Nongshim Tonkotsu Ramen Bowl (Premium Noodle Soup) from Costco
I saw these tonkotsu ramen bowls from Nongshim a few weeks ago when I was wandering through Costco. They came in a big box of six for a reasonable price, but I was a bit hesitant to buy them as Korean noodles tend to be spicier than I like in general. If you reduce the spice, then you get a less flavourful soup, but I'm happy to say that this wasn't the case with these instant ramen bowls.
Tonkotsu ramen is a pork broth noodle soup that is a flavourful, creamy, and smooth soup. I like a shoyu (soy sauce based) ramen almost as much, but tonkotsu is like the holy grail of ramen soups to some people. In restaurants, this is achieved by cooking pork bones and other ingredients together for a long time to make the soup stock. In an instant noodle, this is obviously harder to achieve.
These instant ramen bowls are labelled as a premium noodle soup, so I assume the soup stock and the noodles use higher quality ingredients. The packaging shows a super delicious looking bowl of ramen, but the contents of the bowls are quite plain, consisting of some dehydrated green onion, a few dried garlic slices, a noodle block, a powdered soup base packet (with pork), and a spicy sauce packet. Strangely, I don't see this product listed on their website, so I think it might be a limited edition product of some sort.
I added boiling water to the fill line on the inside of the cup and waited about four minutes for the noodles to rehydrate. At that point, I peeled the lid complete off and gave the soup and noodles a good stir. These are not thin noodles so the longer cooking time is expected.
There was a good aroma coming from the soup. I could kind of smell some chicken/pork in the soup with garlic, and a hint of ginger. Tasting the broth confirmed it was a savoury soup with a smooth and light texture. The tonkotsu broths in instant noodles tend to be a light milky yellowish colour and I'd characterize this one as pretty good, but not super full bodied. The noodles had a nice chew to them, a characteristic of the Nongshim noodles in general, and were quite good.
I then added about half a package of the spicy sauce. The oil in the sauce gave the soup based an added zip of heat and texture. The soup was definitely improved by adding the spicy sauce and it like having a mildy spicy tonkotsu soup. Overall, this instant noodle bowl was good for flavour and the noodles. I do wish that North American instant cup noodles to have more toppings like you get from cup noodles in Hong Kong and Japan, as they always seem incomplete to me. One day I'm going to try the More Veggie brands of Nissin Cup Noodles from the USA as these seem to be more like their Asian cousins.
Tonkotsu ramen is a pork broth noodle soup that is a flavourful, creamy, and smooth soup. I like a shoyu (soy sauce based) ramen almost as much, but tonkotsu is like the holy grail of ramen soups to some people. In restaurants, this is achieved by cooking pork bones and other ingredients together for a long time to make the soup stock. In an instant noodle, this is obviously harder to achieve.
These instant ramen bowls are labelled as a premium noodle soup, so I assume the soup stock and the noodles use higher quality ingredients. The packaging shows a super delicious looking bowl of ramen, but the contents of the bowls are quite plain, consisting of some dehydrated green onion, a few dried garlic slices, a noodle block, a powdered soup base packet (with pork), and a spicy sauce packet. Strangely, I don't see this product listed on their website, so I think it might be a limited edition product of some sort.
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| 3/4 view of the ramen bowls. These are some big cardboard cups with very attractive packaging. The front of the cup has tonkotsu in gold lettering on a deep brown background. The tonkotsu noodles are well presenting at the bottom and the color combinations here only contribute to a premium theme. |
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| The box of noodle bowls from Costco. Looks great and you can even microwave it, but I pretty much going to use boiling water if I can. |
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| The lid of the noodle bowl shows a nice looking bowl of tonkotsu ramen soup. The nice looking toppings in the middle are not included and you have to add them yourself. The rim is a bold yellow color around a black ring which really looks like a bowl. The Tonkotsu Ramen label is prominent in the center of the lid. A bright red label indicates a spicy sauce packet comes with it, and the convenience of microwave cooking these noodle is highlighted at the bottom. |
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| Nutrition facts. Fairly standard for a package of Nongshim noodles. |
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| Ingredients and manufacturers info. |
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| Cooking directions for microwave and with boiling water. |
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| You get a soup base powder satchet and a spicy sauce packet. |
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| The noodles with the soup base on top. Dried green onions and some garlic slices are underneath the noodle block. |
I added boiling water to the fill line on the inside of the cup and waited about four minutes for the noodles to rehydrate. At that point, I peeled the lid complete off and gave the soup and noodles a good stir. These are not thin noodles so the longer cooking time is expected.
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| Rehydrated noodles and the tonkotsu soup base. |
There was a good aroma coming from the soup. I could kind of smell some chicken/pork in the soup with garlic, and a hint of ginger. Tasting the broth confirmed it was a savoury soup with a smooth and light texture. The tonkotsu broths in instant noodles tend to be a light milky yellowish colour and I'd characterize this one as pretty good, but not super full bodied. The noodles had a nice chew to them, a characteristic of the Nongshim noodles in general, and were quite good.
I then added about half a package of the spicy sauce. The oil in the sauce gave the soup based an added zip of heat and texture. The soup was definitely improved by adding the spicy sauce and it like having a mildy spicy tonkotsu soup. Overall, this instant noodle bowl was good for flavour and the noodles. I do wish that North American instant cup noodles to have more toppings like you get from cup noodles in Hong Kong and Japan, as they always seem incomplete to me. One day I'm going to try the More Veggie brands of Nissin Cup Noodles from the USA as these seem to be more like their Asian cousins.
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| Closeup of the noodles. |
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