(Nissin Cup Noodle Assari Oishi Kappu Nuudoru | Ready and Tasty Cup Noodles)
General Description
I've been eating - I mean reviewing a lot of sweets lately, so let's look at something on the savoury side. We got a big one today too. It's Nissin's Cup Noodle! Nissin's Cup Noodle are the instant cup noodles in Japan, much like Mr. Noodles in Canada. However Cup Noodle is way more grand and significant!
This instant noodles series is believed to be the first cup noodles. Cup Noodle and modern instant noodles were invented by Momofuku Ando of Nissin. This is a greatly shortened overview of its history, but next time you enjoy cup noodles, give a little thanks to Ando!
Moving to the products we are review today, we have the 3 basic flavours: original, seafood, and curry. The original has your standard soup with shrimp, pork, scrambled egg, and green onions. The seafood has a pork and seafood soup with squid, crab-flavoured kamaboko, scrambled eggs, cabbage, and green onions. The curry has a mild curry soup and pork, potato, carrots, and green onion.
To make these noodles, open the lid to the halfway point. Fill it with 310ml~ of hot water and close the lid. Wait 3 minutes and then enjoy! The package makes special mention to not prepare the noodles in the microwave. Nissin Cup Noodles are sold abroad, so if you're interested, you can try and find some!
Whew, this got a bit long. Onto the main course! Let's jump in!
Review
- Price
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117 JPY (1 cup) - Taste
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For all three flavours, the noodles are flat and thin, so they mix well with the soups. They're pretty light tasting. They don't have a super strong "instant noodles" taste. The soup is not too salty.Starting with the original, the shrimps tastes really nice. They taste like a spring roll. The pork is amazing too! It tastes like little meatballs. The onions add a nice accent. I really like the toppings on this one. I think the soup is a bit saltier than the others, but still not too much. It is much more "standard cup noodle broth" than the seafood.
Moving onto the seafood flavour, the calamari taste is pretty strong. I'm not big on calamari, taste or texture-wise, but this was fine. The soup doesn't have an overwhelming seafood taste. It's very slightly creamy in my opinion. It mixes well with the other flavours though. It's nice and hearty.
Finally the curry flavour. Fortunately for me, it isn't spicy. It's very mild but not sweet. The potato tastes fried rather than boiled, like tiny potato wedges. The onions and chives manage to stick out and add some depth to the flavour. This one is okay. It's just noodles in very thin curry soup.
- Texture
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The noodles are soft but not mushy.
The shrimp and beef and soft enough to bite through but are still solid. The egg definitely has that re-hydrated egg squishiness to it, but it's not bad.
The squid bits are squishy. I don't like the texture of squid, but this one is manageable for me. The cabbage is hard and crunchy.
The potato have a crispy shell, like wedges.
- Smell
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The regular one has a slight broth smell. The seafood noodles has a strong seafood smell. It lingers in the air for quite a bit. The curry has a strong curry smell.
- Overall
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I know I compared these to Mr. Noodles, but these are much better. They aren't super salty and have nice toppings that make them feel like more of a meal. 1 cup is pretty filling for me too. The original is my favourite. The toppings are just so tasty! I like the seafood flavour's soup, but I'm not a fan of squid. Personally, I don't really care for curry soups, I rather just eat curry. I felt like it had the least amount of toppings too. But don't let that stop you from trying it!If you can get your hands on a cup, I recommend trying some!
- Would I try again?
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Already have! I have a bunch in my cupboard. They're my go-to lazy lunch.
