The Cheap Reviewer

After a light lemongrass soup, I was craving for something more...substantial and hearty for my next ramen. I headed in the cup noodles section and found this little guy: No translation anywhere on the cup, no pictures of ramen, not even instructions in english! Only this wierd picture of what seems like some veggies in some brown sauce. Mabe pork? I was completely intrigued and bought the cup even though it was a little bit over my usual very cheap budget. contents included: -The noodles, wrapped on their own (what a waste of plastic!). They were pretty large for ramen noodles! -Some very bright orange sauce. I hope it's not too spicy... -Soy sauce? -2 packets with some dry stuff in them. There were veggies drawings on the side -a sick foldable fork! Now, without instructions, I just cooked the noodles, drained some of the water since there was a lot of other sauces, and added the ingredients. This is the final result: What a me

In my recent trip to chinatown, I was looking for some light ramen to warm me up in this dreaded canadian winter. I stumbled on this packet in a grocery store, on sale for 50 cents. Fun little remark: in english, the pack says it's sour soup, but in french right under it, it says it's lemon flavour. Anyway, it sure satisfied my cravings! Now let's see what's in that pack. Well...except for the noodles, we have...this grainy mess of a packet. That's it, nothing else! Usually packets with that kind of texture are garlic oil packets, but they usually also have another packet for broth! Oh well that suspicious packet better be filled with some tasty stuff! Now going back to the noodles. I wanted to point out to you guys how...dark they looked I've never seen anything like it! And here's what they look like once cooked: This is JUST the noodles and water. Nothing else was added. Now it was time to add the mystery packet.

Let me tell you a story.... I was supposed to do this ramen review later in the week. But this morning, my sleepy self took a pack of this god-forsaken ramen for work by mistake, instead of my favorite black garlic and pork one. I prefer doing the reviews at home, so I can add some stuff to the noodles if they need a little boost (or so I can outright throw them in the trash if they're nasty). But since I'm at work, I can't do any of that, and I do not have a second lunch. So let's cross fingers! If you follow my blog, you maybe stumbled on my Pancit Canton review, which was the worse score I gave so far. When I saw this 4-pack of tomato ramen for 1$ (extremely cheap here), I knew this was a competitor for the worse score. The pack didn't wait to disapoint! Expept the noodles, there is only a single pack of powdered sauce. No oil, no dried veggies. Just this sad little pack But hey it's written in 2 languages! You may notice there'

A little 70cent ramen pack I got recently! I thought chicken flavor would be a safe for for a company I never heard of. And who knows, maybe the onion part will bring an interesting twist! Looks like a basic ramen pack . Oh well, let's open! Except the noodles, the pack has garlic oil, seasoning and chili powder I was surprised at how the noodles colored the water they cooked in! There seems to even be a little oily film on top of said water. Speaking of oil, I started by mixing in the garlic oil in the noodles. It seems like a standard flavoring so that's good! And in goes the seasoning! Smells like the usual chicken powdered broth. That is the powdered chili packet...I was kinda disappointed at how little there was! The spicy lovers probably shouldn't buy this brand... And here's the completed ramen! And now for the taste... The broth was pretty much a normal chicken ramen broth. The onion flavor was really discreet but a

Today's ramen is Nissin's pork and black garlic ramen!  I usually really like pork ramen, but with Nissin it's really hit or miss when it comes to taste/quality.   I bought a 6-pack of these for around 4$, so I hope they're good! Let's see how it is! Except the noodles, the pack contains a soup base and the garlic oil. So far, pretty classic. I wish there was some dried veggies! In goes the soup base. It smells pretty good already. It's off to a good start! and now the garlic oil! Traditionally it's black garlic pieces in some white ''oil'' , but here it's just black oil. It strongly smells of roasted garlic and sesame oil, I love it! Sadly, this little splurt is all that was in the packet...  As you can see, the oil doesn't mix with the sauce, it just pools around And now for the taste... I really enjoyed this ramen, but I would've liked the oil to be more present, I almost don't taste

On my last ramen run in chinatown I decided to splurge and take one of these ramen ''bowls''. Usually I keep my ramen budget in a 0.50$-2$ range and this lil' purple tube here was around 3$. Let's check it out! I never tasted pickled vegetables, even less in a ramen. Also, I didn't take a good angle to show it, but the bowl was littered with pictures of KungFu Panda. The only way I could know what I was eating was through this translated label as all the rest isn't in english. Alright, let's open up! Except the noodles we have as follow: chili paste, powdered beef broth, dehydrated veggies and meat, pickled veggies and a foldable fork I must say I find the foldable fork super neat! powdered broth goes in first. Smells like a normal beef ramen broth. So far so good! Yikes! I wasn't expecting that from the pickled veggies! The smell isn't bad but the look and slimy texture surprised me. In goes the chili paste! I&