Vina Acecook Hao Hao Hot-Sour Shrimp Flavour

Made in Vietnam by Vina Acecook "with Japanese Technology". Well, that makes me feel safe. Acecook are the leading noodle maker in Vietnam - the company name is Acecook Vietnam, but for global operations they switch to Vina Acecook - the Vina being short for VIetNAm. The company was formed in 1993.

 42p for 75g from tradewindsorientalshop.co.uk. Decent noodles, quite small, heading toward vermicelli, which is fine by me. Sauce is OK. Nothing special, but flavoursome enough. Good heat - not excessive. Veggie ingredients. An all round acceptable packet. Nothing special, but good enough to eat again.



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ASDA

ASDA is a leading British supermarket chain, which can trace its origin back to the 1920s when a group of Yorkshire dairy farmers clubbed together to share pasteurising equipment, and to better market and distribute their milk. Originally called Hindell's Dairy Farmers Ltd, after a series of acquisitions they went public in 1949 under the name Associated Dairies & Farm Stores. In 1965 Associated Dairies merged with a Leeds based butchers and supermarket company, Asquiths, to form ASDA. Asquith was at the forefront of the emerging discount supermarket business, and ASDA were led by by the Asquith family, so Associated Dairies' money and resources were used to expand the supermarket side of things, until eventually retailing took over completely. The company was bought by the American owned Wal-Mart in 1999. It is Britain's third largest supermarket chain, with a focus on low prices and customer service in huge out of town premises.

The chain sells regular (Chosen by you)  and budget (Smart Price) own brand noods in both packet and pot form. Sometimes they state the country of origin (China) and sometimes they don't - but the ones not marked with country of origin are highly likely to come from Asia. Some, regardless of the flavour, contain chicken, and some, even though it might say chicken flavour, don't contain any meat. It appears to be fairly random. There isn't a big difference in either price or quality between the regular and budget brands. The regular has stronger colours on the packaging, and slightly more assertive flavouring, but not much. Though cheap, these are not good value noods, and there is nothing much in their favour. Unoriginal flavours, and bland tasting. You can do better elsewhere. Indeed, pretty much anywhere else. 

ASDA Smart Price Curry Flavour Noodle Snack (pot)

ASDA Smart Price Chicken Flavour Instant Noodles

Hard, characterless noodles. Thin sauce with a mild onion and parsley flavour. Needs seasoning. Veggie. Made in the UK

ASDA Beef Flavour Noodles

Score: 2

ASDA Chicken Flavour Noodles

ASDA Smart Price Noodle Snack Chicken & Mushroom Flavour (pot)

ASDA Smart Price Curry Flavour Instant Noodles (packet)

Links
Wikipedia
ASDA
About ASDA
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ASDA Smart Price Curry Flavour Instant Noodles (packet)

July 2014
Made in China. Contains chicken. Not much flavour. The noodles are OK, but the flavouring is a bit wishy washy and muddy. Edible and cheap enough. 20p for 65g. But that's not good value. You can get great tasting 100g Nissin noodles for 28p.

Score: 3

Sept 2014
Eaten side by side with the regular ASDA Curry Flavour Instant Noodles. The Smart Price had a little more curry flavour.

Score: 3

 March 2015
Veggie. Made in the UK. The noodles need to be cooked/soaked for a long time to become edible. I poured over boiling water, and then cooked in microwave for three minutes, and then left for another two minutes. That's a long time for a quick convenience food. There is a mild vague British chip shop curry flavour, but it does need seasoning. This is a pretty basic nood. You can eat it, but with other better quality and more interesting noods available for around the same price or very little more, there is little advantage to eating this. 

Score: 3 

ASDA Noodles 

Best curry flavour instant noodles

Batchelors Deli Box Noodles Chow Mein

Edible, but rather stodgy and lacking in distinctive or pleasant flavours. I have a few of these Deli Box Noodles, but once gone I don't think I'll be buying them again.

Date: July 2014   Score: 1

***

Batchelors

Best instant noodle chow mein

Pot Noodle Jamaican Jerk

Boyo!

The best of the slags

Indomie Mi Goreng Hot & Spicy

Lots of little flavour packets so you can play around and adjust the taste to your liking. As I don't like my food with too much chilli, I only sprinkled a little of that, and I was happy. There's some sweet notes, like tomato ketchup, and a generally agreeable savoury flavour, with hints of peanuts. I liked these, and they are reasonably priced. Veggie.
Aug 2014

Decent chewy noodles. And a lot of work has gone into the flavouring - there are five packets of flavour ingredients which do merge together well to produce a sweet, flavoursome and spicy flavour. The suggested method of simmering the noodles for three minutes doesn't work for me - it breaks down the starch too much. I prefer letting the noodles warm up and soften in the hot water without additional heat. I also am not keen on draining the noodles then adding the flavourings. This makes the product just a little too dry for my taste. Pour on the boiling water, add the flavourings, stir, and leave for three minutes in a covered bowl produces a moist, flavoursome sauce and firm, chewy noodles. A satisfying lunch snack.
Jan 2015

Indomie noods

Aldi Make in Minutes Instant Noodles BBQ Beef Flavour

Pleasant enough cheap noods. Veggie ingredients. Tastes of peanut butter. 108g for 18p. Great value. I'd eat these again, no problem. Doesn't state where they are made.

