Category: Blog

Let’s Cook Desserts!

October 3, 2021

Yesterday we made these:

It was fairly easy says KLS, who did most of the work. The box contained only three things: the meringue powder, an icing pen and a bag for piping. The power was mixed with egg white and whipped until fluffy:

Then the meringues were piped onto oven paper:

Here they are before cooking:

We then baked them on lowish heat (200F) for 75 minutes, then iced them before eating:

And they were – in a word – terrible! They tasted like the glue I used to eat as a child, and the aftertaste was even worse. My happy memories of melt-in-your-mouth meringues from my youth have now been corrupted by these sticky, inedible travesties!

But there was a secret! We chose the alternate cooking method which involved the addition of tonic water. This is basically sparkling water that contained quinine, which phosphors under UV light:

Apparently adding a tiny bit to the mix makes the meringues ‘glow in the dark’! Did it work? Judge for yourself:

Ramen 10: I’m Not Stopping!

September 12, 2021

I’m not reviewing ramen today, just showing off a recent purchase. Specifically this:

It’s a noodle stopper, which is a figurine designed to help keep the top on cup noodles while they steep. Most of us probably use a fork or plate or some other device, but now you can use a cute figurine:

Yes this is a real figure designed for this use. They are made by the Japanese company Furyu mostly as UFO Catcher prizes, although the days you can just buy them on amazon. Mine is Hatsune Miku in a cherry blossom outfit, and I’m astonished at the sculpting and paint job considering how inexpensive she was ($20)! She also sits on the noodles very well and keeps the top nice and sealed while the hot water does its job.

Of course since I don’t want to damage her I won’t actually be using her for this purpose, and instead she’ll sit happily on a ledge in my office to remind that a piping hot cup of noodles is only a few steps away:

Noodle stoppers: an essential tool for the cupnoodologist! 🙂

Ramen 9: Electric Chookaloo

August 26, 2021

Time for more chicken ramen!

Tradition Instant Noodle Soup Chicken Flavor Reduced Sodium (290 Calories, 14 g fat, 730 mg sodium)

Yet another product from this company, and as best I can tell virtually identical to the non sodium free version, which I gave a score of 0/10. So how does this stack up? Well, it’s even worse! The other had woeful noodles and no flavor at all (I even thought they’d forgotten the flavor packet), and this one has even less. It’s barely edible: -1/10

Oh Ricey! Pho Noodles Chicken Flavor (270 Calories, 6 g fat, 1600 mg sodium)

I’m bending the rules here a bit since these aren’t ramen, but since they’re a dehydrated brick noodle product I doubt anyone will complain. This is a rice noodle soup, with unusual translucent noodles that secreted a frankly disturbing slime when heated. The flavor pack is just a bag of sticky oil and the entire concoction, once prepared, was about as appetizing as something I’d award a score of 0/10.

Despite my reaction to this dross, KLS ate it. I just now asked her what she thought and she said “I don’t remember it!”

Cup Noodle Artificial Chicken Flavor (320 Calories, 11 g fat, 1620 mg sodium)

I can barely believe I haven’t yet covered a Cup Noodle ramen yet, especially since I even bought a model kit of one!

This is a Chinese version and I assumed it’s probably the same as the USA one. After trying it though, I’m doubtful. The noodles are good (as you would expect from the guys who invented cup ramen) but the taste was far too earthy for my delicate palette, and even had a hint of spiciness. Overall I think this is a good product, just probably not to my taste: 6/10.

Nine installments of ramen reviews so far, and there’s more to come! Stay tuned…

Robot Claw