Menya Itto Instant Ramen Noodle Soup from Nissin
With its main shop (Google Map) located in Shin-Koiwa, Tokyo, “Menya Itto (麺屋 一燈)” is a popular ramen chain even with several overseas branches in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Bangkok.
In recent years, the ramen restaurant had ranked first on a popular Japanese gourmet site where over 50,000 ramen shops are listed.
So if you want to try its ramen at the actual restaurant, you have to wait for a considerable amount of time.
According to the official website of Menya Itto, currently, there are two ways to wait for your seating.
One is that you directly go to the restaurant, buy a meal ticket, and until your turn has come, you can go anywhere.
The other method is that without going there, you can reserve your turn on the reservation site EPARK.
Either way, as you can imagine from this, Menya Itto is highly regarded in Japan and has gained tremendous popularity.
Nissin Menya Itto Instant Ramen Bowl
But with this instant ramen bowl “Menya Itto (麺屋 一燈)” from Nissin, you can effortlessly savor the taste of the ramen shop’s signature dish at home.
The specific name of this product is “Noukou Gyokai Ramen (濃厚魚介ラーメン: Rich Seafood Ramen)”, which I introduce this time (I bought this at a Lawson convenience store.)
Contents
First, when you peel back the paper lid about halfway, you will see these four packets in the bowl. The contents of each are as follows.
- The blue packet contains dehydrated garnishes, such as Charshu roast pork and Menma bamboo shoots.
- The pink one: soup base liquid.
- The green one: soup base powder.
- The orange one: special scallop-chicken oil.
Freebie
When I purchased it, I got this freebie.
The sachet contains an addicting spice mix called “Karato Yamitsuki Powder (辛燈やみつきパウダー)” created by Nissin with the help of Menya Itto.
According to the ingredient list, the spice blend mainly consists of Sansho and red chili peppers.
Cooking
The cooking of this instant ramen is somewhat complicated, as shown below.
| 1 |  |
First, put the contents (dehydrated Chashu and Menma) of the blue packet in the bowl. |
|---|---|---|
| 2 |  |
Next, put the contents (soup base powder) of the green packet. |
| 3 |  |
Pour boiling water until it reaches the line indicated inside the cup. |
| 4 |  |
Close the lid and place the pink and orange packets on top. Then, let the noodles steep for 5 minutes. |
| 5 |  |
5 minutes later, remove the paper lid and loosen the noodles with chopsticks. |
| 6 |  |
Add the contents (soup base liquid) of the pink packet. |
| 7 |  |
At the same time, add the contents (special scallop chicken oil) of the orange packet. |
| 8 |  |
Give it all a good stir. |
| 9 |  |
Now it’s ready to eat. Enjoy! |
Taste
The broth is creamy and thick with a nice chicken and seafood fragrance (especially scallop). It is loaded with umami and super tasty, but the aftertaste is light.
The noodles are non-fried, straight, and three-layered, because of which they are pleasantly bouncy.
With the addictive spice mix added to the bowl, the ramen gets a spicy kick and turns into an aromatic noodle soup.
But when comparing the before and after, I think it’s better not to add the spice blend.
Ingredients
According to the ingredients list, the soup base of this Menya Itto instant ramen consists of animal oil (chicken, pork), chicken extract, protein hydrolyzate, soy sauce, pork extract, sugars, seafood seasoning, green onion, emulsified oil, chicken seasoning, spices, egg powder, fish powder, scallop seasoning oil, seafood seasoning oil, and vegetable oil.
