Nissin Demae Ramen Beef Flavour
The ubiquitous design of the Demae Ramen by Nissin can be found all over the world.
Nissin Demae Ramen is a very interesting case of instant ramen that is way more popular and available outside of Japan, compared to inside of Japan. While there are dozens of flavors available outside of Japan, Nissin currently only offers one standard non-descript flavor in Japan on their website. Hint: It’s shoyu flavored. Beef is an interesting flavor for instant ramen, since it is not really a traditional ramen flavor in Japan, neither for instant noodles nor for real ramen at ramen shops. There’s probably less than a dozen ramen shops in Tokyo that offer ramen with beef component and it does not seem like the trend is going to pick up anytime soon.
Picked up the Demae Ramen Beef Flavour pack while I was in Europe, more specifically in Germany. I remember seeing this flavor already over 20 years ago in the local supermarkets and would argue that it is probably one of the standard flavors of Demae Ramen in Europe. And I am sure I had this more than once during my student days when I had to make each Euro count.
After having had so many good instant ramen in Japan, I am surely a bit spoiled when it comes to the quality and flavor. Due to this, looking at the noodles after opening the package, I already did not have very high expectations. Especially since all the cup noodles I had from Europe so far had really bad noodles, like really really bad noodles.
Deep fried ramen brick comes with soup powder and seasoning oil.
Content
Nissin Demae Ramen Beef Flavour comes with a fried instant noodle brick of thin and curly noodles. Additionally you will find seasoning oil and soup powder sachets in the packaging. There are no other toppings or freeze dried components, so be ready to add some stuff on top by yourself.
Preparation
The packaging gives you the following instructions for this Demae Ramen:
Put noodles into 500ml of boiling water for 3 minutes.
Transfer water and noodles into bowl, add seasoning oil and soup powder. Mix well.
Added seasoning oil and soup powder on top, difficult to thoroughly mix due to the noodles. Better add seasoning first.
My suggestions would be to add the seasoning oil and soup powder into the bowl first and stir with some of the noodle water to distribute it well.
Finished Nissin Demae Ramen Beef Flavour, seasonings all mixed throughout.
Review
I honestly did not expect much from this product. I was even prepared to take a couple of bites and slurps for the review and throw the rest away. That did not happen. Instead, I finished the whole bowl.
The noodles mainly stay curly like in the brick, even after cooking.
Let me start with the noodles, as they are usually one of my main gripes with the European instant and cup noodles. In short, they are fine. Not good, not bad, but fine. Definitely superior compared to any of the instant cup noodles I have tried from Nissin Europe. While it is generally true that instant noodles made in the pot are superior to cup noodles in terms of noodle quality, the gap is staggering here. They had an ok bite and flavor, with some clear aroma that points towards them being fried.
Next is the soup, which is light brown in color with dispersed droplets of the seasoning oil floating on top. I have a hard time describing the flavor and the ingredient list does not reveal too many hints. I would describe it as a slightly weird mix of shoyu ramen and pho, with some distinct spices that come through which you will normally not find in ramen, but rather in pho. The flavor profile in general goes more into a general shoyu ramen direction, but in a slightly spiced way. The base seems to be artificial beef flavor, which is somewhat recognizable.
I don’t want to oversell it here, the soup is still quite light and not very powerful in flavor, but definitely enjoyable if you like both ramen and pho.
And I will admit, I did enjoy it more than would have thought. Does that mean that it is good and I would recommend it over Japanese products? Not really. But within the European product range, these are probably in the upper 50% of quality.
“Nissin Demae Ramen Beef Flavor is like a weird mix of ramen and pho without powerful flavors, but also without clear quality flaws like other European instant noodles.”
5 out of 10
