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Ramen 12: A New Year Of Chicken!

Saturday, January 1st, 2022

What better way to welcome the new year than with some more ramen reviews. Join me now for yet another taste of instant chicken noodles!

Gau Do Instant Pho (Artificial Chicken Flavor) (210 Calories, 2.5 g fat, 1980 mg sodium)

The last pho I tasted was quite terrible, but I approached this one with an open mind. But as soon as I opened the flavour packets I knew the worst had come true when the terrifying scent of southeast Asian spices overwhelmed me. Notably low fat content and innovative packaging aside, once prepared I found the off-puttingly gelatinous texture of the noodles to be secondary to the unpalatably petrichorian broth. And yet I can’t find it in myself to scathe this mercilessly, for with 30+ chicken ramen reviews behind me I dare say I have developed the wisdom to simply acknowledge this as one of those products made in another place for a person unlike myself: 4/10.

Trader Joe’s Instant Ramen (Chicken Flavor) (180 Calories, 4 g fat, 810 mg sodium)

I’ll cut to the chase: this store brand ramen is a trojan Dr Mcdougall’s! The flavor was borderline acceptable, but the not-really-ramen noodles never softened and in the end this is a regrettable (and inedible) misstep from Trader Joe’s. Avoid at all costs: 0/10!

Gefen Brown Rice Noodles (Artificial Chicken Flavor) (210 Calories, 1 g fat, 1649 mg sodium)

Gefen makes the best ramen on earth, so good in fact that I eat one almost every day. A month or so ago we happened upon this curiosity at Target, and it was the only one we could find. When I opened it I saw that the flavour packets were the same as in Gefen ramen, so I knew this would be remarkable. The noodles – after about 10 minutes of steeping in boiled water – were very much like eating al dente spaghetti, and coupled with the hearty and salty broth made for an exquisite ramen experience. Obviously this is an 10/10 ramen, and I hope I one day find more of these to enjoy!

Impossibly, while I have now completed thirty-three reviews I still have a few more products in the cupboard to go. Stay tuned…

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City Christmas

Sunday, December 19th, 2021

After canceling Australia, we booked a (very!) last minute trip to NYC to ‘save Christmas’. In other words, get my mind off a disappointing event and buy some Xmas gifts at the same time.

We stayed in our usual hotel. The room wasn’t quite as fancy (or expensive) as last time but was still cozy and had a wonderful view, especially at night:

That’s the Bryant Park ice rink, which they set up for a few months every year. The whole park gets a makeover in fact, with lots of temporary shops and restaurants. Here’s a better view of the rink:

Mostly we shopped, and as usual we absolutely filled our days. But we also found time for eating, like delicious mochi donuts (made using rice flour):

Or this mozzarella potato corn dog:

We visited Madame Tussaud’s for the first time ever, which was crazy busy since it was raining and everyone else chose to go as well, but it was fun seeing the incredibly lifelike mannequins:

And to our surprise you could pose with almost all of them:

Of course we went to see the famous Rockefeller Center tree as well, which was dazzling at night:

And – to our surprise – Saks 5th Avenue had a 3.5 minute fully animated light/music show using 700,000 lights over the entire facade of the building:

Oh and the city was mobbed with people. In fact this was maybe the busiest we had ever seen NYC, and certainly the most people I’ve seen since the pandemic began. Of course the unfortunate side of this is that NYC is currently seeing pandemic-record covid numbers (due to the variant which affected my trip…) but it was great to see near-ubiquitous mask usage (even out on the sidewalk) and testing/vaccination tents on every block:

We had a whirlwind trip but a fun one. We packed a lot into 2.5 days and returned with an astonishing amount of goodies. This last photo shows most of what we bought (certain Xmas gifts are omitted). Can you guess which of these will soon inspire a blog post of its own?

Posted in Blog, Family, Food, Holiday, Trip | 1 Comment »

$1 Microwave Cheeseburger Review

Saturday, November 27th, 2021

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Ramen 11: When Will It End?!

Thursday, November 18th, 2021

I’ve already reviewed 27 different chicken ramen here on this blog, so why stop now!

Mi Lau Thai (Chicken Flavor) (380 Calories, 15 g fat, 2240 mg sodium)

The extreme amount of sodium gave even me (a famous salt-eater) pause but naturally I had to try this. It contained as astonishing five flavor packets, including one which was some sort of impossibly fine (weaponized?) dust that puffed smoke when opened! Cooking it was normal, but the first taste was of ash and I was about to take a second mouthful when the heat hit me. This was hot! Very hot! Dare I say, this was volcanically hot. One bite almost did me in, and the lingering smell in the kitchen (no doubt that spice dust that had filled the airways) reminded me of this torture all afternoon. For me, an unquestionable 0/10.

Cup Noodle (Chicken Flavor) (290 Calories, 11 g fat, 1070 mg sodium)

It’s remarkable that it has taken me so many installments to finally get to the granddaddy – the progenitor – of all cup noodle ramen! The simple reason is that the standard chicken flavor Cup Noodle isn’t easily found in my local shops, and I actually bought this one back when we were in NYC. Given that this is the model all other ramen is based on, it was a breeze to cook and the taste was perfectly acceptable. In fact I daresay it’s one of the best, but in a world with Gefen I’ll not lament my inability to find this one easily. That said, this is a fine chicken ramen and an easy 8/10.

Mini Tokyo Noodle (Chicken Flavor) (130 Calories, 4 g fat, 790 mg sodium)

Isn’t this cute! A tiny ramen brick, with flavor infused into it. The bag photo actually shows 4 servings, and the single bricks are small enough for a coffee mug. You just pour boiling water over, wait a few minutes, and enjoy your mini ramen meal! At least that would be the idea, but since it has no taste at all and the noodles have the texture of elastic bands this one went down the karzy quick smart! I wouldn’t even throw this garbage out the window for the birds! Score: -1/10

Stay tuned for installment #12, which may feature regional dishes…

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Pokeos

Saturday, November 6th, 2021

There’s recently been stories popping up on social media about Pokemon biscuits/cookies selling for thousands. Naturally, it was time to strike it rich.

We bought two bags of them. The Oreos feature 16 different Pokémon designs but are otherwise unremarkable (no different colour or flavours). They look cute though.

There’s sixteen different designs, one of which is ‘super rare’ (according to a press release put out by the manufacturer). In our first pack we got thirteen of the varieties, not including the rare one.

They were tasty though, and we bought a second pack. We got one Pokemon we hadn’t seen in the first, but still no rare version.

The rare one is ‘Mew’, which was a cute choice since Mew was the rarest Pokémon in the original game. About a month ago word spread on social media that Mew Oreos were selling for ‘thousands’ on eBay, and before you knew it there were hundreds of listings, made by people hoping to strike it rich. Still today, you’ll find ~~fools~~ people hoping for a payout:

Of course they aren’t selling for these prices at all, and likely never did. Surprise, surprise, but the stories that initially claimed as much didn’t have a lot of facts to back them up, and (as usual) the internet was happy to spread the story without bothering to verify it. Mews were selling on eBay, but for only a few dollars. And apparently 99% of the listings never sell.

The truth is that the Mew Oreo isn’t that rare at all. I’ve read maybe one in four packs, so for about $15 (the cost of 4 packs) you’d have about a 70% chance of getting your own. Think about that before bidding $1,000,000 on that eBay auction!

Madness aside these are decent Oreos, but don’t hold a candle to the Trolls ones from last year that included pop rocks in the cream! Let’s hope they bring them back at some point 🙂

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