Category: Food

Ramen 26: Finally, From Japan!

  • June 8, 2024

Despite ardent searching, I had never previously found a plain chicken instant ramen during a Japan trip. This time, I did! Let’s add it to the review series:

This is not just any chicken ramen, this is the chicken ramen; the very first ever ramen made by Nissin. It also has some sort of omelet inclusion, but we can ignore that for the purposes of blog review eligibility 🙂

As with most ramen made for the Japanese market, the flavour is already infused into the noodles. Similar products I’ve tried in the past have been a bit too intense for me, but I kept an open mind if only because I didn’t have anything else for breakfast this morning.

Incidentally this product contains Calories, 9.6 g of fat and an incredible surely-the-translator-has-made-a-mistake 5300 mg of salt!

After a struggle with a slightly mysterious kettle, hot water was secured and the product was prepared. The omelette (?) brick melted instantly when water was poured on it, released the egg and veggies into the soup. The noodles cooked well. It was time to eat!

It was good! In fact it was quite good! It didn’t taste much like what I think chicken ramen should, but the taste wasn’t at all disagreeable (unlike the ‘grass’ taste many bad chicken ramens have) and I didn’t even mind the weird egg bits floating around. Using my undisputed chopstick mastery, I ate it all.

I liked this enough that if I lived here I would happily eat it again. It’s definitely not up to the hallowed heights of Gefen, but it’s easily a solid 8 out of 10.

  • Posted in Food
  • Robert

Pineapple Fritting

  • May 31, 2024

Pineapple fritters are battered and fried pineapple rings. I’ve had a few this trip, and here’s a comparison.

The first came from Red Rooster, a chicken chain that competes with KFC. I hadn’t eaten a pineapple fritter in decades and had a mental image of what they would be like: juicy sweet pineapple in a light batter. So when this one was breaded that was a surprise. It was $3.

The taste was an even bigger surprise: it didn’t taste like pineapple! The pineapple ring itself was weirdly tasteless, and the batter had a strange donut/sweet taste to it. It wasn’t entirely terrible, but it also wasn’t particularly good, and I’d say had I eaten it blindfolded I wouldn’t have even known it was pineapple. I’d never eat one like this again 🙂

The second came from a kebab shop on Maitland Road (Charcoal Chicken) and when we ordered and she asked if we wanted sugar I remembered these are supposed to be a dessert item. As you can see it doesn’t look much like a pineapple ring as much as a large potato scallop, and the sugar was fine like baking sugar. This one was also $3.

This one was absolutely heavenly. A juicy, sweet and delicious pair of thinly sliced pineapple rings covered by a light batter. Every bite was wonderful and the sugar only heightened the sweetness. I would have happily eaten more than one 🙂

The third and last one I ate this trip was from a fish and chip shop in Cooranbong. It resembles the previous but the sugar this time was cinnamon sugar. It was the cheapest at $2.50.

This one wasn’t quite as good as the previous, but still many times better than the first. The batter was nice and light and the cinnamon sugar sweet, but the pineapple itself – the very soul of the fritter – was lacking in taste. It was a thin slice compared to two in the previous and perhaps this was the problem? I’d eat this one again, but wish I was eating the precious example.

So the question arises. At about $3 a pop, with the taste on average being only ok, should a pineapple fritter be your first choice for a hot fruit dessert snack?

Do I even need to answer? 🙂

  • Posted in Food
  • Robert

Ramen 25: It’s Always Cold Inside The Chicken House

  • May 28, 2024

You didn’t even dare to believe it possible, but I found some more Antipodean chicken ramen! It’s time to review them:

Mama Ramen Chicken Flavor (1278 kJ, 11.3 g fat, 1350 mg sodium)

I reviewed the brick version of this product many installments ago and my hopes about this cup version weren’t high. Therefore I wasn’t even slightly surprised with the rotting stench that rose as soon as I poured the water in, or the cardboard texture of the noodles in my first bite, or the sickly aftertaste redolent of waste. This was a repulsive product, hardly even worth pouring into a storm drain. Without hesitation it gets a strong 0 out of 10.

Lian Pho Ga Chicken (870 kJ, 2.2 g fat, 410 mg sodium)

I call this ‘fo’ but Sue says it’s called ‘fe’, but there’s probably a few other one-syllable words it could be called. I struggle to see the appeal of these type of soup since I find the noodle texture unappealing and every single chicken version I have tried tasted of cut grass. This one was no exception, and was in fact so extraordinarily awful I took pleasure in disposing of it. Another indisputable 0 out of 10.

Only two today, but given how many different ones I have now tasted every new version is special! That said, you’ll want to skip both of these 🙂