Sunday, September 17, 2006

Maruchan Instant Lunch - Lime Chili Flavor With Shrimp

Amazingly, the Ramen Lovers blog has not reviewed a single American instant noodle up to this point. So at Ralph's last week, I decided to pick up the most disgusting sounding flavor of Maruchan just to prove once and for all the utter crappiness of American ramen. This particular one is Lime Chili Flavor With Shrimp.

Maruchan's headquarters is just a stone's throw away from my office in Irvine, CA. Surprisingly, Maruchan has become immensely popular in Mexico, which may partially explain their headquarters' location in Southern California. This particular flavor may be designed to appeal to Mexican tastes, as it contains Lime and Habanero chili, both of which are commonly found in Mexican cuisine (and not in Asian cuisine).


The Instant Lunch line of noodles comes with their own styrofoam cup, so all you need to do is fold back the lid and pour some boiling water in. The biggest strike against the Maruchan brand is the cheap inferior noodles they use, and this one is no exception. They are extremely thin and completely flavorless. I guess Maruchan doesn't realize that good noodles can actually enhance the experience.


I was shocked by how good the broth turned out. They certainly lived up to their billing, being extremely hot and spicy, yet with a strong flavor of lime as well. The dehydrated shrimp were a nice touch, instead of being disgusting as I had expected. As with most Maruchan instant noodles, there is a pleasantly high amount of vegetables. Overall, these had a very good flavor, but I wish the noodles themselves matched up to the surprisingly flavorful and potent broth.

Maruchan Instant Lunch - Lime Chili Flavor With Shrimp - 6.5/10

33 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the broth as well...Maruchan will always have inferior noodles but I think the tasty broth makes up for it when I'm lazy. I've only had the bag version rather than the cup...there's no dehydrated shrimp in the bag version.

Anonymous said...

I cant tell you how much I adore this fine meal... Yes, I said meal! I am a college student and find Lime Chili Shrimp the best flavor of them all!! I used to be able to buy them in the bagged form and have recently only been able to buy them in the cup form... Regardless, these handy meals have literally saved my life!! I am positive when i get myself out of my financial slump, I will always find enjoyment from my favorite Lime Chili Shrimp Instant Lunch !!!!

- Seth NW Pennsylvania

Anonymous said...

The Maruchan Instant Lunch, Lime/Chili Flavor With Shrimp is an interesting item. In Texas I can get a six pack of these and other flavors for $1.48 at Walmart. Two of these make an excellent lunch. My only complaint about the Lime Chili flavor is that it is not hot enough. I have to use El Yucateco Chile Habanero Hot Sauce to get them full flavored. At $.25 a cup, you can well afford to add other flavoring to them.

Anonymous said...

OK, I just went online looking for a place to review this lime chili garbage. Too gross, I got a 6 pack for $1.17 at Walmart and I got exactly what I paid for. My mouth is on fire and I couldn't taste anything other than lime and ouch. BIG HUGE thumbs down.

Anonymous said...

Can anyone tell me where I can buy Ramen Maruchan noodles and have them send to Denmark??? I filled a whole suitcase w them on my last trip to the US and I LOOOOVE them

Anonymous said...

i am eatin a marauchan right now. i am a sophmore in college and i cant always afford "real food" so i eat a instant lunch at 25 cents a pop i can buy a 24 pack box add mor lemon and Tapatio hot sause and i am good tell dinner. which is most likly a nothe microwave meal.

chris SO CAL

Anonymous said...

This is one of many products of Maruchan instant lunch that I love..there great...and come on you dont pay much for them so you do get what u pay for...its an easy snack or lunch...another great flavor is the Instant Lunch Shrimp Lime and Habanero flavor...WOW! its the best of all I believe. Maruchan Rocks!

Anonymous said...

i havent tasted this .. i love the roast chicken .. walmart is the only store has them cheaper.. instead of here paying 32 cents per cup, i can get whole 6 pack here for $1.48, it prolly went up. Not sure. CVS is a ripoff 99 cents each.

