Robot Claw

It’s time to truly bend the rules with this licensed ramen review, since today’s product isn’t even ramen!

It’s a cup tteokbokki, which is a Korean sortof soup with rice cakes instead of noodles. This one is spicy flavoured. As you can see it’s Pokémon branded, and each cup contains one of 30 different Pokémon stickers.

The above shows the contents; a bag of rice cakes and a seasoning packet. To prepare, both are mixed in the cup with hot water and then the cup is microwaved. Here’s the finished product:

Of course I didn’t try this (Korean food is way too spicy for me) but KLS loves tteokbokki and said “This in the ok category of instant tteokbokki”. So it’s a good thing it came with a bonus sticker:

That’s Pokémon #906, known as Sprigatito in English, Naoha in Korean and Nyahoja in Japan. It’s a grass cat type that can mesmerize people with its pheromones!

I purchased this for KLS in NYC at a Korean grocer, and since they had two different flavors I got both. Here’s the other:

She said this one – which was plain flavour – was a little better. Here’s the sticker it came with (and how the sticker was packaged):

This sticker isn’t numbered, but is Pokémon #131, Lapras, who has the same name in English and Korean (and Laplace in Japan). This is a famous Pokémon since it’s been around for over 30 years now.

Have you tried instant tteokbokki? If not, and you see these ones in a shop, you may want to give them a go. Maybe they’re not wonderful, but you’ll get a cool sticker 🙂

It’s been a long time since the last post reviewing some chicken ramen, but I’ve (finally!) found a few more. Let’s see what I thought…

Cup Noodles Chicken (290 Calories, 11g fat, 1160 mg sodium)

This is a new version of one of the ubiquitous chicken ramens, with the difference being it’s in a paper cup and intended to be cooked in a microwave. I followed the instructions (2.5 minutes at maximum) and it worked well, although the paper cup was much hotter to hold than the styrofoam version. The contents seemed a bit ‘blobby’ after cooking, but a quick stir and everything was ok.

As far as taste this was simply acceptable. As with the ‘normal’ version the flavour is cooked into the noodles and it lacks veggies aside from a few tiny pieces of corn and carrot. In a world with no other options this would be ok, but with better available I won’t be trying it again. I’ll give it 7/10.

Oolongmen Chicken Ramyun (310 Calories, 10g fat, 1430 mg sodium)

This was purchased in Canada, and I didn’t eat it for months since most of the other Canadian ones were awful. But when I finally got to this, I was pleasantly surprised!

The first taste was unusual – arguably not like chicken at all – and the ramen contained lots of veggies included dehydrated mushrooms. Subsequent forkfulls were better, and since I actually ate it all I deem this a higher-quality product, probably in the top 10% of those I’ve tasted. I’ll score it 8/10.

Cup Noodles Rice With Noodles Teriyaki Chicken (300 Calories, 5g fat, 1100 mg sodium)

I know this isn’t a ramen product, but since it clearly says ‘with noodles‘ I purchased it anyway. It’s another microwave-only product, and after the required 4.5 minutes on high the contents had become a sort of brown slush.

I was hesitant since the sickly sweet smell was reminiscent of rot, and when I tentatively tried a small forkful my fears were confirmed since this was one of very worst cup noodle products I have ever tasted. I hated this, and even now regret preparing it since the stench has filled the house. Score: 0/10.

I know brands I haven’t yet tried exist, but I’ve never seen them in local stores. I wonder how long it will be until my next installment?

A slight departure from chicken ramen this time, to venture in a nightmare world of food science gone wrong. Three new and limited flavours of ramen were released this past year, and it’s finally time to try them all…

Cup Noodles Everything Bagel

This is ramen noodles in a cream-cheese flavoured sauce with ‘everything bagel’ flavouring and poppy seeds for that extra bit of realism.

As soon as the hot water was added the stench of cream cheese filled the room. It was repellant to one such as myself, but my fellow ramen tasters seemed intrigued. I went first, and the taste was so off-putting I couldn’t even swallow my meagre portion. It tasted (to me) exactly like cream cheese, which is a taste I despise. This was no normal poor ramen: this was a new level of terror.

Four of us tasted this evil thing, and here are our comments:

RS: Absolutely inedible.
KLS: Smells better than it tastes.
JK: Really tastes like bagel and cream cheese!
DH: Not bad but I wouldn’t buy it.

Our collective review: 3 thumbs up (out of 8)

Cup Noodles Breakfast

This one had everything: sausage, eggs, pancakes and maple syrup. A full unhealthy breakfast then, in instant ramen form. It also contained real sausage, so vegetarian KLS sat this one out.

Much like the previous as soon as the water was added a strong smell filled the room – this time maple syrup. After letting it steep the requisite time the eggs and sausage pieces seem to have rehydrated well, but the taste of maple was so sweet and overwhelming it was difficult to interpret this as anything more that noodles in sweet hot water. I couldn’t taste eggs, sausage or pancakes at all. That said, I was able to swallow my bite 🙂

Our verdicts:

RS: Simply tastes overwhelmingly of maple.
KLS: (Sat this one out and silently judged)
JK: I wish it wasn’t so sweet.
DH: This one is good! (He ate several forkfuls)

Our collective review: 2.5 thumbs up (out of 6)

Cup Noodle S’mores

For the Antipodean readers, S’mores are a mysterious campfire snack made by melting marshmallows and chocolate onto a cracker. Naturally they’re a terrible idea for a ramen product, and after the sweet bomb of breakfast what could this be like?

Uncooked. the noodles were covered in brown powder we took to be chocolate, and as you can see tiny marshmallows were included. Unlike the others, this one didn’t smell of anything as it cooked, and even once it was ready it had almost no scent at all. But it definitely tasted, and it was bad. My best description would be a serving of ramen noodles served in hot Milo. But even that hardly conveys the dreadful experience of tasting this one.

The reviews:

RS: Should never have been made.
KLS: Just because it can be done doesn’t mean it should be done.
JK: As soon as it touched my tongue it made me angry but the moment of swallowing was even worse!
DH: Just like Swiss Miss. (Swiss Miss is a brand of hot chocolate drink.)

Our collective review: 1 thumb up (out of 8)

And there you have it! If you see any of these at your local store, it’s probably best to turn and walk away 🙂