Food « Robot Claw

Archive for the ‘Food’ Category

Ramen 20: Chicken Ramen Fes!

Tuesday, October 4th, 2022

Time for some more chicken ramen reviews. Who thought this series would get to 20 entries?!?

Nissin Ramen Noodle Artificial Chicken Flavour (490 Calories, 17 g fat, 2530 mg sodium)

First thing we notice is that this is a mega sodium bomb, with two or three times the sodium of the normal cup ramen. Second thing is the naruto inclusions (the white things with red spiral). Are these real dehydrated fish? Perhaps, but they didn’t taste like it.

Once prepared the ramen smelled strongly of garlic and had a very earthy/cavelike taste that was not to my liking despite the noodle texture being just right. KLS enjoyed it though, and ended up eating most of it. I think this is a quality product, albeit not for me. 5/10

FF IDWIDW Braised Chicken Instant Noodles (300 Calories, 12 g fat, 1680 mg sodium)

Presentation was nice with the big plastic cup, but this became a liability once prepared since it wasn’t insulated and was too hot to pick up. The ramen came with 3 flavor packets and a (somewhat useless) fork and looked appetizing once ready.

However it was spicy. Very spicy: easily the spiciest of any I have tried so far. It didn’t have any sort of chicken taste and for me was just painful (I took two bites) but KLS – once again – thought it was good and ate more than half. She only found it a ‘little bit’ spicy! Not chicken flavor, and not for me: 3/10

Gefen Instant Noodle Imitation Chicken Fat & Sodium Free (187 Calories, 0 g fat, 574 mg sodium)

The label doesn’t lie, and this is probably the ‘healthiest’ ramen I’ve yet covered. With no fat, very little sodium and less calories than a chocolate bar is this even food? And yet, it’s a product from Gefen, aka the gods of ramen, and I eat their normal chicken ramen multiple times a week. I couldn’t wait to try it…

Alas, this product was a major disappointment. As with a few other low-fat cup noodles I have reviewed, the noodles aren’t fried and are therefore different in texture. I don’t know what they’re made of but the change means they don’t actually cook in the cup, and after putting in boiling water and waiting for twice as long as I usually would the noodles were still rigid and connected to each other.

Secondly, it has no taste. In fact you can duplicate my experience at home by ‘eating’ hot water, because that’s basically what it tasted like. Is it worth it to sacrifice taste to save calories? I think not.

Sadly I have nothing good to say about this travesty of a product, and must conclude that Gefen not only makes the very best ramen on Earth, they also make one of the very worst: 0/10.

Look at this cool chicken ramen hand towel! This was another item in the treasure package AW sent me from Japan, and as you can see it was released in 2018 to celebrate 60 years of chicken ramen. Even the chickens love eating chicken-flavoured noodles!

It makes me want to go back to Japan to investigate the plain chicken ramen options available there these days…

Posted in Food | Comments Closed

The Box Of Treasures

Sunday, September 25th, 2022

This came in the mail the other day:

It’s a box from Adam’s sister (let’s call her AC) in Japan! It’s a large box and had been traveling for almost 3.5 months! It was sent surface mail which could be the topic of a blog post in and of itself (but I shall save for another time).

The box was a big surprise, and I couldn’t wait to open it. But never in my wildest imagination did I expect the contents:

Look at this pristine condition burger box from McDonald’s! Back in April Macca’s Japan had a Shin Ultraman collaboration which featured the return of two chicken burgers which would be sold in Ultraman boxes. AC sent me two of these boxes! Aren’t they beautiful 🙂

But it didn’t stop there! Inside the box was also three of the special Ultraman branded plastic cups, also from McDonald’s. These are even prettier than the burger box and have immediately become the stars of my ‘Ultraman fast food packaging’ sub-collection!

I don’t know any details behind the acquisition of these items – AC included limited commentary in the box – so I assume she went to McDonald’s herself and purchased a Shin Chicken Tatsuya burger with accompanying McFizz Aomori Fuji Apple beverage. And yet the burger boxes are absolutely spotless and look unused… did she have a black market connection? However she obtained these, I appreciate it.

