Noodles: ramen, soup, fried noodles, instant ramen, all noodleheads

Here's a new noodle/ramen thread for the noodleheads. Post all your ramen here.

I posted these ridiculous gourmet instant ramen in the Epic WTF thread:

Found them in the local Asian supermarket. They feature...
1) 960 calories!
2) A sachet of Chinese river snail soup, pickled vegetables and a bag of ‘wood ear’ in drinking water.
3) Ingredients specifically labelled as ‘edible’.

@Muppetteer said:

This needs a photo update once prepared.

@jb000 said:

I'm interested. Wish my local had some

@Mukashi said:

I've been thinking about making a noodle thread for a while.

@eskay in reply to @jb000

We have a large Chinese supermarket in Bristol and there is a whole aisle dedicated to this kind of thing.

@Sumo in reply to @Jonny69

Next time you're in the shop look out for Chapagetti. They're the best by a mile.

Let's make these ones then. First, let's get this out onto a tray. Nice!

On the left are the noodles. Top row L-R: Jew's ear bag, pickled bamboo shoots, vinegar bag. Bottom row L-R: pickled cowpea & pickled radish bag, fried peanuts & yuba bag, chilli oil. Right hand side is the river snail soup bag.

These are a bit more involved than the usual instant ramen. The noodles need to be boiled for quite a lot longer, drained and the water changed, then add the soup and cook for a bit longer, then dump in the sachets and serve.

I'm going to be making this in the microwave at work in my 'work ramen' Pyrex, which I think you'll agree is perfect for square packs of instant ramen:

The noodles themselves are more like spaghetti in size and there's a lot of them:

It looks a bit more appetising with the other ingredients added with some kind of attempt to make it look like the packet:

I had a little taste of the sachets before putting them on.
-The Jew's ear. I think this is a mushroom and it's actually called 'wood ear'. Pretty much tasteless and slightly squelchy in texture.
-Pickled bamboo shoots. Pinky red in colour and was quite like kimchi. Tasty.
-Vinegar bag. Didn't try this by itself because why would you.
-Pickled cowpea & pickled radish bag. Not familiar with either of these ingredients. It was kind of like green beans and a white root vegetable, lightly pickled and quite tasty with a bit of pickle crunch.
-Fried peanuts & yuba bag. Peanuts in skins which tasted like roasted peanuts. Yuba is kind of like a poppadum in texture but mostly flavourless.
-Chilli oil. Didn't try this by itself but probably should have...
-River snail soup bag. Savoury, salty and sweet, tasty but an unfamiliar taste, hints of star anise.

First thing that hit me was the chilli oil. It was HOT, and I reckon these are hotter than any other instant ramen I've had including some Thai ones. So I wish I hadn't dumped all the chilli oil over the top in one go. The flavour is quite nice. It's got that familiar instant ramen soup base kind of background, but an unfamiliar taste which I guess is the river snail. I liked it at first but about halfway through it was becoming unpleasant. And that's probably fine, because it's a huge portion and I was done by halfway through and put the rest in the fridge for later.

The aftermath is it's everywhere. It's splattered my desk, keyboard, work laptop, it's splattered all over me, my office stinks and my fingers still smell of it. Would I get them again? Well, probably not these ones but I'm glad I tried them. Also at £6.50 they're an occasional treat rather than an everyday eat.