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Meh, this one is on the fence. Yeah, its not a good as Shin or other more authentic instant ramen out there. But! Maruchan is solid for what it is. I mean it's fucking Americanized ramen. What do you expect? As far as Americanized Ramen its the best.
As a fan of weird flavor Kroger chips, his comment on the beef and pickle ramen made me want to see a Rueben flavored ramen. I want to taste the corned beef, the sauerkraut, and the thousand island dressing in a broth.
...I actually do, generally. Not always, but most of the time. But apparently I'm also abnormal in my ability to actually like the chicken flavor. But I like a lot of foods that other people call bland, so maybe I'm just boring.
@@KoyasuNoBara Chicken flavour Ramen is always okay, that's the thing with it. Maybe never the best, but it's consistent :) Oh yeah, try mixing it with mild spreadable processed cheese and just use a little bit of water from cooking the noodles, gives a nice creamy cheese sauce in an instant that pairs very well with chicken flavour Ramen (also goes well with shrimp and anything spicy)
Soy Sauce flavor used to be called "Oriental Flavor" and also had a bunch of mushroom flavor added that made it the best, imo. They changed the recipe when they changed the name.
I have a package of oriental ramen that I bought just before the change and never ate because I personally thought the flavor sucked. I'm waiting for a couple more decades to pass hoping it'll be a vintage thing in the future. Maybe I'll get thousands of dollars for it, though it might also be because a thousand dollars in 2050 will be the equivalent of 5 dollars today at the rate we're going. I didn't realize anything was different but the name though. I thought it was just another case of a Japanese company changing something because white people in America were offended by it. Nice to know they not only pulled a lame political correctness stunt, but also made the flavor even worse.
I like to boil the noodles in water, put the seasoning in the bowl, ladle out a bit of water from the noodles and then add the noodles. It tastes way better.
when I was still in middle school I had a habit of making only maruchan ramen the minute I learned how to use a stove, and had a habit of leaving the broth out after dinner and cleaning up dishes and everything after I showered that night. however, there seemed to be a mysteriously repeating occurrence in which the broth would just Disappear when I came out anyways, following these occurrences I once walked in to my Dad frat-boy-style chugging ramen broth directly from the pan in our dark kitchen. have fun with that info
They make a chow mein version in a yellow package that you cook with one cup of water instead of two, and the seasoning added at the end becomes a thick sauce. It’s great as far as packaged ramen goes!
I’m glad I’m not the only one that noticed that weird “sitting in the cupboard too long” flavor. My brand of choice is usually Mama, though. I could eat it straight out of the package
You missed out on the actually good maruchan: Maruchan Gold Soy Sauce or Maruchan Gold Spicy Miso (my favorite). The noodles are completely different. Much thicker with more bite to them. And the sauce packet is also liquid based instead of powder.
Its no mystery why packets of Maruchan ramen usually cost around 18 cents. They're the absolute bare minimum in terms of taste and quality. Now Nongshim brand ramen (which also makes the Shin Ramyun that SungWon mentioned) are the shit. I hope he does a video on their noodles, particularly the Neoguri.
I just watched his older noodle videos earlier, while eating Maruchan Ramen. And said to myself "When is he gonna try all the Maruchan ramen flavors?" And this video dropped less than 2 hours later. ProZD's Bizzare Adventure
My kids are all about the soy sauce flavor. I think they all taste like salt to me. Shin is great for instant, but I really like Ramen Ryoma in the local Uwajimaya. Miso broth with egg and extra pork please!
@@MaskedImposter fill small pot with water and boil the water, put an egg or two in, put a lid on and boil the eggs for 7 minutes with the lid on. Take them out and dunk them in a bowl with cold water and ice. Wait a couple minutes for them to cool as it helps with taking the shells off, then peel them and dunk them in a mix of garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sugar, and msg if you have it. Or just use normal boiled eggs if you wanna take it easy
@@MaskedImposter if I make the ramen on the stove I throw the egg in for the last bit while it boils. That way the noodles finish cooking and so does the egg.
Also I use 1½ to 1¾ cups of water instead of the recommended 2 (depending on what I'm cooking it in) because it's too weak with 2 cups. Also make sure to let it rest a bit so the noodles soak up the flavor
@@crystallineentity7698 Yes. Why would people try to save money by eating cheap food? Ridiculous. Also, I like to put one of the cheap, small cans of chicken or ham chunks in to give a bit more flavor.
I have maruchan in my pantry almost exclusively for depression meals, when i cant find the energy to cook, and in case of an apocalypse. To me its meant to be sat in your cabinet until you need it and it works.
