100 Hours Curry Shop, European Curry Cup Noodle

This is a limited edition curry cup noodle made by Sapporo Ichiban under the supervision of the 100 Hours Curry Shop.  The rich, curry soup stock is made in a European style with a dark roux using their spices, pork, beef, and vegetables.  European style means the roux is made of Indian style spices combined with a European type stew base.  100 Hours won the Kanda Curry Grand Prix curry festival competition in 2014 and again in 2016 so the restaurant has some bragging rights.  This V2 winner cup was released in January of 2018.

Front of the cup.

Going to a festival of curry restaurants actually sounds pretty appealing to me as there would be so much delicious curry to sample.  Without going to Tokyo for this festival, or visiting the restaurant, tasting this cup noodle is the next best thing. Link to Kanda Curry Festival.

A spice packet was glued to the lid of the cup.

The lid of the cup.  The big red letters proclaim this to be the V2 Winner for 100 Hours.  Note the victory laurel wreath around the rim of the cup.

Closeup of the front of the cup.

The colors used in the packaging of this cup is kind of interesting.  There is plenty of gold or yellow to indicate something deluxe or a winner.  The base colour is a conservative brown to indicate earthy or solidness and the darkness of the curry roux.  The mix of fonts and text made this a pretty busy looking package.  Even with the information overload, the photo of the curry noodles and the carrots and green onions in the dark roux does stand out, so you know what you are getting. 

Another view of the front.

Happy winners of the Kanda Grand Prix.

Information about 100 Hours restaurant.

Ingredients and nutritional information.

Inside the cup.

There was a good bit of curry roux mix, that was broken up into smaller bits so they would dissolve easier.  Mixed in were bits of green onion and dehydrated carrot.  You can see that the noodles are a nice golden colour and are quite wide.

Closeup of the dried ingredients.

Added the extra spice to jazz up the broth.

I added the boiling water to the fill line for the cup and let the ingredients and noodles rehydrate.  With curry noodles you have to really stir the noodles and soup to make sure all the curry powder is dissolved properly.  There was a good curry smell that came from the soup, but it wasn't as strong as I expected.

The rehydrated noodles.

The curry broth in this noodle cup was quite tasty.  I was surprised that the broth was thinner than I expected, but it went very well with the noodles.  I'd say that this curry had a more savory flavour profile with a light heat to it.  The noodles were nice and chewy, but I did wish there were some more green onions and carrot present.  Overall, this was a pretty good cup of noodle and I got to experience a little about what a winning curry could taste like.

Closeup of the noodles.

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