Which ramen is the best

For this rankings, I have suffered and my extremities have swelled; my blood pressure has approximately trebled. But I do this for you, dear reader. And for capital-J Journalism. The five distinct flavor packages that come with the noodles are exciting in and of themselves. There are three liquids some oniony oil, a sweet kecap manis, a little chile sauce and two dry sachets the MSG-rich chicken powder and some fried shallots.

They all mix together to become, how do you say, totally and utterly heavenly? The chile sauce gives a tiny bit of heat, and the texture of the crunchy onions really puts it over the top.

Could and would eat daily. Its Penang white curry is one of the best — it has a deep seafood flavor, slightly sweet and almost coconutty. This particular brand of ramen features the beaming, bespectacled face of Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto. The soup is thick, rich and almost schmaltzy. Instructions dictate the soup be mixed separately, and then the noodles added just like real ramen! The slick broth, like a shoyu-shio hybrid, has a gratifying, fatty soy sauce quality.

I really liked it! Another fine Malaysian brand, Ibumie has brought another solid contender to the instant noodle game. The Curry Kapitan flavor brings a strong, distinct profile — cumin, coriander and chile — to create a very satisfying dry noodle. The sweet-spicy combo is done exceedingly well here; the sweetness is deep and caramelly, like brown sugar. Spicy snacks. Candy bars. Domestic beer. Fast food French fries. Breakfast cereal.

Myojo Chukazanmai comes through with an impressive shoyu that balances saltiness and satisfying, fermented beaniness. Liquid seasoning produces nice fat blobs that happily dot the top of the soup. The dense block of noodles requires a bit more cooking time but produces ramen with good texture and a bouncy chew. Entomb me in a giant prawn and bury me at sea.

A prawncophagus, if you will. Every swallow of soup from the Penang Spicy Prawn is deep and briny and tastes like sucking the goopy marrow from the head of a shrimp. The crustacean carnival begins the moment you open the seasoning packet — it gets into your nose immediately. The spice is strong, too, and imparts a rusty red color to the soup. Crunchy fried shallots on top are a welcome touch.

This one tops, by far, the Truth in Advertising ranking. Our hero DJ eventually gets to eat the noodles, and everyone basks in the glow of Mama noodles and the kindly mama herself who prepared them. The shrimp creamy tom yum flavor gives you what you expect in any good tom yum — a vegetal herbiness and a strong, sour bite. Sometimes you just have a hard day, OK? Like the kid in this Maggi noodles commercial , walking home from school friendless and kicking stones in the road, in a scene that closely resembles my life from ages 6 to The masala-flavored Maggi noodles are simple but very satisfying.

Not make-you-popular-at-school good, but enough to take the sting out of those preteen years. The story of how Indomie, an Indonesian noodle brand, came to become a household name in Nigeria is pretty interesting. Like the Indomie in our No. As far as Truth in Advertising goes, a middle-of-the-pack rating is warranted. There are so many different types of the fried noodle dish — Indonesian? Generally speaking, cup noodles sacrifice quality for convenience. There are no messy dishes to schlep out and wash later, but the noodles and accoutrements tend to be a bit spongier and less tasty.

This black pepper crab Cup Noodles is quite good, though, with a powerfully peppery broth and a decent crab flavor. There are flavors and varieties to satisfy any craving — fiery curries of every color; rich, tongue-coating miso soups ; sour, lemongrass-laden broths.

Some options are even packaged in single-serve cups and bowls , offering the promise of not having to do dishes in addition to getting a satisfying meal. With so many options, you may find yourself asking, Which instant noodles are the absolute best?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, each person had their own favorite noodles, none of which came up more than once; the recommendations were just as diverse down to the brands, only one of which was recommended by two experts. Even these categories are imperfect — some soupy noodles would count as spicy or even saucy, depending on how you prepare them — but they should be helpful for those who already have an idea of what they like.

One thing all of our noodle know-it-alls agreed on, however, is that instant noodles only get better when you doctor them up. No serious discussion of instant noodles can take place without the opinion of Lucas Kwan Peterson, the food columnist for the Los Angeles Times. We do that at the restaurants, too — lots of black pepper in our broths. While these instant noodles are traditionally prepared as a soup, Poonsukwattana says she instead uses them in a noodle salad in an effort to eat healthier.

She adds shrimp, shallot, lemongrass, mint, and lettuce to the cooked and strained noodles and swaps out the tangy seasoning packet for a citrusy fish-sauce dressing. If your eyes slightly popped at the price, know that the pack of noodles comes with a long-handled spoon you can use to prepare them. Food writer Cathy Erway, author of The Food of Taiwan , pointed us to these noodles that come with an extra ingredient to make the dish, well, extra. Usually, Shoyu ramen has curly noodles, and the meat or vegetable stock gives it a delicious, tangy flavor.

Photo: aiko. The coloring and consistency come from the boiling of pork bones and fat on high heat for many hours for some places, this means up to 20 hours. Some even say that tonkotsu broth is as creamy as milk. Throw some ginger on this buttery broth and curl up with a good book.

This salty broth is considered the oldest of the ramen broths. Typically, a shio broth is made with chicken or pork base. Often, shio ramen contains quite a lot of seaweed. If you have issues with sodium, this would be the ramen to avoid. Developed in Hokkaido, Japan in the s, this broth is considered the youngest of the ramen broths.