Category: Food

Its time for more ramen reviews! Yes, the varieties seem to never end 🙂

Nissin ‘Chinese Product‘ (Artificial Chicken Flavor) (470 Calories, 21 g fat, 1980 mg sodium)

This one was a bit of a calorie and sodium bomb, which suggested a robust taste. Everything was fine until the flavor packet was added to the cooking noodles, at which point an unpleasant smell filled the kitchen.

My first reaction to sampling this was that it had a strange seafood taste (which KLS also detected) and tasted strongly of vegetables and nothing at all like chicken. It wasn’t terrible, but I’d never choose to eat it again. An average product: 5/10.

Kasari Kids (Chicken Flavor) (228 Calories, 42 g fat, 492 mg sodium)

This is a cute mini-sized product for kids. I bought this maybe a year ago but it sat in the cupboard all this time since the adult-sized version was awful. I prepared this with trepidation.

Firstly it’s not ramen: the noodles resemble the packet ‘chicken noodle soups’ I used to eat as a kid. Secondly, it had little or no visible flavoring added, with just a smatter of dedicated veggies mixed with the noodles. And thirdly, it had no taste at all. Imagine eating flavorless noodles in hot water and that’s what this was. I have to believe this was a production error since I can’t see how anyone could call this a chicken soup, but regardless my score for this is an easy 0/10!

Nissin Souper Meal (Chicken Flavor) (560 Calories, 23 g fat, 2700 mg sodium)

This mega-sized beast is obviously made for a real man so it was something I should love surely? The noodle brick was bigger, the flavor pack bulging and I chuckled as I poured what seemed like too much water into the massive cup.

Unfortunately, it disappointed. I’ve sampled a few Nissin products so far, and mostly they are average and would be good in a world without Gefen or Maruchan. This one however tasted very different to me: more earthy or even beefier. I found it distasteful, and ultimately this was a product that wouldn’t be to my liking even at half the size. Score: 3/10.

That’s 36 ramens reviewed and I’ve still got some to go, including the most expensive one I have yet purchased. What is it? Stay tuned…

Here’s an aside in my enduring ramen series. I got this for my birthday:

It’s a brick ramen bowl! The idea is that instead of cooking the ramen on the stove the usual way, you put the brick and seasoning in the bowl:

Add boiling water:

Until the brick is covered (or in this case, just starts to float):

Then seal the lid and wait a few minutes:

And here’s what I found after I opened and gave a quick stir:

Did it work? Yes it did! Will I use it again? Probably not!

The reason is I like my brick ramen served super hot, and I apparently like the noodles somewhat over cooked. Both of these need stove preparation. KLS loves using the bowl though, so it’s in a good home 🙂