Interesting article...

What's the deal with ramen noodles? This article from The Straight Dope website contains a lot of cool information about how ramen is made and some of its history. Worth a quick read.
Check it out!

HERE

Indomie Special Fried Curly Noodles

Country of Origin: Indonesia
Bought at Super Oriental Market

"Curly noodles? What the hell?" you may be thinking. Well think about it for a minute. They are curly, and they are noodles. It's just what ramen noodles are called in some parts of the world. These particular ones are part of Indomie's special noodles that come in special packaging and are supposed to be better than the standard stuff. Let's see how they stack up.

This is supposed to be like Mi Goreng on steroids. It's got essentially the same spices, soy sauce, chili sauce, white and brown goop, and some veggies. If you compare this noodle block to other Indomie blocks you'll see a difference in the way the noodles look.

That looks a-pretty tasty! This stuff is really, really good. It came out a little bit too salty but the quality and awesome texture of the noodles makes up for it. It tastes very similar to the regular Indomie Mi Goreng so you'll know some of what to expect, just with better noodles. Can't go wrong with this one. 9/10.

Nongshim Kal Guk Soo Korean Style Noodle Soup

Country of origin: Korea
Bought at Choi's Oriental Foods in Huntsville, AL

This one may win an award for best noodle name. KAL GUK SOO!! That's just damn fun to say. I wish I could get excited about these in some other way but I've already tried them as I write this review... you'll see what I mean in a minute.

So here's the sorta funky looking noodle block and two packs of stuff. I don't like it when I see this style of noodle in a pack of ramen because I tend to associate it with low quality ramen like the Payless Pancit Shanghai or the Vifon Pho Bo. I am reminded, however, that I am the Ramenator and must prevail for the ramen munchers everywhere.

So I cook it up. It took about 5 minutes in the microwave for the noodles to get tender enough to where I'd even consider eating them. Not a good sign. Then I pull it out the microwave and smell what I'm about to ingest and am hit in the face with the smell of stank-fish. I had to hyphenate that to get an accurate amount of stank across. Have you ever smelled stanky fish? Then you know what these smell like. And guess what? They taste like stank fish, too. Yuck and double yuck. Don't get these. Shame on you, Nongshim. You make so many delicious varieties of noodles but this one slipped by your quality control. There may be some out there somewhere that enjoy these. God help you. These are nasty as hell. 0/10.

Samyang LeebaikYang Ramen

Country of Origin: Korea
Bought at Choi's Oriental Foods in Huntsville, AL


I was in Huntsville a couple weeks ago for my very sweet aunt Charlsie's funeral (RIP) and had some time before the funeral so I found some noodle joints on the internet and headed to the nearest one. Choi's is a nice store, not huge but has a lot of stuff crammed in there. I picked up a sacka noodles while I was there and this is one of the ones that I got. I had never seen this one before, I think it may be new. It's made by Samyang so I'm expecting it to be good.

Everything on the package other than what you could see in the first pic is in Korean, including everything on the packs. The green one is a veggie pack and the read one is seasoning that kinda looks and smells like paprika and pepper. The noodles are kinda thick, not as much as the Neoguri that I reviewed recently but a little thicker than standard noodles. Me likey.

So here ya go. Looks pretty standard. When you let this one sit for a few minutes the noodles soak up a lot of the soup and it makes it taste about 20 times better! It kinda tastes beefy, but doesn't taste like the regular Samyang ramen... as in not as good. It is ok though, nothing special, but not great. It does have more vegetables than most ramens do, though it's mostly green onions and carrots. I'd get the regular old Samyang beef ramen over this stuff any day. I'm giving this one a 6/10.

Indomie Soto Mie Flavor

Country of Origin: Indonesia
Bought at Super Oriental Market

It's been a little while since the last update. I started going back to school so less time for ramen. Not to say I probably won't be eating more of it since that's what you do when you're in college. Anyway, here's an Indomie noodle I haven't tried yet and theirs are usually pretty dang good so of course my hopes are high. Here goes!

Pretty standard Indomie package. Chili powder, spices, and BUMBU sauce!! The secret's in the bumbu. I have no idea what soto mie is or what it may taste like but only one way to find out!

OK, so looks pretty standard for Indomie noodles. Upon the first taste I was attacked by a barrage of salt and lime, so I've dubbed this the Margarita of noodles. Just add tequila!
Seriously, though, these are quite possibly the saltiest noodles I've ever eaten. They taste kinda like the Kalamansi flavor Pancit Canton I tried a while back, but these are just flat out not as good... in fact there is just too much salt in these to the point where it makes them not good at all. The Lucky Me noodles would beat these hands down any day of the week. Less salt would make these passable, but I have to say I'm kinda disappointed in Indomie for these. 3/10.