Just when you thought this series had ended, I found three more instant chicken meals! Let’s now review the 52nd, 53rd and 54th chicken ramen in this series…
Saigon Pho Artificial Chicken (290 Calories, 9 g fat, 1570 mg sodium)
I’m stretching the definition again here, to once again include a pho soup. I’ve not liked these in the past and was apprehensive, and once I added the water and the kitchen began to smell strongly of cut grass I knew my fears had come true.
As with similar products I have tried in the past, the noodles were slimy and the broth was bitter and very oily. Absolutely not my kind of instant soup, and I suspect not yours either: 2/10
Cup Noodles Artificial Chicken (310 Calories, 11 g fat, 1360 mg sodium)
This seems to be a Japanese product although it’s labeled as being made in Hong Kong. Cup Noodles is of course the inventor of instant ramen and we visited their museum back in January, but strangely I was unable to find a chicken flavour in Japan (this one came from a local Asian grocer). I’ve reviewed the USA version already and liked it a lot, so how does this one compare?
Firstly, this was a seriously strong seal on the lid! Having opened 50+ different products this was easily the strongest seal and I almost debated cutting it open. Once I had opened it the presentation was lovely, with a lot of veggies and meat chunks on top of the noodles. Adding the water released a delightful smell and I couldn’t wait to tuck in. I ended up eating the entire thing, and my verdict is similar to the USA version: this is amongst the very best chicken ramens I have tried, and were it not for my beloved Gefen brand I daresay I’d make this my go-to product: 8/10
Sapporo Ichiban ‘Tokyo Classic’ Momosan Ramen (370 Calories, 9 g fat, 1960 mg sodium)
Amazingly I even found a new type of brick ramen, and this was an unusual kind that even came with a liquid flavour packet! I followed the instructions to the letter (which included adding water separately to the flavour and the the noodles afterwards) and once prepared it was an attractive soup with a thick broth.
Tastewise… to me this isn’t chicken. It had a strong earthy taste, like dissolved beef stock, which I imagine is supposed to be roast chicken but that I just found a bit repellant. The noodles were good though. Kristin liked it more than me and ate about half. I’ll give the average of our scores then: 5.5/10.
And there we have it. I’ve actually got a few more ‘ramen adjacent’ items I intend to show off, as well as (maybe) the next installment in my ‘universes beyond’ ramen series. But they can wait for another day 🙂