Nissin RAOH Seabura Koku Shoyu Bowl Ramen

This is pretty much the classic RAOH shoyu instant ramen bowl, from when they first developed RAOH back in the late 2000s.  I know it was around by 2009, and I even went hunting for it at various konbini when I visited Tokyo for the first time.  These noodle bowls were pioneers in air-dried instant noodle products, and were always on the premium end of things.  I hadn't found one of these in years, but I knew it was still being made.  I could only find the packaged RAOH noodle blocks and not the noodle bowls most of the time.  Still, on my last trip to Vancouver I managed to find some of these, which made me very nostalgic.

RAOH is a premium noodle brand and the packaging for this cup of noodle certainly shows this.  The bowl design is uniquely octagonal, like a stop sign, and is even red like it.  The deep red colour of the bowl and the label certainly make it look quite posh.   The shiny foil lid with gold lettering add to the deluxe appearance.  The lid graphic is quite nifty as it shows the noodle soup below a lid being peeled back.

3/4 view of the noodle bow showing the top and sides.  A unique looking package.  You always know you are looking at a RAOH product.

Manufacturing information.

Ingredients information.

Nutritional information.  14.6 grams of fat, lower than most noodle blocks, but some of the richness in the soup base comes from fat, making up for the low fat content in the noodles themselves as they are air dried.

Peeling back the lid reveals a lot of stuff.  There are 4 packets plus the noodle block.

The four ingredient and soup base packets laid out.

Close up of the ingredients.  The top left is the dried packet of green onions, menma (bamboo shoots).  The top right is the piece of dried chashu pork (it kind of reminds me of jerky when dried).  Bottom left is the liquid shoyu soup bad.  Bottom right is the packet with two pieces of nori (dried seaweed).

Closeup of the noodles.  They are a nice deep yellow colour and have that dried look, not deep fried.  Slightly thinner than normal instant ramen noodles.

The soup base, green onions, and dried pork added on top of the instant noodles.

Added boiling water and waited 5 minutes to rehydrate the noodles.  I find the air dried noodles take longer to rehydrate probably as they stay denser than the fried noodles.  You need to give it a good stir to mix in the soup base.

Nice looking bowl of noodles with a deep brown shoyu broth.  The nori was added in last.

This shoyu instant ramen is as good as I remember.  The broth has a nice deep soy taste with more savoury undertones so it isn't just salt or soy you are tasting.  It smells really nice too and you can tell it is going to be a tasty broth from the aroma.  The noodles have a round cross section, have a nice firm feel that isn't too chewy, and are nice noodles.  I've seen a video about how they make these noodles and they don't just knead dough and roll them out.  The noodles are composed of more than one layer with different doughs.  The chashu rehydrates nicely and is a nice touch to the soup with its meatiness.  This is a very tasty noodle soup, but I do wish there were more toppings and the broth is nice to the last drop.  This bowl of noodles is a superior product.

Closeup of the noodles.

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