*Recommended :: Japanese Brand :: Maruchan | »

A “wafu” cuisine is a Japanese-style fusion of food influences from aboard, particularly Western. It’s also a part of the Japanese fast foods and there is nothing English about it as this package is all Japanese. Mushroom is called “kinoko” in Japanese and yakisoba means stir fried style noodles.

As you can see from the photo below, there are some unfamiliar little shimeiji mushrooms with mostly stem. They kind of tasted like oyster mushrooms. The sauce is a light soy based mushroom flavor sauce with mild spices. There are shreds of nori seaweed on top. The overall taste is delicate and earthy with an oily aftertaste. If you don’t like mushrooms, this one will not suit you.

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Japanese Brand :: Nissin | »

With the high popularity of chili flavored ramen, Nissin had to get into the act with this Korean style chili flavor. It is produced in Hong Kong under license from Nissin. We’re seeing a lot more Nissin labels produced in China.

The noodles tasted and look like the thick Korean style noodles and the reddish chili broth was about medium spicy with a decent Kimchi seafood flavor (seaweed too). It is not as rich in taste as those of Nong Shim - Shin Ramen products though, but it’s cost less and that make it a very good product.

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Japanese Brand :: Nissin | »

This is a Chinese brand licensed by Nissin. Its domestic market prefers a Hong Kong style thin ramen noodle with a crunchier bite.

As prepared, the soup sauce had a milky consistency and tasted a bit like chicken soup with a bit of creamer and codfish broth mixed in. It was very well seasoned with a sesame oil aroma. As expected with this brand, there are lot of soup solids visible, i.e., decorative pinwheel fish cake, vegetables, etc.

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*Best :: Japanese Brand :: Nissin | »

This entree has soba or buckwheat noodles in a soy sauce broth with tempura as garnish. The delicious soy sauce broth is sweet, sharp and well flavored. Soba noodles have a grayish brown color with a soft smooth texture and are a stable in Japan. As a garnish, the tasty tempura offered several textural contrasts to the noodle, soft-crispy-chewy all in one.

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*Recommended :: Japanese Brand :: Shirakiku | »

The Shirakiku namesake is a quality label and is a bit more expensive. The products are first and foremost good foods and never outflavored, like a girl in strong perfume.

“Curry”, an Indian word for sauce, contains distinct blends of spices to create a genuine flavor. The sauce is spicy and aromatic but not hot. It achieves its depth of hotness when hot peppers are added to the dish, so the curry can be spicy and mild at the same time.

As prepared, the curry soup sauce had a mild to medium spicy vegetable curry flavor and fine aroma. I let it soaks in the hot curry sauce a few minutes for tastier noodles. The large flat Udon noodles taste smooth and soft. This one leaves its mark simply for its honest-to-goodness fare.

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*Recommended :: Japanese Brand :: Nissin | »

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XO sauce popularity hits the Asian resturant scene first in Hong Kong’s pricier dinning estatblishment and was named after a popular brandy. It’s usually a combination of dried shrimp, dried scallops, garlic, and other seasonings. Its spicy flavor is used to enhance stir-fried meat, seafood, tofu and vegetable dishes.

The broth was creamy and very tasty, but a bit salty, so avoid it while enjoying the delicious noodles. It has a heavy garlicky shrimp-seafood soy sauce taste. There’s a lot of savory soup sediments, like slices of decorative fishcake, bits of colorful vegetables and other seasonings.

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Japanese Brand :: Nissin | »

This is a Chinese brand licensed by Nissin. Its domestic market prefers a Hong Kong style thin ramen noodle with a crunchier bite.

As prepared, the soup sauce had a milky consistency and tasted a bit like chicken soup with a bit of creamer and codfish broth mixed in. It was very well seasoned. There is a lot of soup solids with the noodle soup.

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Japanese Brand :: Maruchan | »

This entree is similar to its big brother by the same name, however there are differences. Visually, it does not include the small fried bean curd cubes and seaweed pieces in the soup. You get pretty much the same experience enjoying the noodle soup overall, but the flavor is a bit amiss and never quite attains the superior taste of its big brother.

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*Recommended :: Japanese Brand :: Maruchan | »

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Soba noodles are native Japanese noodles made of buckwheat flour (soba-ko) and wheat flour. It is a thin brownish noodle served with various toppings and condiments in hot or cold dishes to reflect the seasons. Soba is so ubiquitous that it can refer to noodles in general. The noodle is springy to the bite and feels silky soft eating.

