Buyer's Compendium

IndoMie is the top selling and favorite brand of Indonesia. Its brands of instant noodle commonly share a very distinctive Indonesian’s taste which you can quickly learn to tell apart from any others. Many indonesians have grown up on IndoMie’s and are quite fond of it still, unlike here in the U.S. where its generic stuffs become the object of distaste later in life.

Instant Noodless were first introduced in Indonesia by Supermie in around mid 1970s, then Indomie came along and grabbed market shares with its legendary Indomie Mie Goreng (fried moodle) flavor, which is still one of the best selling Indomie flavor even after all these years.

Indomie is so popular among Indonesians, that many street vendors are selling boiled Indomie (Indomie rebus) with or without extras. If you live in Indonesia but haven’t tasted Indomie, then you are not an Indonesian, it’s as simple as that.

Read the rest of this page »

Buyer's Compendium

MAMA brand instant noodles is produced by Thai President Foods Public Company Limited, founded in 1972 through a joint venture between Taiwan – providing manufacturing technology expertise and the local company - responsible for marketing and distribution. After the first year, all the shares were transferred to Thai shareholder who remains as the major shareholder.

Aided by strategic joint ventures with other global companies that included Nissin Foods Co., Ltd., Myojo Foods Co., Ltd., and Danish Fancy Foods Group Co., Ltd., the company has achieved a renowned standard of excellent in the industry.

MAMA brand globalization and agressive product introduction will certainly be felt here more in the future. It has introduced many bold new products, including a new taste for instant noodles “MAMA NOODLES TOM YUM FLAVOUR (Green tea).” Its instant noodles generally reflect Thai’s love for its hot & sour “yum” flavor that is so characteristic of Thai cuisine.

Buyer's Compendium

Vietnam Food Industries Joint Stock Company (state-owned VIFON), established in 1967, is the country’s leading manufacturer of instant noodles. Its specialty in rice noodles makes perhap the best instant rice noodles due to the high regard for rice noodles in Vietnamese cuisines.

The company use Vietnamese traditional food for its strategy to enter the market. It tries to create its own flavors using local ingredients in its authentic products. The company shipped its first batch of instant pho to the U.S. in late 1995 for free trial was an “instant” success. While it enjoy increasing sales every years, it have not yet penetrated into potential markets, as it has not yet tapped advantage of rice-based instant food or has any effective marketing strategies due to its use of exclusive oversea distributors.

The most notable thing in VIFON’s products, is the delicious cooked fish stock in retort pouch that is the only example of it from any manufacturers that we know of.

Buyer's Compendium

Nissin Foods was founded in 1948 by the instant ramen inventer, Momofuku Ando, from a backyard workshop. In 1958, it marketed “Chicken Ramen”, the first instant ramen - at 6 times the cost of fresh Japanese noodles!

In 1970, Nissin Foods USA was established to introduce “Top Ramen” to the United States and, as the saying goes, the rest is history.

Nissin Foods is still the No. 1 maufacturer of instant food in Japan. The company manufactures products for the North American market at its two plants in California and Pennsylvania. While it does make many kinds of instant noodle oversea, the retail networks here have a relatively limited selection as of this writting.

Buyer's Compendium

Nong Shim, founded in 1965, is one of the best known ramen brand locally and is very well regarded, as none of its ramen we have listed were bad. Its Shin’s labels are the hottest spicy ramen we know of.

In 2005, Nong Shim America opened its 268,000 square feet manufacturing and distribution facility in Rancho Cucamonga, California. Nong Shim is considered to be the largest Asian noodle manufacturer in the world with plants throughout Korea and other part of Asia.

With original inventories finally gone near the end of 2005, we are getting the popular Shin Ramen from its American facility, which added beef flavoring to it, in line with the rest of the Shin brands. The most notable sign of the change is the use of “Gourmet Spicy” instead of “Hot & Spicy” on its package.

We starting to see more products switched over to California’s, but not everyone welcome the switch, as dedicated fans of the original imports will notice that the tastes have changed a bit quickly. The one manufactured here have been reformulated to use less MSG and ironically, many complain about a loss in taste. Other important ingredients like Shiitake mushroom pieces seem to be more skimpy too.

Buyer's Compendium

Samyang Food is the oldest Ramen brand in Korea. Founded in 1924, it first made ramen in 1963. Today, it’s runned by a second-generation entrepreneur who is 3rd among the 13 in his family, his second elder brother was a former prime minister.

While not as notable as its rival Nong Shim brand here, it’s a first-class brand in Korea. We’re starting to see newer items from Samyang recently. Its ramen represent the milder side of Korean’s ramen, though some are spicy hot.

Buyer's Compendium

Regular instant ramen noodles are made from wheat flour without egg, precooked and then quick fried to dry. This is how instant ramen was invented and the first “instant” noodle even had pre-flavored noodles - no needs for any seasoning packets.

Fried instant noodles is actually relatively low compared to many common foods for percent of calories from fats (this is not the Daily Value which can not be used for direct comparison between products, a common misconception!):

• fried instant noodle - 30%
• doughnut - 55%
• boiled egg - 60%
• beef frank - 80%

These numbers seem high, but that because you’re used to seeing the Daily Value’s only - the plain truth is that the typical diets of Americans already have more than 30% of calories from fat and it’s hard to do even a little less than this without a very restricted diets!

Newer instant noodles are breaking the mold, with many kinds of noodles developed to cook quickly. Even the air-dried noodles cook very quickly.

Ramen pros expect the noodles to have a good chewy texture and traditionally this is made by adding kansui, or alkali water (calcium and potassium carbonate) to the flour. A more modern method is to add a thickener such as tapicoa starch to it. This generally work well for thick white noodles like Japanese Udon and Korean style noodles.

The original instant noodle type does not need preservative to keep up to a year under optimal condition before there is a noticeable change in its taste. It can also be eaten as is, i.e., dried.