Nissin & Matsuya Collab: Shkmeruli Hot Pot Instant Noodle
Recently, on January 18th, Nissin released an interesting cup noodle again. This time the instant ramen was created in collaboration with Matsuya, one of the largest gyudon restaurant chains in Japan, and beautifully recreates the taste of the Shkmeruli Nabe (hot pot) served in the actual restaurants of Matsuya.
Nissin Shkmeruli Hot Pot Instant Cup Noodle
Although I haven’t tried the dish yet, originally, Shkmeruli is a traditional Georgian dish of chicken cooked in a garlic milk sauce, which Matsuya altered to suit Japanese tastes and developed the Shkmeruli hot pot. According to the official website of Matsuya, the Shkmeruli Nabe is served with a bowl of rice, miso soup, and a vegetable salad, and costs 790 yen (about 7.6 USD).
Meanwhile, this cup noodle from Nissin is probably a limited-time offer and its suggested retail price is 228 yen (about 2.2 USD). In the cup, soup base powder and dried garnishes consisting of seasoned minced chicken, cabbage, mock cheese, and carrots are mixed in with the dried noodle block.
Cooking
Since no special flavor packet is attached to the cup, the cooking of this instant ramen is very straightforward; pour boiling water, close the lid, and wait for 3 minutes.
Taste
3 minutes later, once I removed the lid, an appetizing garlic aroma instantly wafted out. The broth is like a white stew, but not that thick in consistency. In taste, it is lightly seasoned but very flavorful and moderately garlicky. The overall soup tastes so good that after I finished eating the noodles I added white rice to the cup and enjoyed it as a kind of risotto.
Ingredients
Lastly, based on the ingredient list, the soup base of this cup ramen consists of lard, garlic, onion, pepper, parsley, celery, sugars, salt, creaming powder, starch, cheese powder, dairy product, wheat, powdered soy sauce, chicken seasoning, and butter oil.
