Japanese yakisoba fried noodles with their savoury yakisoba sauce, slices of pork, and diced cabbage all fried up on a big iron grill are a classic Japanese street food. It's usually topped off with some diced pickles and drizzled with Kewpie mayonnaise to finish it off. You can't quite get that with an instant noodle yakisoba, but you get a decent substitute. Yakisoba instant noodles are always available at the convenience store over there and it is reasonably easy to find in Asian supermarkets here. The Myojo Ippei-chan Yakisoba noodles in this review are pretty standard, but you know what you are getting and if you like it, you'll want to have it again in the future. This particular variety uses a spicy mayonnaise to give it a little extra kick.
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| An angled 3/4 view of the yakisoba noodle package. Yakisoba noodles alway come in trays rather than cups or bowls to give you the impression of a plate or tray from the street vendor. You can see that it is a very attractive package with plenty of noodles on display. |
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| Top of the package. This was was made for the export market as nutritional information is in English along with the name in small print. The central theme to the image is the bold yellow name of Ippei-chan (一 平ちゃん) is across a black background with stars. The night sky background might indicate that it is night at the fair, and the electric bulb at the top left is lighting the way. The bottle of mustard mayonnaise is pominently displayed at the left. Behind the black background is a whole big batch of fried noodles like a vendor would do up and then parcel out into individual portions. |
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| The side of the package showing the mayonnaise, product name, and some very tasty noodles. This is what you would see on a shelf when you are perusing for noodles. |
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| Bottom of the package with instructions and manufacturing information. |
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| Best before and ingredients. |
Peeling away the attractive plastic wrap reveals a white styrofoam tray with a metallic foil lid with extensive instructions in English. Read the instructions if you've never made this kind of instant noodle before to have a better experience.
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| The instructions with pictures clearly shows what you need to do to prepare these noodles start from the 1 at the bottom left all the way to the 4 at the top right. There is a 1 in circle at the bottom right. OPEN this end of the package first to the 2 in a circle to extract condiment and toppings packets. DO NOT open the other end or peel the lid off as you need the lid on. |
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| Peeling the lid halfway reveals a spice packet, a dehydrated veggie packet, and a yakisoba sauce packet. Not shown in the picture is the mayonnaise packet. You can see the noodle block occupied the bottom of the tray. |
Once the packets have all been removed from the package, open the veggie packet to sprinkle the cabbage on the noodles. Now add in boiling water, close the lid, and wait a three minutes for the cabbage and noodles to rehydrate. Once that is done, you need to drain the excess water from the package. This the where the opposite end of the package from the side you opened comes into play. There is a little flap there that can be peeled off to reveal drain holes. You can pour out the excess water through these holes and not lose noodles or cabbage!
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| Draining the excess water. |
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| Peeling the lid off now reveals the cooked noodles and cabbage. Now you get to add the mayonnaise packet and all the other ingredients. |
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| Add in the sauce, the spices, and squeeze the mayo evenly over the noodles. |
Once all of the condiments have been added, you can mix it all up and it is ready to eat. The sweet savoury yakisoba sauce, the umami from the spicy mayonnaise all blend together to make a really tasty combination.
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| The final mixed noodles and sauce. It looks really tasty. |
This kind of noodle has a nice fried yakisoba sauce smell to it. Kind of hard to describe, but it is good. The noodles are coated in the oily sauce that gives it its main flavour, but there is a slight creamy spicy flavour from the mayonnaise too. This is not a super spicy dish - the spice accentuates the flavours. The cabbage is really only for show, but it is a nice touch to have some vegetables. The noodles are a little thicker than normal noodles, have a nice chewiness and are firm rather than soggy. Both the taste and mouthfeel do not disappoint. What can I say? This is a popular brand of noodles in Japan and there is a reason for it. I would buy it again for sure.
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| Noodle closeup. |
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These are my favourite instant noodles and I've been eating them wrong this whole time?? . . . I've always kept the boiled water and eaten it like a soup because that's how it was introduced to me. Or can you eat it both ways?? Also, these noodles are very hard to find in Toronto.
ReplyDeleteYou could eat them with the water as soup but you’re supposed to drain them which is why the lid has drain holes. The flavour would be really diluted as soup as the noodles are supposed to simulate Yakisoba. These noodles can be hard to find in Canada but Hmart or T&T often carry some flavour of these Yakisoba noodles. You just can’t be picky about the brand.
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