have a feel for Thai Green Curry.

Edible.

Score: 3

Super Noodles are crap

Best curry flavour instant noodles

HomeBargains Chef Huo Eastern Range Express Noodle Bowl Spicy Kung Pao

A bit better than the Sesame Teriyaki because of the spicy warmth and added flavour, but still tasting mostly of plastic and chemicals.


Score: 2

HomeBargains Chef Huo Eastern Range Express Noodle Bowl Sesame Teriyaki

Never again. Tasted like plastic and chemicals. Yugh.

Score: 1

Micro Noodles Chicken Flavour

Ugly looking pot which creates an ugly looking and not tasty mess. The noodles are the main flavour, and they are small and jelly like - a bit like buckwheat or pearl barley. The MSG flavouring barely makes an impact. Chicken? Escaped the roost I think.

The brand is owned by Unilever. It doesn't say where they are made - I assume the Pot Noodle mine in Wales, as Pot Noodle is another Unilever brand.

This is not nice. Worse even than Super Noodles - and that's really saying something!


Date: Feb 2014   Score: 1

59p for a 100g pot, from Home Bargains. Veggie.

This is even worse than the curry one. Really bland and stodgy. Best avoided.

Made by Unilever, who own the Knorr brand, but this product is unbranded.

Date: Jan 2016   Score: 2

The best (and worse) Chicken flavour instant noodles

Micro Noodles Curry Flavour

59p for a 100g pot, from Home Bargains. The idea is to make them in the microwave, but it doesn't work as they suggest. It's more effective to pour on boiling water and then cook for three minutes in the microwave, than to pour on cold water. The printing on the pot is very cheap and blurry - rather like a pirate video case in the '90s. There is a fill line printed on the outside, but it's hard to see when looking inside. But, even so, if you fill to the line the water gets absorbed and you end up with a very dry sticky mess. Best to use more than suggested. And then at the end it's too lightly flavoured, so it's mostly pasta you taste. Put in some onion salt and it tastes better. But, pretty crap product really. Veggie.

Made by Unilever, who own the Knorr brand, but this product is unbranded. Doesn't say where they are made. The noodles are not deep fried, so it's unlikely to be Asia - probably somewhere in Europe.

Score:2

Best curry flavour instant noodles