There is often a surprise or two at the local asian markets for instant noodles. This time I found the SOON Veggie Noodle Cup from Nongshim and the King of Noodles XO Sauce flavoured bowl noodle from Nissin. I never expected to see the Nissin one as it is for the Chinese market and not out of Hong Kong like most of the Nissin products you find in the Asian supermarkets.
If you live in Edmonton, I recently visited a couple of new ramen shops in town and also reviewed an izakaya that I like quite bit here.
SOON Veggie (vegan) Noodle Cup from Nongshim
Nongshim is on a roll these days for me. This is the second of their cup noodles that were produced in the United States like their Seafood cup noodle that I like. The SOON cup noodle is a vegan veggie cup noodle so there are none of the seafood or animal extracts used for flavouring. This particular cup noodle has plenty of flavour with an asian tasting veggie/soy broth that has plenty of veggies inside it too.
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| The attractive presentation for the cup noodle. Nice and green to indicate veggies? The picture shows the broth with a reddish hue, but it really isn't that spicy (there is black pepper). |
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| The lid. |
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| Nutritional profile. Much like a typical cup noodle for salt and fat. |
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| You can see there are plenty of ingredients inside and a seasoning packet. I like that there are freeze dried shitake mushroom pieces in it along with carrot, green onions, and corn. |
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| Everything rehydrated nicely with boiling water. |
This particular cup noodle was nice as it reminded me a bit about the limited edition Vegeta Cup Noodle from Nissin that was overboard on vegetables. The noodles were nice, with a more robust flavoured soy / veggie broth than I expected and I think the pepper adds to the kick in it. Still, it isn't overly spicy and very enjoyable. The good sized pieces of mushroom were a bonus. I'll keep a few of these handy and give it a two thumbs up.
King of Noodle XO Sauce Flavoured Bowl Noodle
There were a few varieties of King of Noodle at the shop I found them in, but I thought I would just try one of them. I thought it was a Chinese brand, but then saw the Nissin logo on the side, so I'm not sure if Nissin bought the company or if the name is just a common description. XO Sauce is a spicy, rich, kind of seafood sauce that is popular in Hong Kong and the southern parts of China, and it does make for a tasty noodle soup.
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| The packaging before shrink wrap removal. |
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| I have pictures of the shrink wrap as there is printing on the wrap that makes the bowl look more attractive on the shelf with dragon motifs and such. |
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| You can see the labeling and dragon motifs more clearly in this shot. Chinese best before dates are usually a year from the manufacturing date that is shown? |
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| Nutritional info, directions and ingredients are on the bottom side of the wrap. |
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| The lid with the wrap removed. |
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| There were lots of ingredient packets inside. There was a fork (wohoo!!!), dried ingredient pack with seafood bits and dried veggies, a dry seasoning pack, and the wet XO sauce packet. The noodles are more of the dried type and not the deep fried variety. |
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| This noodle re-hydrated in four minutes, but I left it a little longer. It is a nice looking noodle bowl. |
So the soup was a bit zippy with a strong seafood flavour and the noodles had a firm texture to them. This noodle bowl was pretty good overall and certainly does hit the spot.
For more of my instant ramen posts
visit this link on my Japanese Pop Culture Page.
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