It used to be that there were just Donbei for Kitsune (fried tofu for fox) Udon or Tempura Udon, but there are now many varieties, and they are not all dashi soups either. I picked up the Nissin Donbei Curry Udon the other day. It has double dashi of beef for umami and bonito flakes and kombu for more umph! Their product description basically says "Curry udon noodles with a rich taste, made with a double dashi of beef, bonito flakes and kombu seaweed." BTW, I was wondering what Donbei means for this product line too and as far as I can tell the DON comes from UDON and word play on being warm and kind, while the BEI is a common name that is recognizable and friendly too. So it is a warm fuzzy kind of brand name.
I always like a nice Japanese curry soup myself so I thought this noodle bowl should be pretty delicious!
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3/4 view of the typical Donbei bowl. It is very yellow with bold black lines and trim. It would be easily recognizable on a shelf.
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The lid of the bowl show a very tasty looking udon noodle curry soup with rich golden brown tones and bits of beef, veg, and fried tofu. It even has a nice image of the thick noodles coated with curry soup.
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| Ingredients |
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Nutritional information and allergens.
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Directions and preparation warnings along with manufacturers info.
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Opening the bowl shows a packet of soup base powder and a packet of dried topping which include bits of beef, carrot, green onion, and fried tofu.
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Closeup of the soup base powder and toppings.
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You add boiling water to the fill line then close the lid for 3 minutes for everything to rehydrate.
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This was a nice tasting curry noodle soup. You could smell a light curry aroma from the powdered soup basewhen the packet was opened. The soup itself was a nice light curry, not like the thick soup you would get in Curry Cup Noodle, and it had good flavour from the dashi based adding to the umami of the curried soup. The flat udon noodles rehydrated nicely and had the usual pleasant chew and bite on the medium end of things. The curry soup accompanied the noodles very nicely. Having the garnishes such as the bits of beef and fried tofu made the soup look more substantial, but they are just nice touches to accompany the noodles. It was all very tasty and I wouldn't turn down a bowl if I was offered one and would pick up another if an opportunity presented itself. I don't think it trumps the regular tempura / kitsune varieties, but it would make a nice change every so often.
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