my top 10 instant noodles list

in the mysterious and colossal world wide web there exists a list of the top 10 ramen in the world. according to this one man, that is. i shall not reiterate his selection here but my interest was hooked immediately. i have been a fanatic for instant noodles ever since i can remember. a steaming hot bowl of instant noodles was the breakfast that kept me company in the still-dark early morning sky before i hit my teenage years, whilst waiting for my ride to school. it was just me and mr. noodle against the world every morning.

my dream meal will be instant noodle for breakfast, lunch and dinner, the only thing stopping me is the risk of cancer, becoming bald like the basketball and getting so fat i can't get through the door, of course. strange as it is, eventhough one packet packs 400 calories thereabouts, 3 meals of instant noodles make you fatter than any other diet of 1200 calories normally would. it's the "instant noodle arithmetical rule". apparently 1 + 1 does not equal 2 in the world of instant noodles.

so, anyway i set off on my quest to personally try all of the top 10. to make this guy's list, it must be heaven we are talking about. after much looking about, i found No. 2 of the list.

it costs a bomb as compared to the normal instant noodles we have on the shelves of our land. S$11 for 4 packets. the size is bigger, granted, and the packet flavourings are huge! i guess they are trying to convince us that they are worth the money.

verdict: the taste however is not what i had anticipated. there was a tad sweetness to the curry and the coconut (santan) was too overwhelming. upon double-checking i found out that the original critic was a gwailo, and perhaps that explains for the difference in taste. to us asians, and especially malaysians, a sweet curry is like a cardinal sin. they have not been able to capture the rich and aromatic curry sauce that is found in the best curry fish head and curry laksa that is to die for. bwaaaaaaa, such bitter disappointment for the number 1 fan of instant noodle.

i didn't give up though. no one calls themselves no. 1 fan by giving up after just one tasting. i went to the bottom of the list and tried NO. 10. it was a thai tom yam instant noodle.

for those who love it, tom yam is difficult to go wrong with. i am pretty easy to please with my tom yam. during my uni years, i brought a glass bottle of instant tom yam paste to keep me company throughout the difficult initial months when i didn't know how to cook squat. a small spoonful of it into everything made me felt right at home and opened up the appetite immediately.

so they didn't have to try too hard as the word 'tom yam' was already a passing grade in my book. the noodles were fried like our local mamee, which means that technically we can eat it straight as a snack so i tried not to cook it for too long to preserve the bite.

verdict: thanks to poor lighting, my photo wasn't exactly drool-inducing. overall, the instant noodle was fair, leaning slightly towards good, but not something that i will be going back to. i stuck to the exact volume of water i was suppose to use as written on the pack but i found it to be not tom-yammy enough. for a tom yam instant noodle, it was ok. for tom yam soup it failed miserably. maybe because the lemon grass and other ingredients weren't working hard enough and the MSG and preservatives were, or maybe i had too much expectation for a dried instant noodle flavouring. 

so after, reviewing 2 instant noodles, i was bitterly disappointed. i thought i could do better. i definitely preferred my choices more and i thought i will love the opportunity, and excuse, to try other instant noodles in the name of trying to find my top 10.

that was last month. 

one month later........ i have come up with zilch. i keep going back to my favourite few: maggi curry, myojo mee poh dry, korean shin ramyun and my latest, nissin teppan yakisoba japanese fried noodle. nothing beats my favourite and whilst buying other new selection seem like a good idea, when it actually comes to choosing and cooking, my hand will automatically sneak back to the old favourites. can't teach a dog new tricks, or in this case, new taste.

and as for the review, whilst other critics come up with description that will make your mouth salivate in anticipation, i can only sum it up with GOOD, VERY GOOD, OH WOW or EWWWW, NOT SO GOOD. not exactly eloquent.

project: failure. some people are just meant to open their mouth to eat and not to pass review.