I have another of the regional instant ramen from Acecook. This time it is a Sendai Spicy Miso noodle cup from their "Drink Up" line up where you are supposed to have a tasty bit of soup to drink after eating all the noodles. Sendai was the domain founded by the famous samurai warlord Date Masamune (1567–1636) who fought during the Sengoku (Warring States) period and helped to unify Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate. I think he is featured on the cup's graphics with his iconic long horizontal crescent kabuto (ornament) on his helmet. Miso and rice were important food items for soldiers. Date Masamune ensured a supply for his military by building Japan's first miso factory, the Omisogura, at the base of Sendai Castle to ensure a supply for his military.
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Sendai! Drink Up noodle cup. It has the typical unitary colour theme of the lineup, but in a dull orange this time (for the colour of the miso soup?)
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Sendai ramen is usually flavored with soy sauce or miso. We're dealing with miso here, so what is miso? It is a fermented product made from soybeans, salt, rice koji (a malt), mugi (barley), and ferments from four months to a year. Sendai miso is a reddish thick paste that is slightly salty with a balance between sweet and bitterness. Miso has health benefits from being rich in antioxidants and it also aids digestion. Sendai miso can be enjoyed in the local miso ramen, a specialty of the area.
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The lid of the cup. It shows Date Musamune on horseback with some banners and bamboo.
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The front of the cup with SENDAI boldy displayed in red on white. It show some of the area's banners in the background with a large picture of Date Masamune in his iconic helmet.
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The miso ramen is shown in this part of the front of the cup. You can see the rich colour of the broth and bits of ground pork.
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Ingredients and preparation instructions.
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Nutritional Information.
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Golden noodles with miso soup base powder, green onions, menma, and ground pork on top.
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I added in boiling water, closed the lid for 3 minutes and then added in the miso sauce to finish off the soup base.
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The finished noodle soup had a lightly earthy miso scent that was pleasant to the nose. There is soy sauce, miso powder, pork extract, yeasts and such to give the soup umami. The soup was well flavoured with the additional miso sauce adding in extra richness with some oil. Everything rehydrated well from the noodles to the ground pork and menma (pickled bamboo shoot). The heat in the soup came from various spices including red pepper flakes that you could see. While this is a spicy miso soup it wasn't over the top as the heat level started mild and built to a medium low heat at a comfortable level. The noodles were thicker than normal with a nice chew to them. The menma were slightly crunchy and the pork had the ground meat texture you would expect. This is a recommended noodle cup if you like spicy miso, but not one that is terribly hot. I quite enjoyed this and got a history lesson on miso out of it too.
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Closeup of the noodles with a bit of ground pork and piece of menma.
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