Living in landlocked central Texas I have long given up hope of finding delicate seafood flavors in just about anything freeze dried on the shelf. I have bought packs upon packs of Nissin Raoh from Amazon and some websites ending in ‘.jp’.

Nissin Raoh is the stuff. It was the first instant to blow my mind and the first to blow my wife’s mind. Flavors are killer and the noodles have special layered technology built in to give firmness and ‘bite’.

If ever I needed to impress someone with instant ramen and show them the way, I would send Nissin Raoh. In fact, I did. And I will again.  I would buy these anytime I saw them and never regretted it for a second.

I came across these at my local HEB –  the greatest supermarket in the world. I got excited. The same words, the same colors, the same logo –  WOULD IT BE THE SAME RAMEN?

I finally gave em a test run today. I like non-fried noodles. I like soup sachets that are all liquid. I like directions in English. All signs point to quality. All signs point to good food.

I dressed it up! New bowls! The last of the eggs from last week! I need to trim the green onions! Use them up!

I was disappointed. The miso ramen that Nissin had put out for the Japanese market was MUCH better.  This broth was almost entirely miso-sweet and had no other flavors. Unless I am missing a seasoning packet (I checked) this bowl is not really great.  It tastes overly of sugared miso and of stock but no underlying flavors like garlic or aromatics.

I generally eat most of the broth and save the noodles for baby (she loves noodles) but this time she’s gonna have a healthy dose of noodles.

Its sad that they couldn’t just port the ramen from the Japanese market straight to US without any adjustments. I will be continuing to taste test.