Slurping through 21 different cups, including ramen and rice noodle styles, Bertin Huynh and colleagues find plenty of variety – but none that spark joy.
When I close my eyes and think of instant noodles, I’m brought back to afternoon tea at my grandparents’ public housing flat. I imagine my yeye (grandfather) pouring the herbal pork bone broth my grandmother had made the previous night into the noodle-packed styrofoam cup. It was the ultimate comfort food.
But for this taste test comfort wasn’t the end goal. Instead I gathered 21 brands of instant chicken noodles that could satisfy hungry office workers on a deadline. The criteria: it needed to be a hot lunch you could make with only boiling water – and it needed to be quick.
I served my colleagues a tasting menu of instant noodles at their desks. I only included cup noodles that were chicken flavoured (sorry, Indomie Mi Goreng, you will always have a place in my heart) and tasters were asked to rank the noodles based on aroma, texture and flavour.
Instant noodles are really a blank canvas. It’s what you add to them that makes them a meal – some eggs, maybe kimchi or fresh veg, even actual shredded chicken. My tasters had none of these add-ons, though some of the packets came with dehydrated herbs and vegetables.
Overall, we found that a delicious smell didn’t equate to a delicious feed, and that mushroom is a divisive flavour. Nothing on this list was truly disgusting nor was anything a wonder for the taste buds – all the options were truly mid.
