Category: Ramen

It’s been six months since the last ramen review post, and just when you thought your favourite series had ended it’s time for another installment!

Good (220 Calories, 6 g fat, 1700 mg sodium)

The package of this Vietnamese chicken ramen contains this phrase: “Experiencing smooth and unique feeling with mung beans added in vermicelli.” The contents looked attractive before I cooked them, but as usual I was put off by the little packet of oil.

When I was young I used to see ‘glass noodles’ on the menu at Asian restaurants and wonder what they were. It turns out they are a type of clear noodle made from mung beans, and while sometimes also called vermicelli are obviously different from the Italian kind (and the opaque rice noodles traditionally used in pho). This is therefore not a ramen product, but I’m the owner of this blog so I’m bending the rules (and not for the first time this series)!

As you can see in the photo, the noodles were extremely transparent. Alas they looked much better than they ate since they had the texture of electrical cables and trying to bite through them only partially distracted me from the taste, which resembled sadness and dirt. This was a wretched product, and shall never cross my lips again. Score: 0/10

Hao Hao (330 Calories, 12 g fat, 1830 mg sodium)

This was another Vietnamese product, and the package proclaims ‘Tasty Vietnam’ with pride. When I opened the bag the dehydrated noodles appeared to have the flavour impregnated in them, so I was surprised to see two additional flavour packets as well.

Cooking it was easy and unremarkable, except for the almost complete lack of any smell. This carried on to the eating, since the final soup was flavourless! As such I can’t say I disliked it – the texture of the noodles for instance wasn’t disagreeable – but it was so tasteless it was hardly worth eating. A strange ramen that’s difficult to score.

Indo Mie (320 Calories, 12 g fat, 1110 mg sodium)

This one was Indonesian, and while the noodles (before cooking) seemed average, the two flavour packets – bumbu sauce and chili – alarmed me. There’s no mention at all on the packaging about this being a ‘spicy chicken’ version (a common chicken subtype I do not cover in this series) and with my low tolerance for such things I cooked it hesitantly.

You won’t be surprised to hear I couldn’t eat it. I tried one single noodle and found it so spicy that I had the usual overreaction while KLS exclaimed it wasn’t hotter than black pepper! I’ll concede the noodle diameter and texture were positives, but from the heat alone it’s an instant 0/10!

I think we’re coming up to nearly 80 unique chicken ramen reviews in nearly 5 years of this series. I hope it’s not another six months before the next installment…

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 🙂