





●Introduction

I had American cup noodles about 10 years ago for the first time when I came to the US from Japan. I remember it tasted like shit. I thought Japanese cup noodles were much better back then. Now instant noodles are everywhere in the world. I wondered how the taste of instant noodles in the US changed nowadays from 10 years ago and how prevalent the instant noodles have become in the world since it was created after World War II in Japan. I analyzed it below.

How prevalent are the instant noodles in the world ?

I love instant noodles. I don’t think it’s a healthy food, but I love it. I have a great respect for Momohuku Ando who invented instant noodles after World War II. I am very impressed by the Nissin Group’s corporate philosophy 食足世平 (Shokusokusehei in alphabet). The philosophy means that peace will come to the world when the people have enough to eat. His experience about the lack of foods after World War II in Japan led him to start a food company, the precursor of Nissin, in 1948 and the philosophy became the purpose of company’s existence. It’s amazing that now his invention, instant noodles, are available everywhere in the world.

Today I would like to show you how prevalent the instant noodle became in the world by the figures below. I also put my personal ranking for 4 kinds of Nissin cup noodles in the US below in this article. The statistics are from World Instant Noodles Association.

Figure 1 illustrates increasing demand for instant noodles in the world from 2002 to 2018. As many as 100 billion of instant noodles were eaten in 2018 !

Figure 2 represents instant noodles consumption by country. China/Hong Kong consumes the most instant noodles in the world by far. USA’s ramen consumption has been increasing, but still the country is at 6th in the ranking. Japan is at the 3rd place.

Comparing Nissin Cup Noodles from America, Japan and Hong Kong by Taste

Nissin sells many types of their cup noodles in the US. I found mainly 4 kinds of Nissin cup noodles in the US, which are regular American type of cup noodles, Very Veggie which targets people who like vegetables, the product of Hong Kong, and Japanese type of cup noodles.

Here are the pictures of those 4 types and the personal ranking in terms of my Japanese taste for those Nissin cup noodles.

No1 Japanese Style, made in America, Seafood Flavor

Price: $1.75/serving

The price in the US seems more expensive than the same product in Japan. The price in Japan would be about $1.41/serving with the exchange rate of 110 yen per dollar if you bought it in Japan.

There are two flavors available in the US for the Japanese type of cup noodles, seafood flavor and curry flavor. I’ve had both and they are delicious! I like the seafood flavor the best among Nissin cup noodles.

Seafood cup noodle has small pieces of scrambled eggs, cabbage, and calamari. I think the noodles are softer and longer than other 3 types. When I slurp the noodle, I feel there is a good amount of noodles in my mouth. The chewing texture is better with Japanese seafood cup noodle.

You can buy through the Amazon link picture below if you want.

No2 Hong Kong Type, Seafood Flavor

Price: $1.79/serving

I have seen 5 flavors among Hong Kong cup noodles, artificial beef flavor, spicy seafood flavor, seafood flavor, crab flavor and artificial chicken flavor. I ate the seafood flavor to compare it with Japanese seafood type. Interestingly, there was corn in Hong Kong type instead of eggs as in the Japanese seafood type. Also, the soup was thinner than Japanese seafood cup noodle. There is less than 5mg of cholesterol in the product of Hong Kong while the cholesterol is 40mg in Japanese seafood flavor. It makes sense to me that the soup of Hong Kong seafood flavor tastes thinner. Also, the cup of Hong Kong type was made of plastic while the cup of Japanese type is a high quality styrofoam.

You can buy through the Amazon link picture below if you want.



No3 Very Veggie, Beef Flavor

Price: $0.78/serving

Seafood flavor is not sold for this Very Veggie brand in the US as of March 4th 2019, so I chose beef flavor to make a comparison. Certainly there are a lot of vegetables in it. I feel the noodles have enough moisture and the soy saucy flavor soup is very smooth and easy to drink with no cholesterol. Carrots, broccoli, and corns taste good too. This Very Veggie Beef Flavor was better than expected. The quality of cup is same as Japanese type, which I think is the best.

You can buy through the Amazon link picture below if you want.

No4 Regular American type, Shrimp Flavor

Price: $0.28/serving

First of all, isn’t this too cheap for a food ?! I understand that the price for product depends on where you buy the product, but the price of the cup noodle was 28 cents at a Walmart in the US. I thought 28 cents would be too cheap for human food. I have never had a Nissin cup noodle for 30 yen (28 cents with 110 yen per dollar) in Japan.

I chose shrimp flavor for this comparison because the shrimp flavor would be the closest flavor to seafood flavor among American type of Nissin cup noodles.

I had this American type of cup noodle about 10 years ago. Back then I thought the cup noodle tasted like an eraser in hot water with a little bit of soy sauce. I swore that I would never eat the American type of cup noodle again.

This time I think the taste was improved a little bit compared with 10 years ago, but I didn’t feel as much moisture in noodles as other types. Japanese types are definitely more delicious to me than this American type. The soup is thinner than the other 3 types above. The shrimp in the cup barely looks and tastes like shrimp. The cup looks to be made of very low quality styrofoam. I hope no toxic chemicals came out of the styrofoam when I poured hot water into the cup.

The cup says “MUCH MORE THAN A SOUP” as an advertisement. Please see the picture below. But it was just a soup, maybe even MUCH LESS THAN A SOUP. This food gave me no good surprise at all. I will never buy this cup noodle again.

Summary

Instant noodles, which were invented after World War II by Momohuku Ando, are now consumed about 100 billion servings a year in the world. As the global population increases, the instant noodles are eaten even more in the future.

Nissin cup noodle tasted like shit about 10 years ago in the US. I tried American Nissin cup noodles again after 10 years. The taste was improved although it was still not good enough to make me feel like eating it again in the future. I wonder why American people continue to like the taste of American Nissin cup noodle. I hope American people will realize there are more delicious instant noodles if you pay a little more.