Score: 5

Aldi Instant Noodles

Beef flavoured

Amino Barszcz czerwony

From my local corner supermarket, this is a little different to the average nood - it's a beetroot soup instant noodle. It's sweetish and light and quite pleasant. Unable to see where it is made or what the ingredients are.


Amino is a brand owned by the Polish branch of Unilever.

Indomie Instant Noodles Beef & Lime Flavour

Decent noods. Edible and harmless. No animals died in the making of this snack. Mostly onion flavour, but tasty enough.

Score: 5



Reviews
*Ramen Rater

Beef flavoured

Indomie noods

Indomie Instant Noodles Vegetables Flavour

Indomie are a decent noods company, if rather variable with their flavourings and the quality of the noodles; this is a decent packet of instant noodles. It sounds boring, and some vegetable flavour noods do end up tasting like dish water, but this works. Sure, it's not exciting, but it is savoury enough, warm and comforting, and with a sprinkle of the enclosed dried chilli, it can be reasonably lively. Vegetarian, and decent value at 60g.

Indomie noods

Nissin Demae Ramen Sesame Flavour

This didn't do well on our family taste test. Nobody placed it first, and some of us placed it last. Ho hum. 

  

The taste test

Date:  Aug 2023    Score: 5 

I like Asian noodles. I also like British noodles. But British noodles are clearly slag snack, while Asian noodles are proper food. You could eat something like this in an Asian street noodle bar. It tastes like proper food. British noods are slurpy and soft with a glutinous comfortable stodgy sauce, while Asian noodles are firm and excellent with brilliant, alive flavours that delight and wake you up! The flavours here are rather strong, and become a little less interesting the nearer you get to the end, but are still grand and serious and very welcome. I do like this. 


Date: Lockdown March 2021  Score: 8

Produced under license in Hungary, this is all veggie with a savoury sesame and peanut butter flavour (though no peanuts appear to be used).  It's all good, though the flavour tends to group in the same range, so there isn't much in the way of interesting contrasts. I like Nissin.

Date: Jan 2016  Score: 7 

Yummy.

Date: June 2014  Score: 7

Nifty Nissin noodles

Pot Noodle Brazilian BBQ Steak

I know there are better noods out there, but I still have a fondness for the ol' Pot, and with this beiong a World Cup promotion, I couldn't let it go, even if it is over-priced  at £1 for 90g. Typical UK instant noodles - floury and bland, with a thick floury sauce. We Brits do love our comforting stodge! The sauce is herby and tomatoey with a little kick of spice, and sweet enough to be very forgiving of any faults.

Would I buy it again? No. But I did enjoy the moment. And all veggie. A little consolation for the boys going home. Eh, boyo?

The best of the slags

Sainsbury's Chicken Flavour Pasta

61g. Made in the UK. Veggie. Nothing special, but soft, comforting and edible.

The best Chicken flavour instant noodles

Sainsbury's own brand noodles

Sainsbury's Cheese Flavour Pasta

Cheap pot from Sainsbury's which does exactly what it says on the pot. It's a cheese flavour pasta. The pasta takes a little while to soften up, and the cheese sauce lacks impact, but it's cheap and cheerful and is fairly edible. There is a mild cheese sauce flavour. Nothing dramatic.

Sainsbury's own brand noodles

Lidl Newgate / Vitasia Speedy Noodle Chicken & Mushroom Flavour (cup)

Cheap cup noodle from Lidl. Something of a Pot Noodle clone. If you like Pot Noodle Chicken & Mushroom, you'll like this.
Date: June 2014  Score: 5/10

British floury pot noodle. It's edible and acceptable.
Date: Sept 2015   Score: 5/10



 

It's acceptable rather than awesome. Not much to say. Good news is that it doesn't contain chicken. But it is bland, so I had to add salt. 


Date: April 2022    Score: 4 

The best Chicken flavour instant noodles

Nissin Demae Ramen Miso Tonkotsu Flavour

Yummy. I think Nissin are excellent value for money and very tasty noods. The noodles are firm and tasty, and the sauce is savoury and interesting, with an aroma of sesame oil. Made in Hong Kong with no animal or fish products. 100g for 40p.

Miso is fermented soy beans which is commonly used as a soup flavouring; Tonkotsu is a thick broth made from pork bones - sometimes miso and and tonkotsu are mixed to flavour a noodle soup (ramen).


Score: 6

Nifty Nissin noodles

Indomie Instant Noodles Shrimp Flavour

Rather bland noodles and flavour. Not much going on here. To be fair I didn't put in much of the chilli powder, but other than making it hotter, I don't see how that would have improved the general flavour anyway.

Not a good one. But at least no animals or shrimps were hurt in the making of this production.

Score: 3

Indomie noods