Pre-pandemic Vancouver was cited to have our own Momofuku, the trendy ramen bar popularized in celebrity chef David Chang’s home town of New York.
Momofuku also has a location in Toronto Canada, which I actually got to visit many years ago. And to be honest, then and there I had ramen in citrus forward broth and didn’t think too much of it, just happy to have had the experience of trying it.
So when I saw that Momofuku now had their own brand of instant noodles I wanted to try them too, but didn’t get too excited for the results.
If you search online a pack 5 runs from $24-27 Canadian. Steep considering I find $15 a lot to spend on a set of internationally imported instant noodles. But with the celebrity endorsement, the legacy of the built brand, and the quality of the make, I was willing to pay to play. And knew I had to try all 3 of the available flavours.
Luckily, local snack hot spot The Canteen on Commercial Drive sold the packs separately, so I was paying around $5 per pack to try each flavour. One each without having to commit to 25 packs in order to try all 3 varieties, and risk not wanting to finish the rest.
Momofuku has partnered up with already famous instant noodle brand A-sha Foods of Taiwan to bring their flavours to the world of fast and convenient noodles. These instant noodles are made with no preservatives or artificial flavours. Each pack is air dried and is not fried or frozen. They are listed as having 0 grams of transfat and no cholesterol. And it upholds Momofuku’s brand promise to provide “serious good food”.
Available in 3 flavours, you prepare them like you would any other packet of instant noodles. Adding dried noodles to a boiling pot of water, cooking until tender, then removing from heat and into a bowl; to be tossed together with the packets of sauces. No power here, just liquid dressing.
The Soy and scallion noodles come with a packet for the sauce and one for the dried scallions. It has a sweeter soy flavour with the herbaceous-ness of the scallion offering fragrance and additional substance.
The Spicy soy has a similar flavour to the soy and scallion, but with a subtle heat that grew the more you ate, leaving a gentle tingle on your lips.
And Tingly chilli gave you an enjoyable spicy tingling sensation from numbing peppercorn on a thick wavy noodle.
I loved the texture of all the noodles and how each flavour had a different thickness of noodle. The sauces were tasty as promised and there was enough of it to fully coat everything. However for someone who often has instant noodles (at least once a week) and likes adding more to them, I needed more toppings here. I felt the noodles were boring to chew through as is, and thought maybe some dried vegetables or a packet of seaweed could help add some excitement and add value to the price tag.
In short fun to try, but they will not be replacing my go to instant noodle brand.