The tempura burst with delicate sweet flavors and different textures depending on how long it is in the soup and it’ll get very soft if you wait too long. The dried shrimp pieces in the tempura were chewy, but tasted interesting regardless. With so much going on, you almost don’t remember about the other stuffs like the brown chunks of fried tofu (bean curd) and broad green pieces of seaweed. The only drawback about this one is that it has an oily aftertaste.

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*Recommended :: Japanese Brand :: Maruchan | 1 Comment »

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Kitsune Udon is thick Japanese white noodles served with fried tofu. Enjoy while hot, this entree is superb. Bitting a mouthful, you get a succulent sweet burst of hot savory soup and the tender chewy Udon noodles. There are nuggets of scrambled egg too. This is a very satisfying big meal.

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*Recommended :: Japanese Brand :: Sanyo | »

Otafuku is one of Japan’s most popular sauce companies. Otafuku Yakisoba sauce has a subtle sweet tangy fruit flavor. Yakisoba is a stir fried wheat noodle dish with a special sauce and can be eaten either hot or cold. It can almost be described as Japanese junk-food, the Japanese version of hamburgers or whatever.

If this is the first time you had eaten it - it probably went too fast to think much of it, but the more often you eat it, the more you enjoy and understand its taste.

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Japanese Brand :: Shirakiku | »

Miso is a staple in Japan with more than 1,000 brands available, where it’s used to flavor soups, dipping sauces, meats, and dressings. The miso used in this entree has a mild sweet rich smooth nutty flavor.

This is a denser, starchier noodle that Asians enjoy. The soup sauce has a nuttier taste and aroma than the Tokusen Cup Shoyu Ramen. The nutty toasted sesame seeds, sweet kernels of corn and other vegetable really made a different to the perception that you are not just eating noodles.

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Japanese Brand :: Shirakiku | »

The picture actually look like what you get. Shoyu is soy sauce in Japanese and is one of the four basic kinds of ramen. Least you think that this is just a humble flavor then you have guessed wrong. There are more subtle ways to make this basic flavor than you can image.

On opening the lid, the spartan look of the content sets me back a bit. I guess that looks can be deceiving. When prepared, it tasted seductively good as I slurped the soup sauce with the noodle. The flavor was vibrant with a nutty taste of toasted sesame and tangy zing of anchovy, spices and ginger. It is a light sauce, so you need a sip of soup with each bite of noodle. It is a starchier noodle that most Asian likes. The shoyu flavor did not overpower other ingredients and you can taste the chewy kernel of sweet corn, succulent pieces of onion, etc.

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*Best :: Japanese Brand :: Myojo Chukazanmai | 1 Comment »

Canton (now Guangdong) is southern Chinese cuisine, the county’s most disciplined cooking style. Ingredients are usually prepared with a light touch, just enough cooking and seasoning to bring out the natural flavors of foods. In that regard, this entree is really best.

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*Best :: Japanese Brand :: Myojo Chukazanmai | »

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Beijing (Peking, northern cuisine) style emphasize the use of sesame oil with hearty ingredients. In this entree, the robustness of sesame oil integrated nicely with the flavorful dashi seafood soup stock and subtle sweetness of Chinese cabbage. The tasty soup sauce flavors the excellent noodles well for a hearty meal indeed.

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*Best :: Japanese Brand :: Myojo Chukazanmai | 1 Comment »

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Hiyashi chuka or “cold ramen” is a popular refreshing Shanghai-style dish served cold during the summer with a sweet and sour tare dressing, toppings and a little mustard. A particular type of golden yellow noodle is used in this recipe.

Shanghai-style noodle (eastern Chinese cuisine) uses sugar, wines, and vinegars to provide sweet tastes and create subtlety of flavor.

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Japanese Brand :: Nissin | »

The thin noodle needed to be cooked a little under, as it was a too soft for my liking. The nice beefy aroma was promising, however, as I ate the noodle, it was less than deserved and had an unwelcome aftertaste. The seasoning oil could have been left out too. While beef is usually a very popular flavor, this is not one of mine.

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Japanese Brand :: Myojo Chukazanmai | »

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Shisen is Japanese for Sichuan or Szechwan, a spicy hot western Chinese cuisine, so this entry should be spicy indeed… but, it is unexpectedly mild with little chili in the reputed Tobanjan (spicy miso paste) sauce.

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