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Pot Noodles prove too much for Japanese taste buds

Cara Clegg Feb 4, 2014
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The world’s worst cup noodles are to be found in none other than the fair land of England, home of delicacies such as fish ‘n’ chips, bread and butter pudding, and spotted dick. At least that’s according to one Japanese exchange student to the UK, brought up on a diet of real cup ramen back in his home country. But surely ‘worst ever’ is a bit of an overstatement?! We sent one of our Japanese reporters to find out, and weren’t quite prepared for his epic reaction (we don’t think he was either).

RocketNews24’s very own intrepid explorer tried them for himself on his trip to the UK, and reported back that it was the first time he had eaten a cup noodle that disagreed with his robust tastebuds. Actually, “disagreed” is probably putting it a little too softly. The way he put it was more like “It was so disgusting I cried.”

The cup noodle brand in question is the infamous Pot Noodle, firm frenemy of British university students everywhere. There are many mouth-watering flavours on offer, and our reporter went for Chinese Chow Mein Flavour and Beef & Tomato Flavour. Opening the lid you are presented with the noodles and powdered soup (the powdered soup looks to be the same for both flavours). To magically transform plain noodles into tasty ones, you mix in the included sachet of sauce.

You make them in the same painless way as any other cup ramen, by simply adding boiling water and leaving it to stand for a few minutes. What could possibly go wrong? Our reporter describes waiting in anticipation, and peeling back the lid to be greeted by a delicious aroma assaulting his nostrils and tickling his taste buds with promises of juicy, succulent noodles. How could it be anything but delicious?! First up was Beef & Tomato…

Here is a direct quote from our brave hero: “Urghhhhhhhhhhh!!!! What the hell is this?!?!??!?! I’ve never eaten such a disgusting cup noodle in all my life! I’m sorry if I’m being too frank with my thoughts here, but this is the worst thing ever *sobs*.”

Apparently it tasted like nothing more than noodles in a sour, salty water, with none of the promised taste. And not only was the taste (or lack of it) bad, but even the noodles themselves didn’t live up to expectations being strangely dry despite having been soaked in hot water.

▼ The magic ingredient! Without this your dinner will just taste like salty water… oh wait.

But perhaps it was only a dud flavour? So, onto the Chinese Chow Mein. “Urghhhhhhhhhhh!!!! This is even worse!!! This reporter is DONE.” Yet another almost comically disgusted reaction – and I don’t think we’ll be getting him to give the other flavours a try any time soon.

Another Japanese student who studied abroad in London had a sorry tale to tell: “I was so poor that I had no choice, I had to eat them, and it was bad. I don’t think there’s a single person who likes them.” Well there must be at least a few, considering they’ve been selling in the UK since 1977. I guess the appeal is a mystery to Japanese people, with their high and mighty tastes in just-add-water gourmet goods.

Has anyone else had the pleasure of eating, or struggling to eat, a Pot Noodle? I’ll admit that I once lived for one lean university month on nothing but Sweet ‘n’ Sour flavour Pot Noodles. I don’t think I was ever the same again.

Reporter: Kuzo
Photo: RocketNews24
[ Read in Japanese ]