#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

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!

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…

#345: Myojo Charmela Shoyu Noodles With Soup

This is one of those that I’ve only found in 5 packs and had to go ahead and get it. Been so curious about this one and I mean the packaging is probably one of the coolest I’ve seen yet. I wish this guy would come to my town and toot on his trumpet – I’d gladly buy a bowl of noodles from him! I think I can say happily, “screw the ice cream man – this guy’s way cooler.”

So the guy with the cart and the pet cat brought two packets to the party as you can see…

I’m not sure what’s up on this one – whether it is soup base and shoyu flavor or what.

Boiled a couple eggs with the noodles. It seemed a good idea. So I liked these noodles. They were firm enough and tasty. The broth had a nice shoyu flavor. If I were to give these noodles a single word to describe them it’d be ‘traditional.’ 3.5 out of 5.0 stars.

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