Anonymous said...

they are delicious, especially with lemon and piquin chili peppers and salt...yum

Anonymous said...

Does anybody know what happened to maruchan's jalapeno cheddar flavor? I have been unable to find it anywhere. I just went to my mom's house for the weekend, and found one. I think it might have been the most delicious thing ever. Think about it: the price and time required for this meal are essentially zero, so if it tastes even a little good, then you're golden.

Anonymous said...

Pretty good I guess..Myttheory is that all of us are cheap f#*$s for even eating this sh%^,bottom line! So enjoy what food your coins paid for..LOL..

Anonymous said...

Just watch out for the MSG in this product!

Anonymous said...

These ones are my FAVORITE!
I buy them all the time, and my family says I couldn't possibly live on this things, for I would get too sick of them.
But I'll NEVER get tired of them.
They're so darn good.

Hikaru Kazushime said...

I'm eating one right now, and just tweeted about this post on Twitter actually. Love it! Just wish it had a bit less sodium...

Justin said...

I do feel guilty about all these Styrofoam cups I toss into the landfill. Is there anyway I could get a message to Maruchan about "Cradle to Cradle" design systems to end the non-recyclable parts of the production process? Info here:
http://bit.ly/kPdU

Anonymous said...

to many, the maruchan lunch is an easy way to fill a hungry stomach in a timely manner. however, do these "instant lunch" consumers truely acknowlage the nutrition facts posted on each instant cup of noodles? I dont think so. The ingrediants contained in these "affordable" lunches range from dehydrated veggies, to an endless list of preservatives, followed by man-made corn syrups used to enhance artificial flavors.
This meal is almost eqivilent to eating cardboard, in the sense that is has no nutritional value.

I am by no means telling the maruchan consumers to stop eating their "deliciouse" snack, i am simply saying that saving five dollars on a not-so-healthy lunch, could end up costing you a lot more down the road in medical bills.

i am saying CHOSING THIS SNACK OVER VEGETABLES OR PROTIEN IS A MISTAKE. and dont be fooled by the label that implies this lunch contains nutrients. Children should stay away from this snack, and parents should not be feeding their children such horrible foods.

Anonymous said...

Apparantly the author has never eaten Asian food, or at least ventured outside his local chinese fast food restaurant.

Chili, Shrimp, and Lime are all very popular ingredients in Asian cooking. In fact if you go to any thai or vietnamese restaurant you are pretty much guaranteed to get those three ingredients in almost every bowl of soup you can order on the menu.

Kraughne said...

Lime Chili/Shrimp is pretty good. I'm eating Roast Chicken right now. Yum.

Anonymous said...

I am not in college but I still each Ramen noodles. They have been my instant meal specially in this economy. I enjoyed the cream of muchroom and creamy chicken flavors until recently. Maruchan must have changed the flavor formula for the creamy chicken and it tasted like scraped iron with shrimp crap mixed. I am willing to try it again in a little while when I hope that batch is either used up or discarded. The memory of the awful taste is still with me. Does anyone know whow to get in touch with the company? I sent a letter to their California office, I got no response.

Anonymous said...

the shrimp tasted like rubber D:

Prism said...

I've never had Lime Chili Shrimp, but Lime Shrimp absolutely disgusts me. It is the only Maruchan flavor I've had that I didn't like.

On another note, I by Cream of Chicken all the time, and it tastes fine to me. I'm going to go with the bad batch theory!

Anonymous said...

I am a corrections officer in fl. with our strict procedures we are not allowed to bring anything that is not factory sealed or it has to be completely clear so these Lil guy's come pretty handy when you work a double 16 hrs with 1300 of the worst people in the world i'm a little bit more worried about getting shanked then MSG's

Anonymous said...

I've found that letting the noodles "stand" for longer than the package says makes for more flavorful noodles! The wrapper says 3 minutes, but I let 'em hang out for at least 10. Then they absorb some of the soup flavor and are scrumptious. :)

Anonymous said...

