Our First Experience With Kamaboko & Narutomaki

I’ve seen many times mentions of Kamaboko and Naruto in ramen dishes and looked all over for them. This last Saturday we went to Uwajimaya and I found both! Hah! First, let’s check out Kamaboko. It’s surimi, which comes in many ways – for example, imitation crab is one form of surimi.

Here’s how it comes – on a little piece of wood! You slice it thinly and it can be eaten unheated since it’s steamed previously. It’s slightly rubbery and chewy – kind of like a cold-cut version of calamari. t has a very light flavor.

This is Naruto. There’s a popular anime character with the same name…

If you click on him, you’ll see a little spiral on his forehead…

Hey look – the same little spiral! So it’s like a log of fish that you slice thinly. It is a lot like the Kamaboko except not as chewy and has a more fishy flavor.

Today I had some noodles with my son. He had a bowl of Nissin Dmae Ramen – the sesame oil flavor.

He was very interested in trying the Naruto and Kamaboko! The fearless Andy didn’t question ‘what’ it was, but was very interested as it’s from Japan – he’s in a club at school called ‘Nakano Club’ – they’ll have visiting students soon from Nakano, Japan and so he’s interested in all things Japanese. He liked the Kamaboko a little more than me – was hoping for a bit more flavor, but it was nice. I liked the Naruto better than he did. It had a slightly fishier taste and was less chewy. He ate the whole bowl of noodles though with all the additions! Not bad!

#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!

Tipping Point: Is There Really A Danger From Cup Noodles?

I’ve seen a few articles as of late about people burning themselves because they tip over cups of instant noodles. This is ridiculous. These articles start citing that the design of these cup is flawed. Also, it is mentioned that many of the victims are children! I think anyone saying “here little tyke, be careful, it’s hot” ought to have their heads examined. . If you don’t know how to correctly operate and consume a cup noodle, I will herein inform you as to how.

The first rule of the cup noodle is follow the directions. Most people don’t read directions when making a cup noodle, but most of them have them. Nowhere does it say to fill it with water then put it in the microwave for a few minutes; in fact, there are little icons warning against doing exactly that. Microwaving cup noodles can cause superheating of the contents as well as can release chemicals from the foam. Note, the cups are made from foam, not Styrofoam which is a trademarked material.

Most cup noodles direct you to heat water in a seperate container in the microwave and then pour it in and close the lid. Is there a differene in the taste? Sure! Would you microwave spaghetti noodles and expect them to taste good? Of course not; you’d do what it says on the packaging.

Now for the tipping issue. I’ve had a lot of instant noodles in my day. Bowls, bags, cups, big bowls and king cups. Have I ever tipped one over? No. Have I ever knocked one over? Yes. Something tipping over on its own and being knocked over by me are two distinctly different things altogether. It isn’t a design flaw. I had a stage when I was in my teem years when I would knock over everything that had liquid in it on myself. At McDonald’s I knocked a large Coke on myself. At a pizza joint, I knocked a banana malt all over my shorts. Was it lame? Yes. Was it my fault? Sure was. Was it the fault of the design of the beverage receptacle? Not really. How could it be?

The flaw, especially when it comes to kids getting burned, is the parent letting them get burned. Come on, parent – don’t be a lazy hooplehead!

I am willing to take all responsibility for my own actions and as of this moment, openly  apologize to myself for all accidents involving cup noodles that get knocked or ‘tipped’ over by me in times previous and future. I’ve never heard anyone complain about those long-neck beer bottles being elbowed – granted they don’t contain hot liquid, but they’re easily knocked over.

In closing, read the directions and while the noodles steep, let them sit in a safe place. Watch yourself and be careful! Contents may be hot.

#587: Sunlight Steam Vermicelli

The last time I had a bag of instant noodles like this I had a horrible experience; a ball of glued together, sticky, nasty funk. This time I’m a little more experienced and wiser and going to try a different method of attack.

Here’s the back. The only thing I can really understand here is 1800cc of water. That’s a lot! I’m going to take the noodles and break them into thirds and use around 500cc of water.

Dry seasoning and veggies on the left, cayenne powder in the middle and potato starch on the right. I used half the veggie pack, half the cayenne and none of the starch – that got me into the gloppy mess last time.

Interesting stuff. The noodles aren’t my favorite, but they’re growing on me a little. What I did like about this was the broth. It had a very nice smoky, spicy and slightly fishlike flavor which I really liked. Still, the flavor does have an off-putting aftertaste which I found somewhat chemically and the noodles are really dry once you get your chew on. So I dunno. I’m giving it 2.1 out of 5.0 stars.

Taiwanese film “Crazy Racer”

#300: Wu-Mu Steam Spinach Ramen With Onion Flavor

Okay and here we go with review #300! It’s really getting hard to find ones I haven’t sampled and reviewed yet so if anyone would like to send me some that would be really much appreciated! So here’s #300, spinach onion time!

This pack actually contains four servings. I like how the silver ones say soup bag in english and the seasoned oil says nothing in english. I also like the fact that this packaging doesn’t tell you how much water to use. I figured draining the water off was the best bet.

Kinda green going on – spinach’ll do that!

Seasoning powder and seasoned oil.

I added two fried eggs, some kizami shoga [pickled ginger] and fried shallots. I must say I am thoroughly impressed with this one – wow. The noodles are broad and the perfect texture. The seasonings are exactly what they purport to be and brilliantly done. Adding egg and ginger compliments the dish quite nice, and the shallot just makes sense. Altogether, I think this goes up there in the hallowed ranks of the almighty five stars. 5.0 out of 5.0 stars. Get it here.

To make things more awesome, here’s the commercial for this product! It’s the one all the way on the left.

Here’s another.