Here comes yet another flavor from Indomie. I think their strategy is to package all possible combinations of their huge array of flavor packets and call them each a new flavor. In some cases, such as Indomie's Mi Goreng, this is highly successful. In other cases, such as this one, the broth really lacks any distinctive quality.
In a word, I would call these noodles bland. I was disappointed that Indomie didn't include fried red onion, since they are known to do this in their instant noodle packages. The broth tastes a little bit like onion and a little bit like chicken but it is not very strong. After my first sip, I realized that these noodles were practically begging for a healthy dose of Sriracha sauce. I was happy to oblige them and turned the broth a fiery red color.
If you are not familiar with Sriracha sauce, I highly recommend you pick up a bottle at your neighborhood Asian grocery store. These noodles provide a perfect backdrop for Sriracha sauce because they are very plain on their own and need an additional kick to liven them up. On their own, I would definitely not recommend these noodles but they taste pretty good with a big dollop of Sriracha.
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Indomie Instant Noodles - Onion Chicken Flavor - 3.5/10
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Indomie Instant Noodles - Onion Chicken Flavor
Posted by Alvin at 3:18 PM 3 comments
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Indomie Instant Noodles - Chicken Curry Flavor
Thanks to 99 Ranch Market, I have recently discovered the very wide range of flavors that Indomie offers. One of those is Chicken Curry Flavor. The packaging proudly indicates that this pack now comes with fried onion. The instructions indicate that the fried onion is to be added right at the end as a garnish.
This pack of noodles comes with 4 seasoning sachets. I've passed the point where I am impressed by Indomie's high number of seasoning pouches and see it just as an annoyance. The flavor of the broth is remarkably similar to the Mie Sedaap Jelas Terasa Sedapnya. It is a mix of lemon and curry with very little chicken taste.
The lemon flavor for the curry is a little bit unusual for someone that is more used to the spicy Indian-style curry. I am guessing that this is the Indonesian style of curry rather than the Indian or Western styles. The fried red onion is a nice finishing touch to these noodles. As I have noted before, Indomie's noodles are nothing special and they usually rely on complex flavoring to provide the majority of enjoyment. For me, the curry was a little bit strange but I'm sure that people that prefer this style of curry will enjoy these noodles.
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Indomie Instant Noodles - Chicken Curry Flavor - 5.0/10
Posted by Alvin at 2:49 PM 1 comments
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Indomie Instant Noodles - Shrimp Flavor
I am usually not a fan of seafood flavored ramen. They often come out tasting like aquarium water. However, seafood soups are a staple of Chinese and Korean cuisine and so the neverending array of artificial seafood flavored instant noodles continues. This pack is from IndoMie and is called the Rasa Kaldu Udang flavor. Conveniently, they also translated the name into English (something that they don't always do on their packaging).
Indomie's most popular offering by far is their Mi Goreng. This is for good reason, since the flavors are extremely well executed, with 4 or 5 unique spice packets, depending on your variant. The shrimp flavor, on the other hand, only has two spice packets, one for chili powder and one for the shrimp flavoring. Unlike the Mi Goreng, the shrimp flavor instant noodles are served in a broth.
The Indomie noodles are plain and typical instant noodles. They aren't particularly flavorful since they are usually served with an intense sauce in the Mi Goreng. Here, the shrimp flavor is nice and subtle. It definitely tastes artificial, almost like the manufactured shrimp flavor in Maruchan's shrimp noodles. I was appreciative that there was no aquarium water taste, but overall unimpressed because I have so often seen Indomie do incredible things with their flavor combinations. I don't think their noodle soups are very good, so I would recommend to stick to their dry noodle products like Mi Goreng and Mi Goreng Rasa Baso Sapi.
Indomie Instant Noodles - Shrimp Flavor - 3.5/10
Posted by Alvin at 8:01 AM 0 comments
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Indomie - Soto Mie Flavor
This pack of noodles is made by Indomie and is imported from Indonesia. The flavor is "soto mie", which is a type of noodle soup common in Indonesia. I don't know too much about it, but Wikipedia's page has a little bit more information on Sotos.
Indomie's instant noodles usually have very strong and complex flavors. I am not familiar with Indonesian cuisine at all, and the closest thing I can think of to Indomie's flavors in general is Thai cuisine. They are usually a mix of spicy, sweet, sour, and salty all in one. With that said, I was surprised to discover that this packet had a relatively simple flavor. The broth tasted mostly of lime with a little spiciness and a curry taste, probably from turmeric. However, it was mild to the point of being bland and wasn't a particularly savory or interesting flavor.
The noodles themselves were also boring. Much less flavorful than the typical Japanese and Korean noodles, these were bland and did nothing to improve this dish. I never noticed how bland these noodles were in the past, because they were always coated with Indomie's superb blend of sauces and spices in Mi Goreng Rasa Baso Sapi and Mi Goreng. While those were delicious offerings, I would suggest staying away from this one. You might enjoy it if you enjoy the original dish on which this is based. It remains to be seen whether or not any of Indomie's noodle soups are good, or whether they only excel at dry noodles.
