We venture out of our comfort zone with fried chicken and hamburger-flavored instant noodles

Will the world’s most famous fast foods pair well with cup ramen?

For a somewhat conservative country like Japan, the country is really adventurous when it comes to food flavors. The recent Pringles cup ramen and yakisoba are perfect examples of their mad-scientist ingenuity.

Now, ramen noodle specialist Toyo Suisan Kaisha has just released two flavors of Maruchan QTTA cup ramen that might prove to be a hit for fast food lovers: hamburger and fried chicken. Seeing that these new flavors combined some of his favorite foods, our Japanese-language reporter Ishii Yota quickly tracked them down at the nearest supermarket for 180 yen (US$1.60) each.

▼ Hamburger on the left, fried chicken on the right.

The packaging appeared simple, with the hamburger one rocking a sesame seed bun illustration on the lid while the fried chicken had…well, some pieces of fried chicken.

Upon opening the hamburger-flavored noodles, an intense aroma of mayonnaise wafted up to Ishii’s nostrils. “That’s a good start,” he said while smiling.

▼ The smell from the fried chicken-flavored cup ramen
was not as strong as he expected though.

▼ After steeping the noodles for three minutes, it was time for a taste test.

Slurping a mouthful of hamburger-flavored noodles and wrinkling his forehead in concentration, Ishii noted that it tasted strangely more like pizza than anything else. Perhaps the closest thing to a hamburger would be the tiny meatballs that came with it.

▼ Overall, it had a rather heavy pizza aroma.

▼ And then it was time for the fried chicken-flavored cup ramen.

Once again, the flavor seemed to have missed its mark and tasted like soy sauce noodles instead. Although it was still passable, Ishii felt a little betrayed by the somewhat misleading label. Instant noodle companies tend to be spot on when it comes to flavors, so this was indeed surprising to him.

▼ The hamburger meatballs turned out to be better than this one’s.

Both Maruchan QTTA cup ramen came with flat noodles, and since their soups were so thick, they would definitely satisfy people who crave something with a bit more punch than usual. Ishii did not think these two met his expectations, but as someone who has also tasted some of the most exquisite cup noodles in Japan, who can blame him?

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