Nissin Top Ramen, chili flavor

Long time no see! I'm really hungry so we'll see how this goes. Possibly even more incoherently than normal. Sorry.

First things first: I have now had hits from 33 states, possibly more if the "not set" hits were from other places.  I am dominating! Such is the power of Google. Go me. However, that means I'm still missing 17. (Nevada, I'm looking at you.) I shall let you know when I have hit all fifty and there will certainly be a great celebration.

I found the elusive chili ramen at Meijer. I normally shop at Kroger, which has a fairly meager selection of ramen; the aisle at Meijer easily blew Kroger out of the water. There were a lot of interesting things to be had, and with my recent "man I really need to eat better" kick it resulted in a strange basket full of broccoli, bell peppers, rice, and the like... and various kinds of ramen. I feel like this blog is impeding my ability to eat healthfully but I'm in this for the long haul now.

Let's get down to it...


I like spicy things, although I'm a complete wimp. I will take a bite and then complain and consume gratuitous amounts of liquid and blow my nose because the flames melted all my snot and then I'll feel fine, just complainey, and the cycle will start all over again. I don't know why or how I enjoy it, but I do. This, combined with the weird urge I've had to cook some noodles and dump chili over them to see what it tastes like, led me to be quite intrigued with this particular ramen. I don't plan on reviewing all of the different flavors of Top Ramen- this one is an exception mostly because I felt like it.

Take a look at the package. It has flames! That's how you know this is going to be spicy. Packaging doesn't lie. The "serving suggestion" includes peppers and limes. I don't understand the lime bit, but what really gets me is the number of whole peppers they have on this thing. If it's so spicy, why is adding this much spice necessary? Maybe packaging DOES lie. I tried not getting my hopes up whilst I cooked this normal-Top-Ramen style, which worked well, probably because it IS normal Top Ramen.

I sat down at the table across from one of my coworkers, let's call him Jimmy, and started to stir the seasoning onto the (drained) noodles. Now, Jimmy had been having a rough day. He was frustrated with his inability to finish the prescribed tasks, and was not looking forward to facing his supervisor. I don't know if that affected his opinion when he told me the seasoning smelled "strong," but I figured it was a good introduction to Jimmy, we might hear more out of him later. And with that, I took my first bite...

...and freaked out. HOT. SPICY. OHMYGOODNESS. I floundered for a second, grabbed my water bottle, and poured water down my throat while Jimmy basically said "told you so" and instructed me to get something else to drink. My choices were Mountain Dew or Coke Zero. I went with the latter (I don't know why) and it did help a little. I was sufficiently cooled down and ready to take another stab at it... and it wasn't nearly as bad. I don't know if I had stirred poorly or if I had burned off the hotness-receptors on my tongue, but it was actually edible. The taste wasn't bad, quite pleasing actually, once I got over that initial burst of Satan dancing in my mouth. I ate it happily.

The only other complaint I had was that they put weird things in it, like crushed red pepper. It made the texture unusual- I wasn't expecting it. It didn't taste funny, though, and I don't know why it weirded me out so badly. I like tradition, I suppose?

Pros: Easy, cheap, tasty. etc etc etc.
Cons: Spicy! Oh goodness the spiciness. Oh, and the weird things in it.
Final score: 4/5