Chili lime shrimp was easily my favorite in college, not even really a comparison. No matter the flavor, I'd dump some Ponzu and some costco rotisserie chicken or tofu. Nowadays, I only eat instant noodles on camping trips and absolutely nothing beats the Nongshim Tempura Udon. Specifically, the large bowls that have plenty of those dried fish cakes. Nothing better on a cold November morning in the woods.
MSG and salts aren't that bad for you. The problem arises when people don't drink water to balance the salt intake from fast foods and get chronically dehydrated. Soda with that is also the worst thing for you. You should be more worried about carbs in the form of sugars.
@@blargcoster There are some health conditions that exacerbate the issues you may get from not balancing intake or otherwise make it more challenging, but at that point we are straying from general populace guidelimes.
He forgot to mention that the chile ramen is also one of the only vegetarian flavors they have. Idk about y'all, but any budget instant ramen that doesn't rely on a meat product to taste good is pretty impressive to me.
True that. There's a ramen that I buy when I go to the store; it's like 4 dollars a bowl (it's a full bowl instant ramen) that's kimchi flavored and it's the best thing ever. It hits every time
I never really thought these were bland at all. But that gives me joy, really, because that means I'll likely be impressed by the flavor of other brands.
Same. I just ate the roast chicken flavor yesterday and it was packed with flavor. I did add a little salt and green onion to it, but not much. I don't see where the bland comes into play here either. I can literally taste all the flavors just by someone mentioning them. 😂
There's been weird supply chain issues with instant ramen, particularly more popular brands in the west like Maruchan. It's been kinda weird. Overall tho, you shoudn't get a musty flavor from a fresh pack. But it's becoming harder and harder to find fresh packs. I definitely know that flavor tho. After my aunt's husband died, my family cleaned out her house to help her get a fresh start and they brought back a ton of old instant ramens of all types. As a child, I was super hyped but man....did those packs/cups taste realllllly musty. In actuality, they were probably rancid and I shouldn't have eaten them but I think we (mostly me) got thorugh a ton of them before my dad decided we probably shouldn't eat t hem. Anyways, I think your scores are still spot on but the musty-ness problem has been a reoccuring issue depending on where you're sourcing the product. It's more prevalent if you're trying to get the cheapest packs possible (as you should) because those tend to be on their end shelflife (same issue with chips in teh last few years too).
That's what I think too--the wheat has gone rancid or was bad to begin with. If I open a pack of dry noodles with that smell, they go straight into the compost pile.
Maruchan has those "yakisoba" bowl things that go in the microwave. I actually stock one or two in the cupboard for a quick meal every now and then. they aren't too bad.
I had a phase where the shitty cheese flavored "yakisoba" was like one of my food hyperfixations so I was eating it like everyday. Eventually, as with most food hyperfixations, it randomly made me gag and I haven't touched them since.
I used to eat those so often that now I throw up everytime I eat any maruchan product. Maybe it's because I ate them so much because of my poorness, but those are cursed to me now.
See the trick is to take a look at the instructions on the package and then flip them the finger and burn them to the ground. Put in the seasoning before you start boiling the noodles, that way some of the flavor absorbs into them, and also when I say seasoning, I mean both the packet and any other herbs and spices you want. Maybe throw in some bouillon of the respective flavor of the ramen so it has more of the flavor it's supposed to. Also, I like to add hot sauce right at the end, after turning off the heat. Basically just as easy as it normally is, but a million times better.
@@xanderramsdell2919 Maruchan does have the advantage of being dirt cheap, but otherwise yeah it’s as mediocre as everyone’s saying Basically what that means is, if you want to customize your ramen, maruchan’s not a bad choice, but if you just want to throw a flavor packet in and have a decent experience, there are better brands.
Yeah Maruchan kinda needs less broth than other ramen brands, the good part about it though is adding stuff to it as it's a decent base and is really cheap
I was confused, but google has taught to me that the Soy Sauce flavor (unknown to me) is what became of what I remember in my childhood being caled _"Oriental"_ flavor. I'm aware of the negativity of the word, but I did not know of the update. There are... rarely more than even just chicken or beef flavor options available when I go shopping, and _maybe_ the Shrimp flavor.
“There is a hint of shrimp that existed” I am severally allergic to shrimp I have smelled that ramen and feel that is accurate I didn’t risk eating it but I didn’t get a reaction from the smell
When I was a kid, I'd make this ramen for lunch and just eat like a sleeve of Ritz crackers with it, just dipping it into the broth. That's probably the only reason I have fond memories of Maruchan. It's so bad.
One thing I've never seen anyone else do is add 1-2 drops of "liquid smoke". It will change your life and if you have seasame oil 1-2 drops also complements it's smokey flavor.
