Nissin Choice Ramen, "slow stewed beef"

Yesterday's post got pushed to today because Real Life. I ate the ramen and took the pictures yesterday about this time. My supervisor told me I was doing a good job at work, though, so deal. Just pretend it's yesterday.



Yes, that DOES say 80% fat free compared to the regular product. Do you see what I go through in the name of reviewing ramen? I'm willing to eat diet ramen for you people.

(No concerns about my health from eating all this ramen have been raised, but rest assured, the rest of my lunch consisted of carrots, an apple, and some Spongebob-shaped Cheez-Its. I'm not going to die quite yet.)

Take note of the pristine packaging. It's not nearly as wrinkly as most cheap ramen- maybe this is where most of the 49-cent cost went. (It surely didn't go towards frying the noodles, because guess what, these noodles aren't fried.)



The back introduces two interesting concepts: endorsement of breaking the clump pre-cooking (why people have objections to this, I'm starting to question) and an expiration date. The expiration date is June 25th. I ate it on the 24th, and purchased it on the 22nd. Now, with the packaging not being manhandled yet being almost past its time, you'd think that somewhere in my mind, some little voice would say, "maybe not this one. Try some other one. There are about twenty other varieties here." However, I was too intrigued to go this route, and here we are.

I opened the package:

Look it's a circle! Never in my experiences have I encountered a ramen disk. I was tempted to throw it to see if it flew well, but this room's really messy, and I didn't want to risk it. It's in its own plastic, too! The ramen was double-wrapped. Yes, I know I could've just thrown the disk in the plastic, but it had a hole. We all remember how much I dislike holes in my packaging, right? I was examining it and little uncooked noodle bits fell out. I was not happy.

Now, some of you may recall me establishing my lack of portable microwave-safe bowl. I went on the assumption that if it didn't specifically establish I could put it in the microwave, I couldn't. I'm super cautious; I've been known to melt through bowls that supposedly work fine in the microwave in under thirty seconds- and don't get me started on other appliances, I set off my smoke detector making a grilled cheese sandwich last Saturday. However, one of my not-exactly-Tupperware portable containers had a clause on its lid about venting if put in the microwave. I then deduced it could, in fact, be microwaved. I dumped some water in it and zapped it for a few minutes to make it hot, then put in the broken up disk for four minutes (instead of the regular three.) The next roadblock to making ramen like normal is an inability to reliably drain it- I don't want to do it in the bathroom and knowing me, I'd either lose half the noodles or burn myself. So I just dumped the seasoning in the water.

I was expecting something terrible because of the lack of delicious delicious fat and sodium, but it wasn't that bad. The noodles had a strange consistency that I can't accurately describe, they just weren't fried. They were also, oddly, darker than normal ramen. I don't see how frying could make noodles lighter, so however they cook these would make a difference. The flavor overall was rather bland, but I'm chalking this up to the seasoning being in the water instead of on the noodles. There was nothing nasty about it whatsoever, and it was actually quite enjoyable. A+.

Pros: Still on the cheap end (under half a dollar), apparently better for you, not terrible, could possibly fly like a Frisbee.
Cons: Not the tastiest thing ever, kind of expensive for brick ramen, eco-un-friendly and holey double packaging, might not actually fly like a Frisbee.
Final score: 3/5