I ate more plain chicken ramen, so let’s dive into more reviews!
Maruchan Instant Lunch (290 Calories, 12g fat, 1180 mg sodium)
You may recall I enjoyed the Maruchan ramen noodle, so how is their cup noodle version? In a word: satisfactory. I make it the old fashioned way by pouring in boiling water and letting it sit, and as such the noodles are always a little bit al dente and the veggies a little bit chewy but it’s a taste I know and love since for a while I ate this noodle almost every other day. It’s very salty, and a generous man may even say the taste reminds him slightly of chicken. Even better, the aftertaste won’t fill you with regret! A solid 7/10.
Maggi 2 Minute Noodles (1250 kJ, 11.4g fat, 935 mg sodium)
SMC sent me these in my Christmas box all the way from Ozlandia! These were the first ramen noodles I ever ate, and as a young man I ate so much they made me big and strong. Naturally I’ve never ever tried any flavor other than plain chicken so it’s a good thing she didn’t send me some weird flavour like Kari Kari Kaw!
And… they’re a bit bland! The noodles are gelatinous and satisfying to eat, but the broth taste is watery and tastes more of a hint of a shadow of a whisper of a chicken than anything robust. The reason is obvious: not enough sodium! We all know sodium = taste and in this case they need to at least double it. That said it’s possible the reduced salt (and bland taste) has anything to do with Maggi reformatting their product in 2015 since their noodles were found to contain lead and excess msg? We’ll never know…
Blandness aside they’re not terrible and I’m still eating them all happily. Also the smaller size (is this why Aussies are all so handsome and slender?) is a plus for when you only want a small serving. A semi-solid 5/10.
Top Ramen (370 Calories, 14g fat, 1300 mg sodium)
This was the first time I had tried this cup noodle version of Top Ramen and I was looking forward to it. This one only has microwave instructions so that’s how I prepared it, but I didn’t use the soy sauce packet since we all know sodium doesn’t improve taste!
This smelled like earthworms tasted like ash! The noodles were ropey and bland and the veggies were like pieces of plastic. The icing on the cake was that it was as hot as Vesuvius and instantly burned my tongue. As I choked it all down I knew it was a repulsive ramen experience and that I’d never be eating it again. A flaccid 1/10!
There are even more plain chicken flavors available – including some unusual ones – but the winter/covid run on ramen has left me not finding any in my local stores. I’ll keep looking though, and you can anticipate further reviews of plain chicken instant ramen noodle products sometime in the future…