As if proof of my stupidity were needed – despite the name of the product, the helpful picture on the packet and clear written English instructions to the contrary, I failed to realise that I was supposed to drain the water from the noodles after they had softened and instead left it all in the bowl. Thus what should have been consumed as a dry noodle dish was in fact consumed by me as a noodle soup. Not one to go down with my sinking ship, I resolved to review these not as “dry noodles” but as “wet noodles” for now, and to revisit the (correctly prepared) same product at a later date. Onwards!
- Price: £1.20
- Manufacturer: Sichuan Baijia Food Co.
- Packet contains: noodles, oil pack, flavour pack, bean sprout pack.
Despite its intimidating deep red appearance, the sesame-littered soup was not as spicy as feared, in fact having a reasonably good aromatic flavour with a tasteful hint of aniseed. The whole thing was a very oily affair (the oils in question being “low-erucic acid rapeseed oil” and palm oil). The vegetables were supposedly bean sprouts, but they just looked like generic green stuff to me, and they didn't add much to the experience.
The unexpected twist in the tale of this amateurish noodle-preparation misadventure is that the never-ought-to-have-been soup was actually quite fantastic for slurping, owing mainly to the toothsome sesame seeds!
- Noodle rating: 2/5
- Spice level: ideal
- Flavour rating: 3/5
- Associated substance rating (“bean sprouts”): 2/5
- Slurp rating: 5/5
- Would noodle again?: I feel that my relationship with this endearing product has merely just begun.
Bonus factoid: The herbs/spices in this one include ginger, garlic, fermented soybean, cinnamon, liquorice, laurus nobilis (bay leaves, apparently), anise, lemongrass and cumin.