Chisomen Mamiana Soba Cup Noodle

This cup of noodle was a nice treat this morning.  It was soba noodles in a sweet soy, dashi-like broth that had a hint of sesame and spiciness from a packet of sesame / chile oil.  Chisomen Mamiana is a ramen shop about five minutes on foot from the east side of Ikebukuro Station.  Ikebukuro is a hotspot of ramen activity in Tokyo and from what I've read there is often a queue in front of this store.  Mamiana uses a broth made of chicken, pork, and fish, that is served with thick chewy noodles.  All the regular ramen toppings like chasu pork, menma, naruto fish cake, and green onions are present.  Anyhow, this cup of noodles was prepared under the supervision of Mamiana, so it is another specialty instant noodle that lets you taste another unique ramen shop in Japan.

Front of the cup with the seasoning oil packet on top.

The packaging on this cup of noodle was pretty nice and it is of the paper cup variety.  Some cup are a paper sleeve wrapped around a styrofoam cup, while the better cups are a paper cup with soft foam exterior that holds colour printing very nicely.  It features the name of the ramen shop and the name of the noodle prominently against some darker/earthy tones.  The design has a bit of a rustic feel with the woodwork signboard.  Very attractive packaging.

3/4 view with the front of the cup and the lid.

The lid of the cup.  Quite an attractive and appetizing design.  You can see the buckwheat noodles, dark broth, meaty toppings in the center, and little piles of green onion and sesame to the left.  A very attractive picture for a bowl of noodles.

Front of the cup.

Back of the cup.  It shows the name of the cup of noodle with little print saying meat soba.  There is a picture of the front of the ramen shop with a description about Ikebukuro being a ramen battle ground.

Nutritional information and ingredients.

Lifting the lid, reveals a nice dusting of soup powder with very brown soba noodles.  There are some pieces of grilled pork on top along with sesame seeds, and green onion.

Noodle closeup.

It takes 4 minutes to rehydrate these noodles with boiling water as I think it takes a little longer for the soba noodles.   Soba noodles are not made out of wheat, but another grain called buckwheat.  Japan grows its own buckwheat, but also imports buckwheat from Canada too for soba from what I've read.  All part of the global food chain.

The rehydrated cup of noodles.  Looks pretty good.

After stirring the noodles to make sure everything is well mixed up and adding in the seasoning oil.

To no surprise, this is a pretty tasty cup of noodles.  The broth had a very subtle smell to it with a delicate broth that accentuated the buckwheat noodles.  The soup reminded me of dashi or other light flavoured stocks and it received a nice pickup from the sesame / chile oil.  The buckwheat noodles were firm, with that buckwheat chew where they resist and then just break under pressure; this is because soba is inelastic as it is either gluten free or low gluten if mixed with some wheat flour.  These noodles also had the mild nuttiness of buckwheat noodles and this was just a tasty soup.  The rehydrated meat was nice, but there is never enough of it (in almost any instant noodle) and I quite enjoyed this cup of noodle. 

Noodle closeup.

More cup noodle / ramen reviews and Japanese pop culture.