When preparing to travel out of country, one of the things I do is empty out my fridge to avoid wasted food and any spoilage.
During this recent trip, with 4 days to go and the desire to also save money, I looked to instant noodles for a quick, convenient, and inexpensive meal.
And luck would have it, I was gifted what looks like a year’s supply of Kang Shi Fu instant noodles in both the stove cooked packets in a bundle of 5, and the just add water and heat travel cups.
I do prefer the instant noodle cups because once you make them and eat them, you don’t have to wash any dishes afterwards.
Here, there are 5 varieties, each with 3 sauce packets, the entire line equivalent to some of the most flavourful broths I have ever tried. They are as follows, in the order I tried them.
Artificial chicken flavour with mushroom:
A lean broth with a peppery spice, not quite the umami mushroom flavour I was expecting. Instead, it reminds me of a Chinese style herbal broth, something your mother serves you when you are sick. However, with the cleaner broth it felt like it needed something else to make it more fulsome, like a protein. Here, I choose the classic poached egg for some textural substance.
Artificial beef flavoured with pickled vegetables:
By comparison, there was a lot of flavour in this cup, especially with the additional satchel of pickled vegetables and a unique tomato based spice broth. This one I enjoyed as is, without the need of add-on extras.
Braided artificial beef flavour:
There was just as much flavour here, as I have grown to expect from Kang Shi Fu at cup number 3. This was a richer soup, on the oily side, but I didn’t mind due to the overall flavour. There are even bits of dehydrated beef balls in the mix and plenty of carrot pieces for texture. I found myself finishing the broth as it warmed me inside and out.
Soyed artificial beef flavour:
This one had a warming spice, which reminded me of beef noodle soup with star anise. Yet another flavour I would not expect, given the name and the packaging. This got me thinking of how they can better advertise all this flavour in each cup. It would have been nice to have a thicker noodle to better absorb the flavour of such a tasty broth. As a whole, I would love to see a better quality of noodle from them, different types of noodle to more thoughtfully pair with each distinct flavour.
Artificial seafood:
This was the second leanest of all the broths. Still savoury and just as full of flavour as the above; despite it not looking like it. There were even freeze dried spiral fish cake slices, which I found whimsical. Out of all the ones to add veggies and meat to, this would be the one.
As a whole, a great brand of noodles and one I would considering grabbing more of the next time I am shopping at Walmart, Loblaws, Shoppers, or T&T.
