Now you can enjoy Ajisen Ramen at home! The globe-spanning Ajisen Ramen chain now has their very own kumamoto nama ramen! I don’t usually mention price in my reviews, but it bears noting that Ajisen’s nama ramen is the most expensive nama ramen I’ve seen, at just under $7 for a pack of 2. Another interesting thing about this nama ramen is that the 2 noodle servings are not individually packaged as every other brand’s nama ramen is: you’re going to need to eat both servings relatively soon after you open the package.

Ajisen’s nama ramen broth is rich, slightly nutty with a distinct sesame seed flavor. I was surprised at how flavorful the broth was. The hard and thin noodles, on the other hand, had no character, and doesn’t absorb the soup very well. The MSG-sensitive may also have issues with the heavy MSG flavor in this ramen.

On the plus side, the packaged ramen tastes remarkably similar to the in-store ramen. I’m not sure what that says about the ramen they serve in the restaurants, but this is a tasty, if overpriced nama ramen.

Ajisen Ramen’s nama ramen gets a 6.5 out of 10, with a half-point deducted for the price and for not wrapping both batches of noodles individually.

I realized after the fact that my last review was post #200. Though the majority of my earlier posts were not much more than the blogging equivalent of caveman grunts, allow me a moment to pat myself on the back for reaching a milestone, even if it took me long enough to do it.

It’s a happy coincidence that this “just-missed-being-a-milestone-post” reviews the nama version of Kurume Taiho’s tonkotsu ramen. If you’ve never heard of Kurume Taiho, know that the rameniac likens the several hours journey from Tokyo to Kurume Taiho to the ramen fan’s equivalent of a pilgrimage and Go Ramen! raved about their nama ramen’s “harmonious balance of flavor.”

I’m a sucker for good packaging, and sometimes, it’s the understated simple designs that are the most elegant. I really like the packaging of the Taiho Kurume ramen, and now, thanks to Keizo, I have the opportunity to see firsthand whether or not the quality of the ramen inside matches the gorgeous packaging outside.

On a good day, my Japanese reading skills probably hover around a 2nd grade level, so much of the detailed instructions were lost on me. But with the help of the nostalgically whimsical drawings, and the clearly defined cooking times (30, 60, 90, or 120 seconds, depending on how hard you want the noodles to be), I was able to figure out the appropriate steps to take.

Besides the noodles and soup base, the ramen came with a packet of beni shōga, and an interesting looking packet of sesame seeds. While my two pots of water boiled, (one for the noodles, one for the soup) I squeezed the tonkotsu concentrate out into my bowl. The soup base may not look appealing, but it smelled like heaven: pure pork-bone essence. The water reached boiling point, and 90 seconds later (90 seconds for “normal” textured noodles), my ramen was ready.

My first slurp of soup revealed an incredibly smooth and mellow flavor. The tonkotsu soup glides down your throat but leaves behind a rich flavor that lingers. I savored the oily warmth for a moment before moving on to the noodles. The thin chewy noodles had great texture and meshed perfectly with the soup (though in retrospect, I should’ve gone for the 60-second cook time for a bit more “hardness”). Oily pork fat glistened on the soup and clung to the noodles for dear life. The coarsely ground, toasted sesame seeds added just a touch of texture to the otherwise preternaturally smooth soup, not to mention a wonderfully sweet nuttiness that was balanced, not cloying.

This was truly a wonderful nama ramen, and I have to give another bow to Go Ramen! for giving me a glimpse of instant ramen nirvana. Kurume Taiho tonkotsu ramen gets an almost perfect 9.5 out of 10.

With packaging reminiscent of something out of a science fiction setting, this is one of the neatest forms of ramen packaging I’ve come across. Goramen’s Keizo was nice enough to share his spoils from the Yokohama Ramen Museum, and I expected quite a treat.

I spent some time opening the ramen cube and taking pictures. Hidden within two almost-secret compartments were two bags of noodles, myriad packs of toppings, and the biggest packet of soup base I’ve ever seen.

The tonkotsu soup base covered the bottom of my bowl, and had a light, fragrant pork smell. I cooked the first batch of noodles (the second batch is for kaedama, a second serving of noodles meant to be added to your leftover soup). The first sip of soup was satisfyingly hot. I had expected the soup to be much more flavorful because of the large dollop of soup base, but it was surprisingly light. It was oily and thick, but didn’t have a very strong tonkotsu flavor. It was good, but seemed a bit more generic than what I was expecting.

