#3 - Naked Noodle Hot & Sour Ramen Noodle Soup

• Brand: Naked Noodle
• Flavour: Hot & Sour
• Cost: £1.00
• From: Sainsbury’s
• Description: Instant hot and sour soup with noodles, dried vegetables and chilli powder
• Weight: 55g (355g when made up as per instructions)
• Allergies: Wheat Gluten, Celery, Soya
  
  
                                           Lovely, from the outside...

 

No Need Naked Noodle!

I've never been to New York but whenever I see a New Yorker on tele have an Asian meal it always comes in these cute little cardboard boxes. This is the style of packaging which from the outside made me smile but on the inside made me a bit cross. You see inside the box is an almost plastic type cardboard cup containing a plastic wrapped noodle block, a sachet of the seasoning (you know that kind of metallic paper) and a plastic wrapped fork. WHY??? There has to be a more ecologically sound way of packaging these ingredients and why is there a fork in there at all? a) These tiny, two piece plastic forks are useless; b) If you want packaged noodles, bring your own fork!

So then it comes to preparation following the 6 part (yes 6 part) instructions on the box. They are essentially the same as any other instructions with a couple of exceptions. The first of these is when it says "Fill to 20mm from the brim of the cup". Now then, there are a lot of us out there who will be able to estimate this without any trouble but I know there are also a lot of people who will have no idea what 20mm looks like. The second exception comes when you have to fold the cardboard box up while the boiling water does its thing, it's just different and therefore I like it.

“How do they taste?” The answer is pretty sweet which isn't that surprising when the top ingredient in the seasoning is sugar. When I've enjoyed hot and sour soup in the past (like this one here with chicken for example) it's because it has been, well, hot and, you might find this hard to believe, sour. This was neither. Yes I can pick up the chilli but it's certainly not hot and I detect nothing sour in there. I'm not saying that it's a bad flavour, it's just not what I expected.

“Do they remind me in any way of traditional hot and sour soup?”  The answer is no. At least they use wheat noodles but that's about as far is it goes in respect of tradition. If I had to approximate it to another similar dish I'd say it was closer to a Beef & Tomato Pot Noodle than anything else - just with a hint of chilli coming through.  A quick look at the ingredients tells me why, the hot and sour ingredients - citric acid, malt vinegar extract powder (really??) and chilli powder - are 3 of the 5 bottom listed ingredients which means they are amongst the smallest by percentage ingredients in there.

“How do I feel now I’ve finished it?” The answer is aaaallllll riiight but a little heavier than I expect to be after a light lunch.

Conclusion – Not my favourite, I love the packaging from the outside but when you open it up you really get the impression that ecology was not at the top of the list. The flavour is OK but it isn't hot and sour. I don't think I'll be coming back to these until I see something saying "New and Improved" on the lovely box.

Need 4 Noodle Rating: 4/10