If you’re not aware, these items are in collaboration with the brand new Shin Ultraman film that opened in Japan in May. I want to see this film more than any film that ever existed but it hasn’t yet been released outside of Japan so I continue to wait. I’m guessing Amber saw the movie, since the box also contained this extraordinary item:

I believe this is a cup purchased from a Japanese cinema! The side of the cup features the movie logo, and underneath it says ‘fantasy special effects film’ just in case you’re one of the handful of Japanese movie-goers that hasn’t heard of Ultraman! The cup is large and the Ultraman on top – in his Spacium Beam pose – is large and dynamic. This is an amazing item that will proudly be displayed on my shelf for ever!

And this wasn’t everything in the box. There were a few other Ultraman items, an extraordinary hand towel (that you’ll see in a future post), a clear file (how did AC know I was planning an upcoming clear file post?!?) and two more incredible Gotochi postcards including this one:

I need to go back to Japan so I can send some of these special postcards myself…

Thanks AC; this box was like Christmas coming early 🙂

Posted in Blog, Collecting, Food, Miscellaneous, Otaku, Postcards | Comments Closed

Ramen 19: Stop In The Name Of Ramen

Tuesday, August 16th, 2022

No soup this time, but a few more ramen-adjacent items I’ve acquired on my travels.

I bought the above in Australia. It was one of those things that come ‘free’ with a Japanese magazine, and is a Cup Noodle ‘purse’ (based on the photo of the girl using it as a purse). Naturally it’s an insane item to use as a purse, so I’m displaying it here as a ‘ramen carrier’. It’s a nifty thing, with nice printing in and out and a cute fork-shaped zipper pull. Of course I have no actual use for it 🙂

Here’s another ‘noodle stopper’, displayed in the intended position. This is now my second such figurine, and was a prize from a (type of) UFO machine in Sydney. Sue watched bemusedly as I loaded $1 coins into the machine at a good clip, and I’m sure she shared my joy when it only cost me $52 to ‘win’ it. Naturally I’ll never use it to steep noodles, and it will live happily on my shelf forever.

This last item was a surprise! I’d never seen a noodle stopper for sale here, so when I saw this double pack at Kino in NYC a couple of months ago I had to have it. Here’s a closer look at the contents:

A cute pair of noodle stoppers, and it even comes with a fake ‘cup noodle’ for them to sit on! These are of course sisters Ram and Rem from the anime Re:Zero (which I’ve never watched) and are amongst the most licensed characters in animation these days. The pair cost me less than the previous figure. So I have four noodle stoppers now, who sit on the edges of shelves. I think this is enough 🙂

Next installment some more chicken noodles. Stay tuned…

Posted in Food, Otaku, Toys | Comments Closed

Tastes Like A Chocolate Milkshake

Thursday, June 16th, 2022

Let’s try this mad creation:

Australia loves it’s honeycomb, and there’s several products available that include it. The most well known is probably Violet Crumble bars, but whoever thought of turning them into a drink?!?

I was apprehensive pouring it, since as a rule I don’t like drinking milk unless it’s strawberry flavoured. And let’s be honest: this doesn’t look great:

Fearing coffee or something equally nasty I took a slug. I immediately disliked it, although it tasted nothing like Violet Crumble and instead just tasted of chocolate. Mum was curious and had a glass herself…

Here’s her review: “Tasty but no Violet Crumble taste. It’s just a chocolate milkshake! I wouldn’t buy it again and I’ll score it 4/10.”

As for me, it’s a solid 0/10 since I despise chocolate milk, and I’ll also penalize it a further point (down to -1/10) for having not even a trace of honeycomb taste!

Posted in Australia, Food, Trip | Comments Closed

Ramen 18: Working Class Chicken

Tuesday, June 14th, 2022

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…