The toppings provided a good complement to the soup: lots of green onions, sesame seeds, and garlic chips. (Yes, you also saw a packet of beni shoga up above, but I don’t like ginger at all.) The garlic chips were extremely light and tasty, with just a hint of garlic flavor. These crunchy chips could be packaged by themselves and I would gladly eat them as a snack.

My first bite of noodles startled me: they were incredibly hard, like chewing on strips of hard rubber. I asked my wife to try a bite. “They’re like rubber bands,” she said. I dug the package out of the recycling bin and re-read the instructions. Did I cook the noodles long enough? Did I misread the instructions? No, the instructions clearly said 2 minutes. Hmm…I paused for a few minutes to let the noodles soften and soak up the soup. Unfortunately, that didn’t help. The noodles did have a nice flavor from soaking up the light tonkotsu soup, but the texture was barely softer. “That’s ok,” I thought to myself, “I still have the kaedama!” I happily cooked up the second batch of noodles, this time settling for 3 minutes.

Apparently, even 3 minutes wasn’t enough, and the second serving of noodles were still too hard for my taste. It looked like I was destined to not get along with this instant ramen. I sighed softly, and quietly gulped down the rest of the soup. With a just-decent soup and much-too-hard noodles, Hakata ramen tonkotsu gets a 6.

And now, more pics of the multi-dimensional ramen box. Is the inside is bigger than the outside?

Onwards to the noodles! The noodles were indeed fresh tasting, and had a slight floury taste. They held the soup flavoring well, and were also pretty fragrant. Unfortunately, they were also very hard, and slightly raw-tasting. The cooking instructions were a bit unusual: instead of the typical “cook for x mins,” it gave a range of 1-1/2 minutes to 2 minutes “depending on your desired firmness.” Don’t believe it. I like my ramen al dente and 1-1/2 minutes made the noodles just barely edible. They were still a bit too hard even at 2 minutes. Your mileage may vary of course, but I recommend starting at 2 mins and working your way up.

Overall, this was just a decent ramen. The noodles looked better than they tasted, and the soup, though good, was slightly unusual with the heavy sesame oil fragrance. This gets a 7 out of 10.

Oh! One last thing. The Miyako nama ramen comes with a packet of desiccant…I think…(they call it an “oxygen absorber”…sounds dangerous). Kids, make sure you don’t accidently mix that into your ramen!

Every once in a while, events fall into place that makes you think of fate; even though I chose this week’s ramen in random order, it turned out I was actually eating them in order: each day’s was progressively better, and today’s ramen was the best of the bunch.

The distinctly bold black package gives a hint of what was to come. This kurume (ichiban!) tonkotsu shoyu ramen had a rich…well, a rich tonkotsu shoyu soup base. But more on that in a second. I managed to overcook the noodles both times, which may have contributed to them being just slightly soft. (The first time, I got into a strainer battle with my wife, who was cooking her dinner at the same time. I lost, of course. And the second time, I was too busy daydreaming about the first bowl of ramen I just ate that I completely lost track of time. Sigh.) I don’t really need to get into the noodles in detail anyway. You already read about them here, here, here, and/or here.

Now the soup…yes, the soup…ah…the soup had a delicate, light shoyu aroma. It was bold! It was beautiful! The shoyu was deep, but didn’t overwhelm the lighter tonkotsu flavor. The tonkotsu provided a excellent partner to the shoyu, giving it a more complex and rich flavor that lingers in the back of your throat. The ramen was so good it was gone literally before I realized what happened! I searched the bowl feverishly for the hole in the bottom that I knew had to be there before giving up, then ran to the kitchen to cook up the second batch.

Though this refrigerated ramen would put some of the ramen houses I’ve been to to shame, I can’t give it a 10. I’m still too much of an optimist. This ramen was excellent, but my head didn’t quite spin all the way around. Until I find that “perfect” packaged ramen, I have to say this is the best one so far, and I’m happy to give it a 9!

I think this is supposed to be based on an actual ramen-ya’s ramen. Surprisingly, this tasted very much like yesterday’s hakata ramen. At the time, I didn’t bother reading the label closely enough: same factory. Hmm…maybe not so surprising after all.

This ramen also had a bright orange soup, but was more fragrant; I could actually smell the miso. Like the pirikara ramen, these noodles were also prone to clumping and had almost the exact same great texture and taste, even though the instructions had different cooking times (2 mins vs 90 seconds). The soup isn’t spicy, which ironically gave it more flavor. The miso stood out, but I still couldn’t taste much of a pork flavor.

This ramen tastes a bit better than yesterday’s ramen, but the soup could still use some improvement. This gets a 7.