It's a Noodle Bar not a Wine Bar

Wednesday, 22 April 2015

Myojo Char Mee 100

Cooked by the directions the noodles are soft and mushy, cooked the usual soak and wait method the noodles retain some texture and character. Both ways the noodles are fairly bland. The sauce is nice - quite savoury with a bit of warmth. I like these.

Made by Nissin Foods (Asia) in Singapore. No meat, but does contain fish products.

Monday, 20 April 2015

Yum Yum Tom Yum Shrimp Flavour

I like these. Made by the Wan Thai Foods company in Thailand, these are soft, yummy noodles in a delicious soup base with sharp flavours of lime and lemongrass and finishing with suggestions of sweet tomato. A little bit of chilli to spice things up. All in all a clean, tasty and refreshing nood.

Score: 6

Most yummy Tom Yum

Friday, 27 March 2015

Lucky Me! Instant Pancit Canton Chili-Mansi Flavour

This were strongly wheaty and not that pleasant.

Date: March 2017 Score: 2

Noodles need cooking for a long time, but do have some wheat flavour. Sauce is vague and needs seasoning. There is a bit of chilli heat, but it's simply that, a sharp edge in an otherwise vague mess. I'm not impressed. And there's not much to eat at the end of it. Cheap, but not good value.

Date: March 2015 Score: 2

Reviews
*RamenRater
*RamenRater 2

Thursday, 12 March 2015

Lucky Me! Instant Pancit Canton Sweet & Spicy Flavour

OK noodles - perhaps a little bland, and a little too firm. Sauce is as it says on the packet: sweet and spicy. There's little real flavour, and no character. Not really impressed with this, especially as there were three packets to open.

Made by Monde Nissin Corporation in the Philippines. It was founded in 1980 by Betty Ang.

Score: 3

Vit's Mi Goreng Pedas

The noodles are a little bland, but the sauce is very savoury and yummy. 30p from Tesco. I think I'll be getting some more of these. A mix of soft onion and peanut butter with some warmth. I enjoyed these.Mi goreng means stir fried noodles; pedas means spicy.

The noodles are made by Vit Makanan of Malaysia. who market themselves as Vit's. They were founded in 1975.

Wednesday, 4 March 2015

Hankow Style Noodle - Hunan Flavor

The noodles takes a long time to absorb the water, and are OK, but a little wheaty and dry. They are better than British noodles, but the jury is still out on how much I like them. The sauce is great. Lots of savoury peanut butter and sesame seed oil flavours; my hesitation is the amount of chilli. I like a bit of warmth, but this burns the tender parts of my lips and mouth. If the amount of chilli could be reduced, and the noodles could be cooked a little quicker, and be a little less dry, this would be one of my all time favourite noodles. The flavour is intense and oh, so yummy.

It's all veggie, Made in China by the Wuhan Hankow Food Co. A search for "hunan flavor" returns the Hankow USA website, which provides little more detail. Hunan is a province in China, which borders the Hubei province where the city of Hankow forms the larger city of Wuhan. The Wuhan Hankow Food Co. was formed in 1933, and it's unique selling point is that the noodles are not fried.

Other reviews:
* Ramen Rater

Wednesday, 25 February 2015

Vit's Curry Perisa Kari

Decent noodles with a decent curry sauce that is just a tad too hot for me. It's not very hot, and I was OK, but there was just a little too much chilli for my personal taste. Perisa Kari means curry seasoning in Malay.

These were imported from Malaysia into the UK by Chuanglee. The soup base says Halal, but the ingredients don't say there is any meat present, unless "Chicken Seasoning Powder" means powdered chicken. 32p for 78g from Tesco. Bargain!

The noodles are made by Vit Makanan of Malaysia. who market themselves as Vit's. They were founded in 1975.

Best curry flavour instant noodles

Saturday, 31 January 2015

Obento Spicy Kung Pao

£1.40 from Tradewinds. This is a large pot of udon noodles with lots of flavour packets and cooking instructions. These are made in the microwave. The bowl supplied is not the one in the picture - it's transparent and somewhat more flimsy, so care needs to be taken when removing from the microwave. The resulting mess is not worth the price or the effort. Made in China.

