#924: Maruchan 35% Less Sodium Chicken Flavor Ramen Noodle Soup

Strange how lately Walmart has become a treasure trove for Maruchan products – found six I hadn’t reviewed there recently! Anyways, here’s the chicken lower sodium pack.

The back of the package (click to enlarge). I really like how they have a little aside about the versatility of instant noodles here – not something you see all the time.

The noodle block.

Usually when I think of this color, I think of hot and spicy. Thought it interesting they should choose it for lower sodium.

Took a taste of the seasoning – quite nice. Has a slight sweetness at first then a good herbed chicken taste.

Finished (click image to enlarge). Added stir fry veggies, baked chicken with Tony Chachere’s Creole seasoning and some Urashima Sesame & Salt furikake. The noodles are a little different; not in any sort of bad way though – they’re really good, just seem a little different as far as the outside. The broth is good – a very nice real chicken flavor, although seems like it needs a little salt. I would imagine 35% more salt. I think though if I weren’t used to eating salt in such abundance that it would be enjoyable if I were on a restrictive diet where salt was a concern. This is good stuff – seems like they’ve gotten the lower sodium pretty darn on the money. 3.75 out of 5.0 stars. UPC bar code 041789004117 – get it here.

This commercial is awesome – mariachi with noodles are cool!

A video about how to make sweet & sour with Maruchan Yakisoba noodles

#608: Koka Instant Non-Fried Noodles Spicy Black Pepper Flavour

Hadn’t tried it before and at under $3.00 for the four pack, how could I resist?

Here’s the front of a single pack. I have had many of the other varieties of Koka before, but spicy black pepper just sounds so good!

Look at those stats – 2g of fat and just barely over 1000mg of sodium. This is pretty nice stuff.

This packet contains powdered soup base and oil.

As you can see, the base has a nice pepper color to it.

A couple reviews back, I had some Batcheors Super Noodles Low Fat Chicken & Herb flavor from England. They had a little more fat in them and had a smaller block. The noodles in the Batchelors weren’t really good to taste before cooking; more like trying to crunch uncooked spaghetti. The Koka noodles are virtually the same texture as fried noodles when uncooked. Also, the noodles are actually lighter as far as weight. Thought that was neat.

After you cook the noodles, you sprinkle this garnish on top. It’s a bunch of freeze dried veggies. I really like how it mentions that it could be different depending on the season – amazing.

. I added a couple fried eggs. So there’s not a lot of broth in this one – it all kind of turns into this wonderful gravy kind of sauce. The noodles are excellent. The broth-like sauce is excellent. The garnish is wonderful. This is going on my top ten list: the sauce makes it reminiscent of Sapporo’s Chow Mein. The garnish however allows it to stand so far out from any other instants I’ve ever tried; a real smorgasbord of flavors. The noodles themselves are of top-notch quality. The sauce is nice and peppery but not overly so. This does not come across as a low-fat meal in any way shape or form. This is grubbin! What a lucky pick today! 5.0 out of 5.0 stars! UPC bar code 8888056000234I can’t recommend it higher! They don’t have this one just yet – but you can be notified when they have it. Check it out here.

This is probably one of the funniest advertising campaigns for noodles as well.

This is a Punjabi video of a song called “Koka.” Cultures can be so different – pretty awesome!