Master Kong Spicy Beef Lo Mein Noodles with Temple Style Pickled Mustard Greens

Awhile back I reviewed the Master Kong Golden Stock Beef Noodles and Master Kong's Black Pepper Beef Noodle instant ramen bowls.  Today, I'm doing a quick review of Mast Kong Spicy Beef Lo Main Noodles with Temple Style Pickled Mustard Greens.  Pickled mustard greens or  preserved mustard greens are a type of Chinese pickled cabbage.   This looks like a Japanese style yakisoba or fried noodle bowl without soup and I've never had a Chinese one so this will be fun.

Noodles are noodles right?  I find it interesting that a ramen noodle or spaghetti noodle are so very different in preparation, texture, taste, and even chew.  Now, what about noodles in soup or without soup?  This is another funny thing as soupless noodles are often fried like a chow mein / lo mein or yakisoba, and they are very different from have a soupy bowl of ramen or noodle soup.  I like having both, but fried instant noodles lend themselves very nicely to being soupless as pan frying is part of the process of preparing yakisoba or lo mein.

View of the flat noodle bowl.  There is a lot of purple and the bowl is plastic.

Top view of the lid.  It has a nice design to it.  With the plate of noodles at the bottom and the lifted noodles curling up the right hand side.  Lots of little bits of diced vegetables and toppings can be seen in the picture.  The purple background kind of looks like a stylized cabbage leaf?  You can see the ceramic pickle jar on the left for the mustard greens.  The little chef dude is proudly showing off his food. NOTE the OPEN to add hot water, the the little peel back to drain on the opposite end of the bowl.

After opening the package, you get a cute little pair of wooden chopsticks, a packet of spicy beef sauce, a packet of dried veggie and soy protein flakes, and a foil packet of pickled mustard greens.  Non-dehydrated vegetables is a first for me in a cup noodle.

The foil lid is quite springy, so I had to hold it open to shoot the noodles.  There is a nice big block of slightly thinner than normal noodles here.

With these kinds of noodle bowls, you have to empty the dehydrated vegetables onto the noodles before adding boiling water and waiting for your customary three to four minutes to rehydrate both the noodles and vegetables.  This package had an interesting design that is different from the Japanese designs for the strainer to let out the water.  In Japanese designs, the top of the lid has an end with round perforations to allow you to pour out your water. The design on this bowl is cheaper, and can work quite well, but requires you to peel back the opposite end of the lid just a little bit. By doing that, it reveals three small drain holes in the side of the bowl.  These holes are at the top of the picture below.  You need to peel it back exactly to this line or you can lose some of the vegetables / noodles, so watch what end you peel for the lid, and start with the end that says Open to add water!

Noodle mixed with sauce and pickled greens.

After draining the water and mixing the package of sauce and the package of mustard greens in, there was a nice smell to the noodles.  The spicy beef sauce wasn't too spicy and was pretty tasty and savoury, but not too beefy.  Having the mustard greens add some nice green color to the bowl along with their vinegary sharpness added to the flavour in a good way.  The noodles were nice and firm too and it was a pleasant bowl of noodles to dine on.  I'd buy another one of these if I see them around at the supermarket again.  It was a nice change from the Japanese yakisoba.

Noodle closeup.

Some other yakisoba noodle posts
Nissin UFO Garlic Black Pepper Instant Yaskisoba
Nissin UFO Squid Noodles and Nissin UFO Salty Pork
Nissin UFO Shanghai Oyster Sauce Yakisoba Bowl Noodles

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More cup noodle / instant ramen reviews and Japanese pop culture.