Score: 3

Friday, 23 January 2015

Indomie Mi goreng Rendang Spicy Beef Flavour

Cooked according to the instructions the noodles tasted undercooked and wheaty, and too dry. The sauce was spicy, sweet and savoury with no distinct pleasant flavours. A bit of a muddle. Sprinkle some soy sauce, sugar, chilli powder, and a bit of peanut butter on plain noodles, and you'd get a better experience. Not very good.

Rendang is like a caramelized beef curry.

Veggie.

Score: 2

Beef flavoured

Indomie noods

The Indomie brand is owned by Indofood, and is the largest instant noodle company in Indonesia, with a 72% market share. The brand was launched in 1982, introducing the Mi Goreng ("stir-fry" ie, serve drained of water) variety a year later in 1983. The brand has strong world wide distribution, and a second processing plant in Africa.

Indomie Mi Goreng Satay Flavour

Indomie Special Chicken Flavour

Indomie Mi Goreng Hot & Spicy

Indomie Instant Noodles Vegetables Flavour

Indomie Instant Noodles Beef & Lime Flavour

Indomie Mi goreng Rendang Spicy Beef Flavour

Indomie Instant Noodles Chicken Flavour

Indomie Chicken Flavour

Indomie Instant Noodles Onion Chicken Flavour

Indomie Instant Noodles Shrimp Flavour

Monday, 19 January 2015

Omachi Lau Tom Chua Cay (Shrimp)

Omachi is the instant noodle brand of Masan, a Vietnamese company founded in 1996. Omachi is their premium brand, they have two other brands, Sagami and Kokomi.

Crunchy noodles in a spicy sauce with small pieces of textured food that could well have been beef, even though the product is meant to be shrimp. The noodles come with three packets - the dried veg, the sauce powder, and some flavoured oil. It was tasty enough, though a little heavy and spicy for me. OK, just didn't rock my boat.

Score: 5

Mr. Min Original Korean Ramen Cup Gout Fruits De Mer

Savoury and pleasant. Bought in Carrefour, Marseille. Made for the French market, but the name is in English. All other wording on the cup is in French, but the name itself is in English.

Friday, 9 January 2015

Nissin Nouilles Japonaises Saveur Wasabi

Perfectly decent Nissin pot noodles bought in Carrefour in Marseilles. Decent firm noodles and a pleasant sauce - delicate and flavoursome. My problem is that the wasabi fumes were a little chocking when inhaled. This meant the noodles couldn't be eaten too hot otherwise each time I picked up a forkful I breathed in the wasabi fumes. When the pot had cooled a bit this was perfectly fine.

Score: 5

Nifty Nissin noodles

Tuesday, 6 January 2015

Tanoshi Crevette Yosenabe (Prawn Soup)

Colourful pot, bought in France. Tanoshi are a company which makes instant noodles in Vietnam for distribution in France as "authentic" Japanese noodles. The noodles are chewy, sticky, doughy and flavourless. Bit of an effort to get through. But the sauce/broth iw wonderful. Very fresh, light, and savoury enough to keep the interest going to the end. I loved the sauce. Different noodles would make thios one of the best instant noodles of all time. But with the current noodles, they are a bit of dirge, despite the wonderful broth.

Crevette is French for prawn or shrimp, while Yosenabe is a form of Japanese broth.

Sunday, 28 December 2014

Mr. Min Authentic Korean Udon Fresh Noodles with Vegetable Broth

Bought in Carrefour, Marseille. Large tub, which contains a sealed packet of udon noodles - thick, floury and tasteless, a packet of soup broth - a thin and pleasant enough soy sauce, and a packet of dried vegetables - which remain dried and unpleasant, no matter how long you leave them to soak. When put together as instructed you end up with a waxed container with the floury and tasteless noodles sitting in a very watery soy sauce sprinkled with dried vegetables slices. Not an attractive meal; no matter how "authentic" it is meant to be, this is not an experience I want to repeat.

Mr Min is a Korean product designed for the French market. The packet also contained instructions in English, though I've not seen it in the UK yet.

Wednesday, 10 December 2014

The best beef flavoured instant noodles

Beef is a popular flavour for UK noods - especially Pot Noodle, who do a number of variations. It is also used by Asian noodle companies for the Asian market, but not as often as other flavours. Most companies use a beef flavouring rather than real beef - I suspect this is more to do with cost than morality, though some manufacturers might feel that as the taste can be easily and cheaply replicated, there's little sense in alienating a large and growing sector of the marketplace.