#12 - Chilli Beef Pot Noodle

• Brand: Pot Noodle
• Flavour: Chilli Beef
• Cost: £1.00
• From: Sainsbury's
• Description: Noodles in a Beef, Tomato and Chilli flavour sauce with vegetables and a little sachet of Hot Chilli sauce.
• Weight: 90g (305g when prepared)
• Allergies: None listed
  
  
                                                Not bad, not great either

As usual with Pot Noodle the packaging is somewhere around 95% recyclable as the only thing that isn't is the sauce sachet contained within. I have noticed one funny thing about their 4 step preparation guide. It's the usual pour, leave, stir, leave, stir thing but step 4 reads as follows "grab fork and dig in". I don't know about you but I use my fork to stir the ingredients, I'd use my finger but my skin doesn't go too well with near boiling water - and they state "It's not rocket science", well clearly but they seem to think we have some alternative stirring implements hanging around. You might, I don't.

The ingredients list doesn't look harmful in any way but you will see potassium carbonate, sodium carbonate, maltodextrin, MSG, disodium 5'ribonucleotides and citric acid in there. For an explanation of what these are why not have a look at the ever-growing glossary page.

“How do they taste?” The answer is alright. The first flavour you get is tomato, not surprising as it's only second by volume in the 'sauce and vegetables' ingredients to water. Then you get a bit of heat coming through which isn't overpowering and allows you to taste the rest of the ingredients. The sweetcorn is sweet and succulent but as for other stand out / definable tastes I'm at a bit of a loss.

“Do they remind me in any way of a chilli beef dish?”  The answer is no! I'm starting to get a bit wound up with the noodle industry now, that's Batchelor's Deli Box, Naked Noodle and now Pot Noodle (that I've come across) who call their products beef flavoured and make ZERO attempt to make it taste beefy. I don't need to see chunks of beef floating around but come on, I'm an omnivore that eats steak, burgers, cottage pie and many more beef based products. I know what beef tastes like and simply telling me it's supposed to taste of beef does not confuse my taste buds into thinking they can taste beef - do you know what might work, a little bit of beef stock dehydrated or even a few sprinkles of a bloody Oxo cube!

“How do I feel now I’ve finished it?” The answer is not bad at all. Little bit of heat dancing around my palette, a belly that feels warm and full and it's woken me up from my mid morning malaise ready to go at the afternoon.

Conclusion – There's something about Pot Noodle that makes it an enjoyable experience, I can't yet work out what it is. Nothing to blow me away here but as I've said throughout, alright, not bad...

Need 4 Noodle Rating: 5/10