I'm lucky enough to have places around me that sell stuff like Samyang's buldak bokkeum-myeon and Indomie's mi goreng, but if you don't have stuff like that round you, or you just plain can't spend more than 33 cents on a packet of noodles (and yes, there are people who can't), there's always Maruchan.
Maruchan’s really not that bad if you just drain the water before adding the seasoning. It’s very salty, but it’s not as bland as SungWong’s experience was. Plus you can throw basically anything that seems like it would make sense into it.
I never heard anyone pronounce the name before. We always called it Ramen or Top ramen even though it’s a completely different brand. I always drain 90% of the water from the noodles and then add the flavor pack. I like more dry noodles. Plus the lack of water makes the flavor stronger
I really enjoy these videos, every time I see you've uploaded a new one I know I'll enjoy the next 10 to 20 or so minutes of my day. Hope you enjoy making them as much as we do watching, I know some of the reviews seem pretty grueling to get through 😅
It's so funny to hear him say the chicken flavor is the worst one because when I worked at walmart, the chicken flavor was easily the one that sold the most. I've never cared for it so it really confused me
Best packaged ramen you can easily get in the US is Nissin RAOH Ramen - primarily the soy sauce flavor. Everyone should try it. The noodles border on being like real ramen shop noodles. Add some sesame chili oil to make it even better.
Nissin Raoh soy sauce flavor is my absolute favorite instant ramen! I love that it's got the liquid based packets instead of powder. I feel like those always make for a stronger, richer broth without being quite so salty
@@lizryan7451 Yes! Preach! Hahaha. I tried a ton of "premium" ramens and they all just try and throw a ridiculous amount of stuff in while simplistic goodness or the raoh is just perfect every time. The noodles are crazy good and the broth is delicious, that's all I need. I can handle throwing other stuff in myself if I want haha. The miso flavor wasn't really my thing though, dunno if you tried that one. Also, if you haven't yet, Nissin also sells their Japanese version of Cup Noodle on Amazon, try the curry one. It's mind-blowing in comparison to the stuff we think of as cup noodle.
My friends in college here in Latin America would melt salty cheese in the soups and then add lemon amd habanero. Those tasted good. Then again, here in Latam we tend to modify foods. Even our plantain chips are often sold "prepared" with with spicy pickled onions.
There's a few more at the huge grocery... warehouse... thing near my house. They have "California Vegetable," Mushroom, Cheddar Cheese, Spicy Cheddar Cheese, and Hot and Spicy Beef/Chicken/Pork/Shrimp, plus the flavors you tried in this video. They have even more in the cups, but I'm not really counting those. It could just be that I live in the Midwest where a lot of companies test new products due to how incredibly average we are here.
I always boil the noodles, pour out almost all the water and then add the seasoning along with some garlic powder, red pepper flakes depending on what flavor and if there's any, some soy/teriyaki sauce and the corresponding meat as topping, sometimes dumplings
For beef ramen be sure to use an appropriate bouillon cube, the ramen noodles from the time you start cooking till the time they're finished are always absorbing liquid thus flavoring your liquid will create a much more delicious ramen. (This also increases the sodium level of the ramen but if you're eating ramen you obviously don't care about sodium lol)
I don't blame you at all for not wanting to get a billion sodium bombs again, but I think if you had tried the other Maruchan products you would've had a much better time. Their bowls are actually delicious. Also, I was SHOCKED when he said he found chicken bland, but then I remembered A) I haven't had regular chicken Maruchan ramen in years, and B) I had been making my ramen concentrated with minimal water for years before that.
Yeah, I've never met a single person who likes that amount of water in their maruchan ramen. It just tastes way too bland, and those noodles REFUSE to absorb any broth unless it's SUPER concentrated.
@@brandonalvarado97 Buddy the tonkotsu ramen is the BOMB. It is so, SO good. I think I prefer the Fire Bowl slightly more though. I'm a sucker for spice.
“Seeing how much sodium one man consume” ZD should do a “trying 22 different types of cleansing healthy smoothies” Once he’s done eating all this processed junk.
@@tencelTechnologist Maybe? We have one near my place here in South Texas. Doing one flavor of smoothie each day could be pretty neat, I think they have around 30-40 types, and fairly healthy overall.
This video posted right as I was boiling the water for a bowl of Maruchan Shrimp Ramen. I eat a lot of Maruchan because it's super cheap. I also always drink the broth, because the noodles don't taste like anything and the broth is where all the flavor is. Though, to be fair, I also put other things in the broth so that it will have flavor, like soy sauce and garlic powder and green onions.
