#908: Sapporo Ichiban Oriental Noodle Soup Original Flavor Cup

Yet another one I am very surprised I haven’t reviewed in the past. Curious to see how this one fares.

Details from the back of the cardboard outer (click to enlarge). Look at that – it recommends using the microwave – I’ve not seen this before on the instructions for a cup noodle!

Here’s the cup itself.

Again notice the mention of microwaving the foam cup – what a trip!

Here’s the noodle block.

The soup base packet.

Here’s the powder itself.

Wow – a lot of veggies in this one – plenty of corn and little green bits!

Finished (click to enlarge). Added a hard boiled egg, baked chicken and some Krazy Mixed Up Salt. The noodles are decent – nice texture and good amount. The broth has a soy sauce taste and some hints of miso. The veggies are quite good – I’m impressed with not only the quantity but the quality. Corn is usually one that doesn’t want to re-hydrate very well and these do quite nicely. 3.5 out of 5.0 stars. UPC bar code 076186700010 – get it here.

A Sapporo Ichiban TV advertisement

Some Japanese TV commercials

Top-Ten Re-Review: Sapporo Ichiban Japanese Style Noodles Chow Mein

Ahhh -= this is one of my favorite! Number four on the Top Ten Instant Noodles of All Time as reviewed by The Ramen Rater. Thanks go to Greg B. of Marathon, Florida for sending a pack my way!

Here’s the back of the package. As you can see by the directions if you cock your head to the right, these noodles are made a little different. You add the noodles to a mere cup of boiling water. Cook them until they suck up all the water, then add the seasoning packet and stir.

First, here’s the noodles. Fried and tasty!

This is the packet whose content get stirred in once the noodles have cooked.

Gotta love that font! Green Laver is in here. This stuff gets sprinkled on top of everything once it’s done. Serious goodness.

The finished product. This is the finest of the fine I tell ya! The noodles are good. They’re chewy but not funky. The flavor is sweet and has a slight spiciness to it – not as heat of peppers kind of spice either. Its a lot like yakisoba sauce. The seaweed on top adds just a little bit of extra flavor and adds a nice finish and a colorful oddness. This is great stuff and I truly cannot advise you enough to try it. 5.0 out of 5.0 stars. UPC barcode 076186000189 – get it here.

Here’s the ramen timer I made so you can drool as you cook!

Geez this is old – feels like forever ago…

#416: Sapporo Ichiban Chicken Flavor With Natural & Artificial Flavors Oriental Noodle Soup (Cup)

A couple things to start out with here as this picture is somewhat ridiculous. So they’re adding water to the cup. The water is up to the line already and not only that,  the contents appear to already be done cooking; the veggies are clearly re-hydrated.  Kind of weird I thought.

Look closely at the ingredients – something is in this one that usually isn’t present…

A single packet of seasoning. Common to the cups you’d see from Korea, not so much from a domestic.

A very nice looking amount of assorted vegetables ready for the pain of scalding hot boiling water.

Finished product, unadulterated. So this one’s getting some good points. Why? Well first off, it looks like the above picture. Secondly, it contains chicken. This is a bit of a rarity to be honest and I really like that. The chicken wasn’t bad either. Third, lots of vegetables. The noodles weren’t crummy either. The only thing here was the saltiness – way overpowering. A little less and it would’ve been just right. I’m still quite impressed with this product though and giving it a 3.75 out of 5.0 stars. Get it here.

#240: Sanyo Foods Aunt Mentaiko Durum Spaghetti

So first off, I’d like to thank Walnuts4Gold from reddit.com for helping me figure out the name of this stuff. The only thing I had to go on was the phone number on the bottom. From that I figured out with a little research that Sanyo Foods makes these noodles. Then Walnuts4Food sent me a link with some other varieties including this one. This one is the Mentaiko variety. What’s mentaiko? Wikipedia states it is…

Mentaiko (明太子^?) is the marinated roe of pollock, and is a common ingredient in Japanese cuisine. Mentaiko originated from myeongran jeot (명란젓) of Korean cuisine and was introduced to Japan after the Russo-Japanese War. Kawahara Toshio, a Busan-born Japanese, adapted Korean mentaiko to Japanese tastes in Fukuoka in the 1950s. The name is derived from the Korean word for Alaska pollock (mentai, 명태 : myeongtae in Korean) and the Japanese word for “child” (子, ko^?). The typical seasoning and flavor is slightly different in Japan.

Mentaiko is made in a variety of flavors and colors and is available at airports and main train stations. It is usually eaten with onigiri, but is also enjoyed by itself with sake. A common variety is spicy mentaiko (辛子明太子, karashi mentaiko^?). It is a product of the Hakataward of Fukuoka City.

It makes perfect sense  that this must be what it is….

Pretty easily followed instructions…

Pasta sauce and topping…

Looks like spaghetti to me…

Snazzy drain spout!

So the pasta sauce was a deeper red but really infused into the noodles. The topping was seaweed and a nice addition. It was a spicy and slightly fishy affair – very flavorful and very interesting. I quite liked it – I have never had anything like it before. Was really surprised at just how good the noodles were – they were perfect as far as I’m concerned.

Don’t know if you can discern it really but the light orangish dots are the fish roe (eggs). This was an interesting thing; fish egg spaghetti. I am highly enthused. What was also interesting is that the use by date was 12.25.2010 – Christmas! 4.5 out of 5.0 stars – Weird, tasty and good.

 

Sanyo Foods owns Sapporo Ichiban just to let you know…