Ramen Review Part 1: Nissin Top Ramen

Growing up, instant ramen soup was a staple food for whenever school was out, as it was quick and easy to make, cheap, and readily available just about everywhere we went.  In addition, for a family with 3 children who were fairly picky eaters*, it had the rare distinction of being a food that everybody liked (although I did get tired of making it every day for lunch for weeks on end because it was the only thing my sister wanted to eat back when she was too young to use the stove herself**).

That said, we tended to get whatever was available at the nearest store, so I never sat down and did a taste test of the different flavors of ramen out there.  It's been a long time since I've had instant ramen, so I thought I'd do a taste test of the most commonly available flavors from the top brands.  The first taste test I do will be of the Nissin Top Ramen brand ramen, which is the company that originally invented instant ramen in 1958!

When tasting these, I have not modified them in any way; no flavoring or other ingredients have been added, and I've prepared the soups in the manner described on the packaging.

• First Flavor: Beef
  

 I don't recall ever having had this flavor before; the most common flavors I had were usually "Oriental", Chicken, and Shrimp.  That said, this beef ramen has a nice flavor, but not necessarily a "beefy" one; it doesn't taste much like beef or even like a soup made from beef bouillon cubes to me, but I still like how it tastes. The broth is richer than I remember it being (in my memory it always seemed like the broth was somewhat watery), and the noodles have a more "waxy" texture than I remember them having; I wonder if it's just me not accurately remembering the ramen I grew up with, or if they've changed the noodles and sauce mix, or I'm cooking it differently from how I cooked it when I used to make it.  It could also be a difference in brands; I don't think we had this brand as often as we had Maruchan brand ramen. 

• Second Flavor: Chicken
  

This was always my favorite flavor growing up, and the bowl I just had was remarkably similar to how I remembered it.  Unlike the beef ramen, this ramen tastes a lot like chicken soup.  Just like when I had it before, the broth left a yellow rim of "fat" on the edge of the bowl while it was cooling down; also like the chicken ramen of my youth, there were some solid brown flecks of powder, presumably some kind of spices or flavoring that didn't dissolve into the broth (although this bowl seemed to have much less of this powder than it did when I was growing up).

• Third Flavor: Chili 
  

Another flavor that I don't remember ever having before, this ramen definitely had a kick to it.  Interestingly enough, I didn't find the ramen all that spicy while eating it, but there was a strong delayed reaction/lingering spiciness to the broth that really kicked in after eating it.  This ramen had solid flecks of red pepper in the broth, and its taste reminded me a lot of the spicy kimchi ramen I used to get sometimes (the kind that comes in a styrofoam bowl).  This soup and the soy sauce flavored soup are the only vegetarian ramen flavors made by Nissin; all of the other ramen mixes have animal products in them.

• Fourth Flavor: Soy Sauce (formerly called "Oriental")
  

Despite its name, this variety tastes like it has more than just soy sauce as flavoring.  It tastes quite good, if a bit plain compared to flavors like chicken or chili.  In taste, it reminds me of shoyu ramen.  I really don't have more to say about this flavor; while it tastes quite good, nothing about it really stands out compared to the other flavors out there.  Like I mentioned before, along with chili ramen, this is a vegetarian flavor.

• Fifth Flavor: Spicy Beef

Like beef and chili ramen, this was another new flavor for me.  Of all the ramen mixes I've made so far, this mix has by far the most numerous solid flecks in its flavoring mix.  It's spicy, but not as spicy as the chili ramen; like the chili ramen, however, its spiciness has a "delayed reaction" effect.  Spiciness aside, its flavor is quite nice too.

• Sixth Flavor: Shrimp
  

This was my least favorite flavor growing up, but I think it was more because of the smell than the taste.  Of the all of the ramen flavors that I've had for this review so far, the shrimp ramen wins the category of "Most Improved".  It also has the lightest flavor of all of the kinds I've tried for this review, with the broth being much more watery than the other flavors.

Of the Nissin Top Ramen flavors that I've tried, my 3 favorites are chicken, spicy beef, and chili (in that order).  I didn't find any flavors that I actively disliked; even the shrimp flavor was surprisingly good.

And now, here are some interesting facts about Ramen noodles, instant and otherwise:

• Ramen noodles are a Japanese adaptation of Chinese wheat noodles, and as such were for a long time considered a type of foreign food in Japan, even though it wasn't found outside of Japan (it's kind of the Japanese equivalent of General Tso's Chicken, which is thought of as a foreign or Chinese food in America despite being virtually nonexistent in China).
• Ramen consumption increased dramatically in postwar Japan, as one of the poorest rice harvests in Japan's history happened immediately following the end of the war.  This led the Japanese people to eat more American wheat (bread consumption also increased at the same time as ramen consumption).
• Although instant ramen is today one of the cheapest foods available (and its consumption is often used as a shorthand depiction of poverty in fiction), at the time it was invented it was considered a luxury food, costing several times the price of a bowl of ramen from a stall.
• In Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, instant ramen is one of the best rations available, giving the player a high stamina recovery, having a delicious taste, and not spoiling over time (most Snake Eater rations have only 2 of those properties, and some [including the Bigeye Trevally] have none of them). 
• Although instant ramen is often criticized for its poor nutritional value and high sodium content, it is worth noting that creator Momofuku Ando ate a bowl of instant ramen every day from 1958 (when he invented it) until the day before his death in 2007 at the age of 96...

*Foods I refused to eat: onions, peppers, mustard, eggplant.  Foods my sister refused to eat: cheese, other than on pizza.  Foods my brother refused to eat: an ever-expanding list of foods; at random intervals, whatever we were having or going out for that night was suddenly a food he hated (and claimed to have always hated, even if he had eaten that food quite enthusiastically the week before). 

**Typical dialogue:
My sister: "You have to make me lunch!"
Me: "What do you want?"
My sister: "Ramen Soup!"
Me: "I made you that every day for the last week!  Don't you want something else?"
My sister: "I WANT RAMEN SOUP!!!"
Me: "I'll make you anything else that we have!  Don't you want anything other than ramen soup?"
My sister: <long pause> "I want ramen soup!"