Not sure if you were a college student, but this stuff hits all the time. It is my literal life energy to survive. BTW throw some soy sauce or cheese into it. Enhances the flavor a ton.
This might sound awful but I truly love the chicken ramen this way. Boil noodles, trash the water and add the seasoning packet. This is where it gets weird: add sour cream, cheese, soy sauce and ranch powder. Maybe hot sauce if you’re feeling spicy
They once sold Shin Ramyun at our local Tesco, and I've been hooked ever since. It sucks that it's so hard to buy those in my vicinity now. They were seasonal at Tesco, and now it's closed.
My go to is the chili lime, and I drain like 90% of the water, add like a tablespoon of toasted sesame oil, and then like 3/4 of the flavor packet. If I’m feeling fancy I soft boil and egg to put on top!
I'm glad you tried the Roast Beef. For whatever reason all the grocery stores around here stopped carrying it years ago and I can only find it online. Personally it's currently my favorite flavor with Creamy Chicken and Pork tying for second place and regular Beef bringing up the rear. I agree that the basic Chicken is just bland, not a chance. Typically what I do, at least with the Beef flavors, is I add black pepper after I've mixed in the flavoring and that gives it an extra bite and heat without being spicy. I need to try Shin Ramyun because this is not the first time I've heard someone say that it's good, and more importantly, better.
At least maruchan has msg in it - unlike those shitty top ramens nowadays. ~~ PRO-tip recipe for GOD-TIER spicy peanut sesame garlic noodles: Drain noodles, then add - 2-3 tablespoons of peanut butter, 2-3 of sriracha, 1-2 of soy sauce. That's the base, highly recommend onion, garlic, ginger, & paprika powders - if you can't add it fresh (sauteed onion, then ginger & garlic, then red bell peppers). Also sesame oil & toasted seeds. Throw it on top of a bowl of broccoli or spinach and I PROMISE you won't be able to finish the whole thing. I could barely finish half a packet of ramen this way, got my food budget under $100 a month in DC. You can make the peanut sauce in advance, fridge it, and have a meal in 5min. It reheats super well. Lmk if you come up with any better additions. If you've never had pad Thai or savory spicy peanut flavor in anything it sounds absurd (for Americans), but just try it once and adjust the ratios to your liking (I always have to add more spice, then more peanut butter).
Not sure if it was region related or just what my parents "liked", but we always had Top Ramen. Maruchan seems like exactly the same thing but I hear it's slightly better? Also, praying for SungWon's blood pressure. Instant ramen really pioneered the whole "salt is flavor, right?"
@@Godduilest Nah, they're separate brands, I see them both in the local grocery store. IMO Top Ramen is the better of the two but it's still firmly in that 20-cent tier.
Top Ramen I'd say is up there as far as cheap-tier goes, though it's no Shin of course. Base-level Maruchan seems barely edible to me by comparison. Top Ramen I can live with.
I used to eat ramen noodles without using the flavoring packets at all. Just completely plain noodles. And now I never use the entire seasoning packets as they're too salty for me.
Did you know that Ramen (as in the type he's eating not ramen in general) was invented as a reaction to Post-War Japan? After the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, many Japanese people starved due to lack of access to food. Traditional ramen is not just noodle + hot water = food, it requires someone to make the noodles, extra food for the ramen, etc. This was obviously a problem as, after the war, there was extreme rationing laws (largely thanks to the US) and lack of access to food due to a post-war famine. And thus, ramen was invented. By flash frying the noodles they could be "reactivated" of sorts, thus making them soft again. This helped to end hunger in the millions all over the world.
I think you're comparing this 25 cent instant ramen with some of the $2-$3 instant ramens. It's obviously not gonna be as good, but I think it has way more value.
So I know this is gonna sound blasphemous, but sometimes I'll actually strain most of the water out before adding the "seasoning." Makes the flavoring much stronger. Yeah it's not really what you'd call ramen anymore... but like... was it really all that much like ramen to begin with?
That's what you're supposed to do if you want the flavor. It's what he should've done. He's trying to eat them "Japanese Cuisine" style, which doesn't work unless you're adding extra ingredients.
Out of all the hundreds of pounds of marachan I've eaten, I don't think I've ever put more than 1 cup of water in with my noodles... usually much less than that. So I was sitting here like "yeah, it tastes like nothing bc you're drowning them noods dude" But, I've never had real ramen before, and sungwon probably just just followed the cooking instructions lmao idk
my ramen hack is top ramen's chili flavor w/ half the water replaced with unsweetened soy (or coconut) milk and add a spoon of curry powder. Top with cheese.
