Nissin Big Lemon Karaage Cup Noodle Review

Nissin released this Big Lemon Karaage Cup Noodle earlier in 2021 and I managed to order a couple from Japan.  The whole international shipping thing was out of whack when I ordered it from a site that had it and they could only deliver it by ship.  There was no air parcel, so the noodles took months to arrive.  I don't think I'll order via cargo ship again, but I was happy when they did show up.  

Karaage Cup Noodles are limited release items for Nissin.  They kind of show up for four months every year or two and then vanish again.  Back in 2017 I reviewed a pretty tasty lemon pepper karaage here, and I was looking forward to trying this one.  Karaage is basically Japanese style fried chicken and it makes a pretty good combination with instant ramen.  In fact, I did a home-made version of fried chicken ramen earlier this month using Nissin Tonkotsu Shoyu RAOH noodles and some leftover Costco fried chicken and it was delicious!  The Big Lemon Karaage is basically a slightly modified version of their regular cup noodle flavour with the addition of the fried chicken nuggets and some lemony flavour in a larger than normal Cup Noodle.

3/4 view of the tasty Big Lemon Karaage Cup Noodle.  It is colourful and appetizing in its packaging.

 

My home-made tonkotsu shoyu fried chicken ramen.  It has chicken, some nori, and plenty of green onions to complement the nice chewy, air-dried RAOH noodles in a pretty tasty soup base.  Not the same as the cup noodle I'm reviewing here, but it was really good!

The package of Tonkotsu Shoyu ramen noodles.  Super bright yellow and tasty looking noodle bowl below.  I've found that the tonkotsu shoyu flavours seems to be my favourites for tastiness these days.

 I like what the art department at Nissin Japan is doing these days for many of their various special editions as they produce packaging with lively colours, cartoon artwork, and the cups are just kind of fun to look at.  Some more colourful artwork can be seen at this review of the Mystery Meat Cup Noodle.  It is just as fun to look at while eating like you would admire the back of a cereal box with some interesting stuff to keep you entertained while enjoying your food.

The lid of the Cup Noodle.  I kind of like how it shows the big pieces of fried chicken on top of the noodles along with the Lemon Karaage characters.  Note the little lemon picture in the yellow Katakana for lemon as a very nice touch.  The work BIG is highlight in bold black on orange so you don't miss it!   Best of all there is a cartoon on the left of the cup with some bubble text saying Karaage Lemon Fusion when I put it in!

The front of the cup.  It is in the standard red on white background of the regular cup noodle with the BIG in bold black letters.  I like how the Karaage and Lemon characters are superimposed over the cartoon art of fried chicken nuggests in the background with the manga style action lines.  You're supposed to know this is special!

More side-panel manga artwork showing lemon being squeezed onto the fried chicken.

The other side-panel showing how good everything is.  The action text up top says Karaage and Lemon Invincible fusion while it says good stuff and I want to eat soon at the bottom!

The back of the cup showing allergens, ingredients, and manufacturing information.  More little cartoon panels say the karaage has a new texture.

Nutritional information.

When you open the lid you can see the pieces of karaage, egg, cabbage, and green onion.

I added boiling water to the fill line and let it rehydrate for 3 minutes with the lid closed.

There was a nice amount of karaage and other toppings on top of the noodles.

This cup of noodle had a nice soy sauce aroma to it along with a hint of lemon.  The fried chicken might have had a fain background aroma, but it was mainly a instant ramen kind of smell.  The noodles rehydrated nicely and were your typical Cup Noodle noodle with a decent chew.  The soup was a savoury shoyu and tasted like regular cup noodle with a hint of lemon to it.  It was tasty to eat and the karaage nuggets were pieces of ground chicken and they basically pretty much broke up when you chewed on them.  I'd have to say that a crunchier and meatier fried chicken would have been nice, but these were decent enough in their own way.  My yearning for these is pretty much satiated after having a couple of cups over a few weeks.  I can wait until the next time they release another karaage instant noodle and if you ever see these on a shelf, you should try one.

Closeup of the noodles, chicken nuggets, cabbage, and egg.

 More Instant Ramen Posts and Japanese Pop Culture.