Favorite Instant Noodles and/or Ramen

[lion]

Does any one have recommendations for favorite instant noodles or ramen?

I ordered some Japanese Noodles Tonkotsu Ramen Concentration Pork Bone Soup to make at home but looking for other styles and favors. 

Thanks!

[Ericandblueboy]

Have you heard of Ramen Rater?  I've tried some stuff by Prima Taste, Mykuali, A-sha, and Mom's - they are actually pretty good.  One thing though, the spicy Taiwanese stuff can be really hot (too hot for my palate).  

[Tweaked]

Nongshim Shin Ramyun. It's a South Korean brand of instant ramen.  Buy the version that is in plastic wrap not the version in the bowl. The noodles in the bowl version do not cook as well.  They are manufactured differently to rehydrate in hot water vs. being boiled in a pot.

The sodium levels are off the chart. 

It's a widely available brand and I've seen it at H Mart and the Streets grocery store chain in DC. And 7-11. 

Serious Eats has several articles posted about Nongshim.

[Mark Slater]

9 hours ago, Tweaked said:

Nongshim Shin Ramyun. It's a South Korean brand of instant ramen.  Buy the version that is in plastic wrap not the version in the bowl. The noodles in the bowl version do not cook as well.  They are manufactured differently to rehydrate in hot water vs. being boiled in a pot.

The sodium levels are off the chart. 

It's a widely available brand and I've seen it at H Mart and the Streets grocery store chain in DC. And 7-11. 

Serious Eats has several articles posted about Nongshim.

The Nongshim "Black" has good flavor. 

[lion]

No I hadn't heard of Ramen Rater, appreciate the link, Eric. 

Thanks for the recommendations folks! Will definitely be considering them after the first round of ramen.

[sandynva]

 Overall, I think it depends on what you’re going for, there are so many flavors and styles. If you’re looking for a vegetarian version that’s close to Shin, nonmgshim makes soon brand Ramen which is very good.   Others in my regular rotation are Indo me nasi goreng ( fried noodle) flavor and Ichiban chow mein flavor.  If you can find them, the spicy beef flavor with cheese that various brands have is  my husband’s favorite  At H Mart in the noodle aisle there’s a section where they sell individual packets. My recommendation to you is to go there and go nuts. I know a lot of people really like Mama brand too, though relatively few of them are vegetarian so I don’t have much experience 

[Tweaked]

My vegan SIL eats the Soon vegetable ramen. 

[dwt]

I don't have wide-ranging experience with this, but I generally enjoy Mike's Mighty Good, available at WF. It's not instant, as in the just-add-boiling water type. The noodles need to be cooked and then the spice and sesame oil packs are added when the noodles are done. Kimchi and tonkatsu are my preferred flavor variants. And I can't resist "enhancing" with an egg or soy sauce or chopped scallions or all three additions.

Now I'm looking forward to trying the other versions mentioned above -- thanks. 

[TedE]

Sun Noodles frozen ramen packs.  Not "instant" noodles, and there is slightly more work to prepare (noodles and base prepared separately), but they are far superior to any dried noodle brand I've tried.  Flavor options seem to be limited to miso, shoyu, tonkatsu and tan tan (the "spicy" one that isn't really spicy).  If you have another preferred soup base you can just get packs of the frozen noodles without packets.  I've found them locally at Hana Market and some Wegmans.

[lion]

On 7/16/2020 at 3:58 PM, sandynva said:

 Overall, I think it depends on what you’re going for, there are so many flavors and styles. If you’re looking for a vegetarian version that’s close to Shin, nonmgshim makes soon brand Ramen which is very good.   Others in my regular rotation are Indo me nasi goreng ( fried noodle) flavor and Ichiban chow mein flavor.  If you can find them, the spicy beef flavor with cheese that various brands have is  my husband’s favorite  At H Mart in the noodle aisle there’s a section where they sell individual packets. My recommendation to you is to go there and go nuts. I know a lot of people really like Mama brand too, though relatively few of them are vegetarian so I don’t have much experience 

Thanks for the H Mart tip Sandynva! Was able to pick several of the recommended options this morning at the H mart in Merrifield to try out over the next couple of weeks. Looking forward to having a bit different favor.