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Indomie - Soto Mie Flavor - 2.0/10
Posted by Alvin at 4:21 PM 10 comments
Labels: Indonesia, Vegetarian
Saturday, April 29, 2006
IndoMie - Mi Goreng Rasa Baso Sapi
I had previously lamented the fact that IndoMie's offerings are only 85g and are rather inadequate, especially with the increased effort of having to open up to 5 flavor packets. So I was happy to find the "Jumbo" version of one of IndoMie's Mi Goreng Rasa Baso Sapi, which comes in at 120g. The translation of the name is "Beef Fried Noodles".
IndoMie's noodles generally have cooking instructions slightly different than typical instant noodles. You are supposed to cook the noodles and dump all the seasoning packets onto a plate. Then, you drain the noodles and transfer them to the plate and mix everything together. It seems like a cool idea to have 5 flavoring packets (seasoning powder, seasoning oil, sweet soy sauce, chili powder, and fried onion), but it turns into a giant pain when it is actually time to open them all, especially since they are attached to each other.
Overall, the taste was quite similar to the IndoMie Mi Goreng that I tried before. The noodles are rather oily and the taste is dominated by the sweet soy sauce and the fried red onion. The flavor is quite good and unique and I'm glad that IndoMie has a reasonable size instead of their tiny 85g package.
IndoMie - Mi Goreng Rasa Baso Sapi - 8.5/10
Posted by Alvin at 1:07 PM 7 comments
Friday, January 20, 2006
IndoMie Instant Noodles - Mi Goreng
Sandi has already reviewed these Indonesian noodles, but I thought I would add my own two cents. First off, they come in a miniscule 85g package. Interestingly, my packaging is different than the one Sandi had. I suspect that she had the English version, since mine had no English whatsoever on it. In fact, I had to try to deduce the cooking instructions based on the pictures. Good thing it's pretty simple to make instant noodles.
Unlike most instant noodles, these need to be drained of water before you add the flavoring. It seemed kind of cool that there were 5 seasoning sachets until I realized what a pain this was. First of all, they are attached to each other so you need to cut them apart in order to open them. Secondly, the sauces (especially the soy sauce) is strangely thick and it's impossible to squeeze them out with getting the sauce all over your fingers. Not an auspicious way to begin your meal...
Reading over Sandi's old post, I realize that my flavor sachets were actually different from hers. I had 5 total, which were seasoning oil, chili oil, strangely thick soy sauce, seasoning powder, and fried red onion. The fried red onion was a great touch. As expected, this conglomeration of diverse flavors produces a complex and interesting flavor to the noodles. Very tasty, but it is disappointing that the size is so small and it is almost a hassle to add all the ingredients. Plus, I think I am traumatized by that soy sauce. Honestly, it has the appearance and consistency of Hershey's chocolate syrup! But I feel the flavor more than makes up for these deficiencies. I probably won't get these noodles again just because they are too small...it's a shame since the flavor is quite good.
IndoMie Instant Noodles - Mi Goreng - 7.5/10
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Posted by Alvin at 1:21 PM 10 comments
Labels: Indonesia, Vegetarian
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Mie Sedaap Jelas Terasa Sedapnya
Hmm, I'm not really sure if I got the name of these instant noodles right, since there is very little English on the packaging. These noodles come from Indonesia and weigh in at a measly 72g. Judging by the picture, I think the flavor is supposed to be some kind of Chicken Curry, although it is hard to know for sure. Anyone know what "Jelas Terasa Sedapnya" means?
At first, I was pleasantly surprised to find that there were four flavor packets inside. Usually there are only one or two, so this seemed extra special. Soon, however, my delight turned to annoyance as I discovered they could not easily be ripped open by hand. Instead, they had to be cut with scissors. And even more annoying: the oil packet dripped on my scissors, requiring me to wash them afterwards. The four packets seemed to be: seasoning powder, chili powder, curry powder, and flavored oil.
It bothered me at first why all the powders came in separate packets. But after carefully reading the instructions again, it turns out you are supposed to add the curry powder last and sprinkle it over the top of everything. Whoops! But I'm sure it hardly makes any difference anyways. I guess the reason they put the chili powder separately is for people who don't want their soup to be spicy.
The noodles are disappointingly small, as I had expected based on the weight of the package. The soup flavor makes up for this deficiency, though. It tastes like a lemon curry with a little kick from the chili powder. I instantly thought of Thai food, but that might just be because Thai is the closest I've ever had to Indonesian food. The blend of flavors was really quite good; almost enough to offset the small amount of noodles and the annoyances of the flavor packets.
Mie Sedaap Jelas Terasa Sedapnya - 7.0/10
Posted by Alvin at 1:34 PM 8 comments
Thursday, December 29, 2005
IndoMie Instant Noodles - Mi Goreng
Is it ramen if it doesn't come in soup? And if it's labeled on the front as kosher?
This 80 gram "ramen" hails from Indonesia and comes with an amazing four seasoning sachets. According to the back of the package, these sachets contain soy sauce, seasoning oil, seasoning powder, and chili powder.
Eating this ramen was an interesting experience because I have no idea what flavor it was supposed to be. It turns out to be sweet, salty, and spicy. The oil plus the fried noodles make the overall texture quite slippery, and I can't help but feel that it is quite fattening, but maybe that's why it's only 80 grams. Overall it's an interesting flavor and soft tasty noodle, but I prefer the regular ramen soups.
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Posted by Sandi Lin at 8:09 PM 3 comments
Labels: Indonesia, Vegetarian