Ramen 18: Working Class Chicken

It’s time for the last of the Southern Hemisphere chicken noodle reviews. Did my search of local supermarket shelves reveal a worthy product at last?

Suimin Noodles with Chicken (1440 kJ, 13.7 g fat, 1600 mg sodium)

Aside from my hyperbole and possible exaggeration, one common denominator in my reviews of the Australian chicken noodles is the taste (or lack thereof) descriptions. To my sensitive palate, many of these have tasted nearly identical, and that’s not a good thing.

Suimin joins the club: an earthy and dirty taste coupled with thick sticky noodles. It’s a hearty cup to be true, but not one I’d ever voluntarily eat: 0/10

Fantastic Gluten Free Chicken Noodles (671 kJ, <1 g fat, 856 mg sodium)

I’ll start by acknowledging that this product caters to a specific audience, and should be commended for it’s low fat and sodium. That said, this is another ‘Fantastic’ brand noodle product and the two I’ve already reviewed from them are amongst the worst I’ve ever tasted.

Let’s not flog a dead horse: ‘gluten free’ here essentially means ‘taste free’ which ironically makes this slightly better than the other Fantastic ones which tasted horrible. Still a woeful noodle: 1/10

Yoodles Brown Rice Chicken Noodles (1140 kJ, 3.4 g fat, 1260 mg sodium)

This one screamed ‘hipster’ and I was scared of it. As a result I left it for last, and when I opened it, saw the plastic-looking noodles and the bounteous flavor packets my dread increased. But I had to try it, so I did…

It was easy to prepare, but I chose to omit the ‘fat packet’ since adding oil or grease to these things turns my stomach. So strictly speaking I tried a modified version of the product. And it was fantastic! By a very wide margin this is the best chicken noodle I’ve tried here in Oz! Delicious noodles that resemble spaghetti coupled with a subtle but chickeny taste meant I ate the whole thing even though I wasn’t even hungry. If I lived in Australia, I’d fill my cupboards with these: 8/10

Over the past two years I’ve reviewed a total of 48 plain chicken noodle products. In doing this I’ve tasted good and bad and even found one so great I eat it almost daily! I’m not aware of any other products I’ve yet to try, so maybe – finally – it’s time for this series to go on a hiatus for a while…

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