Dare Connoisseur--Japanese Instant noodle

Dare Connoisseur--Myojo Ippei-Chan Yakisoba Japanese Style Noodles

Today, I am very excited to share this item with you which is a Japanese style instant noodles. I accidentally found this "Ramen Rater" guy who did over 1000 instant noodle reviews from all over the world and generate not only "Big List" which is a dynamic ranking list including all of the noodles he tried but also "Top Ten List" which gives a quick start to some good noodles in different categories.

This Myojo Ippei-Chan Yakisoba noodles is #6 in 2013 top ten list. (The original review). And I was attracted initially by the name which literally means "the late night eating diner in a place called Ippei-chan?" I guess...And "Yakisoba" means both a noodle cooking style and the sauce for this type of noodle dish. (Plus the bold design of the wrap! Thumb up!)

Firstly with some fundamental info:

Available shops (Indianapolis, IN): SARAGA international market, Viet Hua Asian market
Flavors choice: This dark sauce version, and a lighter version which is called "Oriental flavor" (I will show the picture at last.)

Price: $2.99 (Kind of expensive...)
Weight: 135g

Calories: 600

The Ingredients list:

I assume you are generally familiar with instant noodle types. If not, they are basically divided into 3 main categories: Steep (doesn't need cooking on stove top, just pour boiling water and soak for several minutes); Boil (require short stove top cooking, similar to quick pasta) and Dry-stir (variation of steep/boil type but ask for draining the excess water after steeping/cooking, then add the flavoring stuff)

So let's begin!

This is a "dry-stir" steep type instant noodles in a foam tray. 

When I unwrapped the plastic paper, look how Japanese this is! Neat graphic design with clear instruction.  

Peel off one corner, there are 4 packets inside: 

dry vegetable, spice, sauce and mustard mayonnaise. 

Add the dry veggie (As the ingredient list mentioned, it's all cabbage, looked pretty high quality though), pour in the boiling water and close the lid! 

Wait for 3 min...It's time to drain the excess water.

I really like this considerate design of the drain outlet! 

The mesh will prevent noodles and veggies from leaking out.

I add the spice which contained a lot of dried seaweed, sauce which is mainly Worcester sauce and vegetable oil, and the mustard mayonnaise (Pretty standard one. And I only add about 1/3 of the mayo, so don't feel bummed about the tiny portion of mayo showed here. ) 

Stir and Stir!

Here is the finish vision of the noodles. 

I am sorry I happened to hide all of the cabbage, it's actually pretty generous amount.

Analysis in depth:

First of all, this is quite a large portion size instant noodles and actually based on the nutrition fact list, 40% of the calories are from fat. When tasting it especially with the extra boost from the Mustard Mayo which I do feel it is on "rich" side generally. 

But, it has a quite balanced flavor of salty, smoky, sweet, mustard tangy, umami from Teriyaki-type flavored sauce, seaweed scent spice (I think it has black pepper and ginger powder at least. But it only vaguely marked as "spices" in ingredients list.) and the mayo. I think I would give a big thumb up for this one comparing to other "average instant noodles". 

Actually I think seaweed is one secret ingredient in nearly all of the Japanese cuisine for it lending the umami flavor which is basically makes food taste better and mellower. This is also a good idea for our daily life cooking! For example, making meat balls, fried rice/noodle, soup and even bread and savory cake.

For the noodle itself, it's not that stand out but still in really high quality side. As the ingredients showed, it has hydrolyzed protein from some fish which is kinda unique and interesting. This might be the reason for its little chewy texture. Not the gluten-type chewy but meaty chewy. I enjoy it very much!

The cabbage is really good as well! After steeping, they all unwrap and re-hydrate pretty well. They didn't lend a lot flavor but definitely good texture!    

The only little thing that didn't mingle quite smooth is the gingery flavor from the spice. Maybe it means to provide the warmth, but I think maybe should be a little milder.

Summary at a glance:

Overall value: 4.5 stars

Flavor/taste: 5 stars

Worth of the money: 4 stars

Highlight: The Mustard Mayo is definitely the super star here! It gave this Japanese noodle a western swirl and matched really well!

Bottom line: I would buy it again.

At last, the other flavor:
This looks pretty good as well, maybe I will try it sometime in the future

Last of the last: I highly recommend the SARAGA international market. The first one opened in Bloomington, IN. After the big success, the owner opened another two in Indy. One in 38th street and one in near south. (I recommend the 38th street one. Bigger and better) 

It looks shabby at first sight and some of the products are indeed shabby...But, but, there are definitely some hidden gems and not to mention some hard-to-find ingredients if you are a "dare foodies" or "homesick-er in food "like me! LOL...I will have other bizarre reviews of stuffs I bought from here in near future. So stay tuned!

Hope you give this noodles and the market a try. Have fun searching!