Today marks the second annual The Ramen Rater’s Momofuku Ando Day! Who was Momofuku Ando? Well, if it weren’t for him, myself, tens of thousands of college students and millions and millions of people around the world would be hungry today. Momofuku Ando invented not only the instant noodle in 1958, but also the Cup Noodle which was introduced in 1971. The company he founded, Nissin Foods, still exists today and produces flavors of instant noodles for many countries in the world. Here in the US, Top Ramen and Cup Noodles are prevalent while in Japan more local flavors like Shoyu (soy sauce) or Shio (salt) can be found. In the Philippines, there are flavors like Bulalo and Sotanghon, and in India Curry and Masala are available. Here’s a short piece about Mr. Ando and the invention of instant noodles from Nissin’s website. I should also mention there will be a special Show Your Noodles to see today as well!
The folks at Nissin Foods USa sent me a big box of samples a couple weeks ago and inside was this little gem from Japan. I have seen this before online but never anywhere in the USA. This is called Raoh and it is one of Nissin’s more premium Japanese products. In honor of Momofuku Ando day, I have done up a video review that you can see below.
Here’s the special Momofuku Ando Day celebratory video! Check it out then look below for more!
Here are the details from the side panels.
The veggie packet.
Looks like some nice stuff – green onion I recognize but not sure about the other things.
Dry powder packet.
Looks like soup base powder.
Liquid soup pack.
Has a nice scent.
Check this out – a slice of pork! This is awesome – definitely something you won’t find here in the US.
Finished (click image to enlarge). Added sweet onion, green onions and hard boiled egg. The noodles were very nice – perfect chewiness and consistency. Reminds me of fresh ramen noodle varieties. The broth is strong and has a nice thickness. The broth is definitely rich. Has a deep soy flavor and nicely thicker than normal instant noodle broths. The slice of pork? It re-hydrates exceptionally well with a nice consistency and some fat – very decadent for an instant bowl of ramen I’d say. The veggies did well too – a decent amount. All in all, this is amazing stuff. I’d love to try all of the varieties of Raoh, that’s for sure. 5.0 out of 5.0 stars easy. Thanks to Scott A. over at Nissin Foods USA for sending this along with the other samples – awesome! UPC bar code 4902105214077
A tour around the Cup Noodles Museum in Yokohama, Japan. I would love to go here someday. Here’s the official website and hours/price:
Name: CUPNOODLES MUSEUM (formal name: Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum) Address: 2-3-4 Shinko, Naka-ku, Yokohama 231-0001 Japan Telephone: General information: 045-345-0918 / Chicken Ramen Factory reservations: 045-345-0825 (Reception hours: 10:00-18:00, holidays excluded) Museum hours: 10:00-18:00 (last admission 17:00) Holidays: Tuesdays (when Tuesday is a holiday, closed the following day), year end / new year holidays Admission: Adults: 500 yen (tax included) / high school age children and younger admitted free *Some facilities within the museum require separate admission. *Museum admission fee and facility usage fees are subject to change.
Last year’s Momofuku Ando Day video – Top Ramen Chicken Flavor!
Today I watched “Mind Of A Chef,” a PBS show (here’s a link so you can watch it – it’s amazing!) . It has David Chang, who is really great to listen to and watch cook – and ramen is something he definitely has a passion for. Feeling kindred in this respect, I decided to use some of the things I saw in the show to make myself some dinner. I had some leftover frozen Yamachan ramen noodles. I thought these would be a good start, then I used the following.
Base
Swanson 33% Less Sodium chicken broth
Dash Kikkoman light soy sauce
3 small shitake mushrooms (frozen, then boiled for 3 minutes and removed)
black pepper
1 tbsp butter
sweet onion
1 tbsp minced garlic
splash of hite (Korean beer)
Noodles
1 leftover pack from Meet The Manufacturer: Yamachan
Addons
panko and Spade L Ranch Chicken Rub coated chicken breast (baked)
removed shitake mushrooms that have set in a bath of soy sauce for 15 minutes
egg hard boiled for 8 minutes with broth
kizami shoga (pickled ginger)
Here are some pictures of my process:
The chicken was the easy part. I was really stoked to find the missin bag of panko I had stashed in the cupboard.
From what I knew and the little I had watched at that point of the show, I figured I was on a good track – hopefully.
