5 Instant Noodles you must try in Taiwan
Don’t knock it until you try it.
Normally, I’m not a fan of instant ramen noodles. They’re chock full of sodium, full of ingredients I don’t fully understand, and aren’t usually filling. No wonder my university years were full of brown rice, plenty of greens and the occasional steamed fish or turkey burger.
But my time in Taiwan has changed me. The instant ramen noodles they have here live up to the testament of its Taiwanese creator. The other day, I partnered with Homey Hostel to bring you sampling of a few popular bowls.
You can catch the live session where I was joined by two Homey Hostel staff, Fendy and Paige here → Homey Hostel Facebook Live Show
Make sure to watch to the end for a *sweet* surprise. All in all, these packages are unlike most of other cup noodles you’ve tasted before. Let’s dive in.
1. ZYM Beef Flavoured Instant Noodles
This one surprised me. The fact that there’s minced pork inside did not necessarily strengthen its flavoring. The broth was light and the noodles went down smooth.
It was a perfect one to start off with as the taste was subtle. This would go great with your own serving of fresh vegetables. If you eat fish, this would be a perfect complement to that as well.
2. TTL Hua Tiao Chicken Noodles
As you can see in the live session, we mixed the seasoning and food packets from the Hua Tiao with the noodles from our #4 entry. Like Paige says in the video, the main thing is the seasoning. Which means that no matter what noodles you use, the seasoning packets determine the taste of your instant noodles.
Nevertheless, this one has real pieces of chicken. Real pieces of meat. One of the specialties of Taiwanese instant noodles, this cheap offering available at any convenience store or grocery will fill you up. Coupled with some white wine-infused seasoning, the broth tastes finely crafted, ready for righteous consumption. This is one of Paige’s favorites. You won’t find real pieces of meat and wine coupled together so cheaply elsewhere.
3. Uni-President Tang-Kwei Duck Flavor Instant Thin Noodles
This one was my favorite. It had the perfect amount of punch in the broth, and although there wasn’t anything like huge chunks of meat inside, it was quite filling. The spice and thickness of the soup was rich with seasoning you’d find on fresh duck. After digging into this, I was instantly drawn back to memories of having New Year’s meals in China with family.
Even more reason to eat this bowl more frequently, female ginseng or Tang-Kwei is used in traditional Chinese medicine. Commonly used in herbal brews focused on women’s health, this duck noodle has long taken Taiwan by storm. As well as my very own taste buds.
With herbal goodness sliding across my palate and a nice sachet of wine-infused seasoning supporting the dried duck meat, ginger, cabbage, and wolf berries, I had no complaints. The thin and soft noodles didn’t affect my first impression at all.
4. 满汉大餐麻辣鍋牛肉 Spicy Hot Pot Beef
Our guest, Fendy, absolutely loved this one. What’s funny is that he didn’t expect to like it at all before we began. His dedication to healthy, fresh food had his instant-ramen-noodle-eating-frequency at one bowl a month. During this live show he ate five months’ worth of the sodium-rich stuff.
Nevertheless, he fell in love with this one. Mostly because the pieces of meat were so satisfyingly large. Although the quality was far from proper restaurant level, the strength of this thick-warm-you-up-from-the-marrow sauce was unlike any of the other soups we had.
Like I said, at the end, when we put in our own dose of sweetness, the strength of the bowl coupled with our odd addition just didn’t go well together. This bowl is most definitely something you can enjoy by itself.
5. A-Sha Tainan Sesame Flavour Noodle
We ended our live session with some dry noodles. This was a great follow up to the strong beef flavoring of Fendy’s favorite. While the former ruptured your day, this one laid you gently to bed.
This one had a light flavoring to it that would have made a perfect complement to the pudding dessert we added at the end. Yes. You read that correctly. We added sweet pudding to our noodles.
Popularized by a Taiwanese writer, we listened to his words, “Don’t knock it until you try it.” We ultimately chose to add the pudding to our favorite bowls. Me with the duck. Fendy on the beef. Needless to say you can see our reactions here → Homey Hostel Facebook Live Show
Overall, this was a great experience of getting a taste of Taiwanese culture firsthand. Paige helped Fendy and I destroy our expectations about instant noodles and find favorites out of the selection sponsored by Homey Hostel. Once again, the old thought behind connecting with a culture through their food is valid.
Despite being cheap and abundant everywhere, these bowls of light instant noodles carry weighty history. Created by Momofuku Ando, a Taiwanese-born Japanese immigrant, these cup noodles have taken off to become a worldwide phenomenon loved by many. Ando’s legacy has gone on to even feed those in disaster hit regions as tracked by his organization World Instant Noodles Association.