Saturday 11 January 2014

Food Product Review: King Soba Edamame Miso Ramen Noodles (adapted)

Rocket & Roses HQ Play List:

Portishead ~ Pedestal 
Fairground Attraction ~ Clare
Martina McBride ~ This One's For The Girls
Within Temptation ~ The Howling 
Foo Fighters ~ Low 
Pearl Jam ~ Getaway 
Little Big Town ~ Somewhere Far Away 
Tracy Chapman ~ Fast Car
Extreme ~ More Than Words
Stereophonics ~ Revolution
The Kinky Boys ~ Sexy Boy
Shakira ~ Underneath Your Clothes 
Buble ~ Hold On 
Beth Rowley ~ So Sublime 

Way back in 2012 I went on holiday to Wales and whilst there visited Aberystwuth and feel under the enchantment of the veggie cafe The Treehouse. They also had a fantastic health food shop on the bottom floor and I picked up quite a few items I can't buy where I live. One of those items was a packet of King Soba Edamame Miso Ramen Noodles. They are vegan and Gluten and Wheat Free. However, they were selected as an emergency meal item and so came back home with me and went into the stocks. 

One day when I committed myself to a full day catching up on paperwork and work...i.e strapping myself to the dining table (makeshift desk until the move! Urgh!) and working at the laptop until all caught up...no exceptions...well except for refreshment breaks. lol. I'm not that hard on myself. It was suddenly 3pm and when the keyboard started to look fuzzy I decided it was probably time to eat. 

I got to my kitchen and stood there with a blank expression and had to shake myself to the present and think about what I could eat. I didn't have the time to really cook and I also knew if I started that, I wouldn't leave the kitchen again..lol. I had some baby sweetcorn, spring onions, a half courgette and some radishes in the fridge and thought how good a steaming hot bowl of soup would be. I went to one of my stocks cupboards to look for dry ingredients to go with the veggies when the green packet of these noodles caught my eye. OK so I laughed at first because I felt sure they wouldn't still be in date. I climbed up to the shelf and retrieved them. And who knew...they still had another 2 months left on them. (I wasn't sure how I felt about that fact but anyway...lol) So it was decided...today was the emergency meal day. 

Even back in the day before I ate consciously I never understood nor felt the need for the instant noodles craze and remember recoiling in horror when invited to dinner and got offered a Pot Noodle. Yuck! No, thank you. And then recently I read an article on the nasties that they coat the cheap instant noodles with and that pretty much left me breathing a sigh of relief that I never consumed them. 

Now King Soba are quite clear on their ingredients and although I still felt a little weird cutting open a packet of 'flavouring' and adding it to the cooking broth and noodles, I still felt ok with their product. One of those instinct moments. However I did adapt it slightly by adding 1 chopped radish, 1 chopped spring onion, 1/2 chopped courgette, 4 chopped green beans at the initial boiling water and add noodles stage. I needed something fresh in my bowl of noodles. And the 4 minutes total cooking time left my veggies beautifully tender-crisp. So what was the taste like....

King Soba Edamame Miso Ramen Noodles with R&R additions

...well..the only miso soup I eat is my homemade kind. However it did take me a couple of mouthfuls of broth to decide that I actually liked it. Intensely savoury which for me is great and not salty which I hear some kind of processed miso dishes can be. I enjoy King Soba noodles and eat them regularly but as an, and i hate to use the term, instant noodle I found mine to be just too soft. Still enjoyable and I went with the whole slurping experience..lol. Maybe next time only cook for 3 minutes? I liked this bowl of soup. I wouldn't eat them as regularly as my own freshly made noodle soups but I would happily buy them for such moments as I found myself in that day. I will look out for them at our local health food store and try the other flavours. For a packet meal...not too shabby! lol 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your Saturday has been splendid...

~Red~