I just ate a hot and spicy chicken Ramen and not 3 minutes afterward shit myself. Never had that happen before. Anyone else?

Anonymous said...

Never had a ramen make a quick exit on me like yours did, but once when I was outta work, I bought like 10 cases of varying flavors at Walmart with my last paycheck. When I got to the end of them, the Hot and Spicy Shrimp had an odd smell and taste to them. I still ate them because I was still unemployed and broke. After that, I didn't get a boner for like 2 months. I thought they might be related.

Anonymous said...

3/19/2011:
I was just searching for Ramen stuff on the web and read your post. About 2 years ago, I had a gyno appointment and wasn't supposed to eat anything from the night before (my appt was at 11). By the time my appt was done (about 1PM), I was famished. Since I had the day off from work and it was a Friday, I planned on going to a couple different malls/outlet centers for a shopping spree. I was too hungry to think straight so I stopped home and ate 2 hot and spicy shrimp ramens. About an hour later, about 5 mins from the outlet center - and stuck in traffic, mind you - a crippling lower stomach pain came over me. I tried to hold it in and I was nowhere a bathroom. I couldn't hold it any longer and shit a monster log into my favorite sweats. I almost threw up from the smell, which had the odor of White Castle diarrhea, a Taco Bell dump and the buffalo area at the zoo. I wound up spending an hour driving back home to clean things up. I had shit everywhere: all up my ass crack and even in my cunt! Obviously a bad day!

Anonymous said...

A couple weeks ago, I tried the Lime Chili Shrimp flavor and wasn't impressed. By the same token, it's a 16 cent package of processed food with no real food in it so what's the difference how good it is??? They were good enough to have again but words to the wise: do *NOT* eat these after a night of heavy drinking! Just before passing out on my bed, I projectile vomited three times all over my bedroom, ruining my new comforter and pillow-top mattress. When I came to, I realized that I also shit and pissed myself more than once. I already threw the balance of the Lime Chili Shrimp Ramen in the garbage. Hope your luck was better than mine!

Anonymous said...

I was just jerking off to the thought of Angelina Jolie going down on Halle Berry when Lime Chili Shrimp Ramen popped into my head! I couldn't figure it out but I was thinking that Angelina had a few drinks before (so that's where the Lime part comes in) and Halle just had some Malayasian food before they hooked up), hence the spicy part.
Well, the shrimp part? Draw your own conclusions on that and that's the part that made me blow my wad!

Anamorphosis said...

This is my favorite cheap ramen! But not the cup. The cup tastes very different than the Maruchan brick. My evil housemate was the one who made me be hooked on the Maruchan chili lime shrimp. I would eat it every once in a while. But then, then entire city and it's surrounding areas suddenly banished this flavor. For the past few years I have been hunting. I tried to make my own with more quality ingredients. Nothing worked. I broke down and bought a box off Amazon for about a buck a pop. Can you imagine paying a buck a pop for Maruchan ramen? Such is my shame. I am splitting the drop with my former housemate who is responsible for getting me hooked on the goods.

Tommy said...

I kinda like it but its too spicy is there a way to cool it down???

Anonymous said...

Yo tommy use half a lemon and it'll taste a lil less spicy and maybe better to you

Anonymous said...

Use half a lemon it'll taste better and less spicy, maybe if you like it a lil more lemony but I like it that way

scir from brighton beach, brooklyn, new york, USA said...

this flavor is DELICIOUS. someone up above said that this is not healthy. yes, this is equivalent to potato chips. warmed up and soft potato chips in noodle form. this is 100% junk food (if you even want to call it food to begin with). i usually get this flavor or the regular shrimp in dry packets rather than the cup based on availability. you can always add your own meats to the prepared noodles which makes it that much greater. the flavor packet maruchan uses is done very well. it's very tasty. i have this about once a month or so as there was a recent article stating how the noodles "stick" to your intestines and are just bad in general for digestion, never mind just nutrition. https://academic.oup.com/jn/article/144/8/1247/4637708