Review: Nissin Kimchi and Thai Tom Yum ramen
At the Xenos store, I recently found two new flavors of Nissin ramen: Kimchi and Thai Tom Yum. I have eaten instant ramen from YumYum with a shrimp flavored Thai Tom Yum soup before and I really liked it, so I have high expectations for this one from Nissin ramen. I have also been into Korean food lately, so the kimchi flavor sounded good to me too. For this review, I wanted to try something new, as ramen looks better in video than I can ever describe with words. Some people say that when they are on a diet and crave for something good, they look at YouTube videos of tasty food and pretend that they ate them. I have never tried that before (I actually craved for ramen, while I kept re-watching the video during editing), but I hope it works so that you can imagine eating these two ramen with me.
The Thai Tom Yum soup was orange-red and although the Tom Yum flavor was definitely there, I got the feeling that the flavors were toned down a bit. It was not very sour nor very spicy. All the flavors were well balanced. There was not a flavor that stood out more than the rest. I cannot help, but think that a squeeze of fresh lemon juice could have brought it to life.
The Nissin ramen with kimchi flavor had a deep red soup and it was very spicy, while you can still taste the kimchi flavor really well. This is quite a feat, because spiciness can drown out most of the other flavors in a dish. Of the two flavors of ramen, I am the most impressed by the kimchi flavor. I loved the heat, which was not too weak or too hot. It didn't linger for too long and it didn't go to the extent that it somewhat becomes a torture to your tongue. There was also a very distinguishable kimchi end flavor, which was a bit sour and refreshing.
After eating the ramen, I did get a dry mouth for the rest of the day, but that could just me being sensitive to everything.
What do I think?
Nissin ramen is one of my favorite instant ramen brands, as the noodles are chewy and they have a good flavor. I have never been disappointed in all the years that I have eaten it. So, I won't be wasting words on that and mainly, focus on the soup base.The Thai Tom Yum soup was orange-red and although the Tom Yum flavor was definitely there, I got the feeling that the flavors were toned down a bit. It was not very sour nor very spicy. All the flavors were well balanced. There was not a flavor that stood out more than the rest. I cannot help, but think that a squeeze of fresh lemon juice could have brought it to life.
The Nissin ramen with kimchi flavor had a deep red soup and it was very spicy, while you can still taste the kimchi flavor really well. This is quite a feat, because spiciness can drown out most of the other flavors in a dish. Of the two flavors of ramen, I am the most impressed by the kimchi flavor. I loved the heat, which was not too weak or too hot. It didn't linger for too long and it didn't go to the extent that it somewhat becomes a torture to your tongue. There was also a very distinguishable kimchi end flavor, which was a bit sour and refreshing.
After eating the ramen, I did get a dry mouth for the rest of the day, but that could just me being sensitive to everything.