The noodles – I know these are good…
The upshot: don’t do this. There is definitely too much of a good thing. While I like eggs and Dua Belibis and all these other things, there came a BIG problem. The shitake mushroom was violent salty. The egg idea was born from seeing Chang using this awesome low temp slow cooker for eggs and whatnot and my egg ended up mostly staying in the shell. The broth did turn out quite alright actually – liked that a lot. I think simmerring the shitake in it for a few minutes really gave it a nice flavor, although it would’ve made more sense to use a pork broth like in the video. The chicken was awesome – some of the best chicken I think I’ve made – juice, tender and tasty with the panko and seasoning. The noodles also were exceedingly good. I think this was a case of logic that doesn’t work. Say you have two cell phones. The same charger will work for both, right? No, not likely. This was a bowl of incorrect dongles. I think I’ll leave this to Mr. Chang for now – maybe with a little more research I’ll give it another try. Glad I was the only one who was eating!I should say though this was a lot of fun and I did learn something – boiling shitake mushrooms in a broth really makes the broth taste interesting…
This one was taking a little punishment in the noodle hamper, so I decided it better see the light of day and become ingested.
Here’s the info from the outer packaging.
The lid.
Everything is in the cup – no packets or anything.
Finished. Added a little chicken lunch meat and a couple slices of Fresno pepper. Noodles were pretty standard ‘nothing to write home about,’ but they are rather historic fare. The broth has tones of cumin and chili powder. Not bad. The veggies were okay – marginal at best. All in all, not too shabby. 3.0 out of 5.0 stars. UPC bar code 070662031032 – get it here.
Here you go – enjoy this if you have to.
I still think Kyary Pamyu Pamyu’s better, but this has some promise on the J-Pop scene.
Last time I had a bowl of Beef Top Ramen was way back at review #221! That seems like forever ago! Well, it’s Meet The Manufacturer: Nissin week and I couldn’t go without reviewing some Top Ramen, right? Decided I’d go with beef. Here we go!
Here’s the back of the packaging. This was single pack for sale at the local grocery store – a fraction of a dollar.
Here’s the noodle block. From this, 101 Things To Do With Ramen Noodles, The Ramen Book and scores of other ‘do this with that’ books have come to pass.
Hey – what happened? The lasst time I saw a flavor packet from there it looked entirely different.
The dry powder seasoning.
Finished. I added some roast beef lunch meat, some Bird’s Eye Stor Fry veggies, an egg which I boiled with the noodles, a little Ajishima Kim Chi furikake and a little bit of Sushinori. I’ve always liked these noodles – they have a nice consistency and are the same every time. The broth has a nice, mellow salty beef flavor. Good stuff – especially to add things too – I like it! 3.75 out of 5.0 stars! UPC barcode 070662010020 – get it here.
Back in the day when we first found out about this stuff!
Here we go – this is the originasl instant noodle. This is what Momofuku Ando first sold in Japan! This is the real deal. Here’s a link to my post on Momofuku Ando Day!
My wife got me this five pack of Chikin Ramen for my birthday from Japan on eBay – unfortunately, the shipper wrapped it in newspaper and a plastic bag – the packs were all damaged in the extreme and only one had enough of the form to use for review.
See, this little dimple in the middle is what it;s all about. You’ll see what I mean.
Here’s the front of the individual pack.
This is the back of the big 5-pack bag. So what you do is put everything in a bowl, drop an uncooked egg on top, add 450cc water and cover for 3 minutes.
Here’s the back of the individual packs.
Here’s our poor specimen (this was the nicest one out of all five packs – all the others were mostly like the pulverized bits on the underneath of this one) there’s no seasoning packets – it’s all infused into the noodles.
I decided in honor of this ‘Meet The Manufacturer’ week and being review #700, I thought I’d make a video showing how I made this stuff.
The finished product. It seems like this would be about as hum-drum and normal as you can get, but quite honestly, there’s really nothing else that I’ve tried that’s like it. I’ve had some noodles that are pre-seasoned and tasted somewhat similar, but they don’t come out like this. The noodles have a very light, almost ‘springy’ texture to them. They bulk up when steeping and you end up with a pretty decent portion. The broth is thin; like I said, all the seasoning is in the noodles themselves. The flavor is kind of like a chicken sesame. I think calling them ‘Roasted Ramen’ when they were available in the US for a short time was an apt title. These are a work of art and a testament to Momofuku Ando‘s ingenuity. With the egg, it’s a good, filling meal. 5.0 out of 5.0 stars!!! UPC barcode 4902105001103 .
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