Not All Ramen is Equal...

Its the truth. I know...You probably don't believe me, but you should. You may just be one of those people that buys the cheap kind of Ramen and you think that it doesn't matter because Ramen is Ramen. Well...You are greatly mistaken. Today I am going to review two different brands of Ramen in a comparative way. I am going to cover three basic areas.
#1. Packaging
#2. Nutritional Value (I know...Who knew Ramen had ANY nutritional value?)
#3. Flavor

Okay. To start out with...I am a picky Ramen eater. I generally only like two of the myriad number of flavors of Ramen available. Those two flavors are beef, and shrimp. I find the chicken varieties to be bland, and don't even get me started on that picante one...Yes, I actually tried that kind once. Today's comparison is going to involve two different brands of Ramen, both of the shrimp flavored variety.
First of all...NISSIN Brand Ramen. Before anyone gets all twitterpated about how cool it is that NISSIN is spelled the same way backwards and forwards...Lets move on to the other aspects of the packaging.

I found the Nissin packaging to be somewhat boring. This may have had something to do with the pink and white blah colors they used. But I think its an overall thing. They put their little

Nissin Symbol up there, but it just doesn't have any pizazz. And for some reason I find the term Top Ramen to be dorky. How many of us say, "Lets cook up some Top Ramen for lunch!" ? I can only speak for myself. But I usually just call it Ramen and leave the Top part out. Also on the few occasions I have heard someone else refer to it as "Top Ramen" I thought it sounded extremely dumb.

Next we have the little catch phrase "Oodles of Noodles." Again...DORKY. I understand from doing a little research on the web that when Nissin introduced instant Ramen for the first time in the U.S. (chicken flavored in case you were wondering), back in 1972, it became known as Oodles of Noodles across the Eastern U.S. for many years. Back in 2000 they thought it would be nostalgic or something to reintroduce it under that title. Personally it makes me feel like I am being spoken to in baby talk.

Next is the picture on the front of the Nissin package. It looks to me like two Shrimp have decided to drown themselves in a bowl of out of focus noodles. They are even wearing matching best friends orange peel necklaces. I apologize for the picture quality. It was honestly the best picture I could find on the web and actually came right from the Nissin website. I find the addition of a lot of little chives to the picture to be interesting. Because I have never actually seen that many specks of green in my bowl when I have made Nissin Ramen before. (and in case you can't tell the big green things are parsley...But if you could look at an actual package the way I am since there is one sitting next to me right now there are also a lot of little green chivey things around the shrimp.) Okay...So I am giving more demerits for blurry noodles (even on the actual package), drowning shrimp, and the addition of orange or lemon peel to my soup. Ick. On to the Maruchan packaging.

First of all...Maruchan displays their brand name proudly, and they do it with a smile. I find the little happy face next to the M to be cheerful and refreshing. Also they have a nice creamy yellow color to offset their pink package (which is a slightly darker and a less pepto pink shade than the Nissin). Also note that it just says Ramen with noodle soup in small letters underneath for those of us who may find it confusing without the word Top there. No Oodles...Yay! Also the words Shrimp Flavor are bolder than on the Nissin brand. The focus on the noodles is much sharper, and you can see the nice gleam on the broth that is there too. In the picture of the Maruchan brand you actually don't see the chives, which I think is interesting since there are actually more little green spices in a bowl of Maruchan than in the Nissin Ramen. The shrimp are lying in a nice relaxed manner on a bed of snap peas and onions, and although they have no heads, that is to be expected since we are about to eat it anyhow. (Who knows what could be lurking under the broth in the Nissin picture. Maybe the shrimp still have their little legs and antennae.) The picture is zoomed in more too, so you can really see the noodles, and they have a nice little corner of green peas to add some color. Maruchan wins. Even if everything else sucked the smiley face would have put them over the top.

Our second category is Nutritional Value. It was a close race on this one. The two brands are virtually identical as far as calories and percentages on the nutrition facts part of the packages. Both have 190 calories. However the Nissin says that only 60 are from fat while the Maruchan says 70 calories are from fat. I find this interesting because both brands claim an identical amount of fat grams and saturated fat grams, as well as the same percentage of fat per serving. So I wonder how the Nissin has 10 less fat calories. Also both brands claim one whopping gram of Dietary Fiber, but Nissin claims that this one gram equals 5% of your daily value, while Maruchan claims it is only 4% DV. Maybe one rounded up and one rounded down. Other than that, both brands are virtually identical, except for one thing...Nissin has 15% of your DV of iron, and Maruchan only carries 8%. So as far as nutritional value, the Nissin wins. Unless you are trying to cut back on your iron.

Our last category is flavor. To each his own I say. Most people may not even be able to tell a difference. But I have always ALWAYS preferred Maruchan over Nissin for flavor. And yes, I will pay that extra five cents a package to get that flavor. I do buy Nissin, for the kids since they don't seem to care, but the first time I had Nissin as an adult after years of eating Maruchan I just didn't like the taste of the Ramen. It didn't appeal to me. It tasted somehow... Bland. This is more than just an "I prefer Maruchan over Nissin" statement. Its an "I can tolerate it, but I really don't like Nissin" statement. I have really tried, but its just too blah. So I tried to figure it out, and I even did a taste test with my oldest son J, and even he (who has been raised eating Nissin because it is cheaper) could tell a difference in taste, and liked the Maruchan more. He is not anti Nissin, but he could tell that it had inferior flavor in comparison. Why? I wondered. So I decided to read the ingredients and see what differences I could find if any. I only did this for the shrimp kind, but I do also prefer the Maruchan beef flavor, and the texture and taste of the Maruchan noodles over Nissin in general. As far as the noodles go, the only differences I could find in ingredients, are that Maruchan has soy sauce in the noodles, and Nissin doesn't. Otherwise the ingredients are pretty similar. As far as the spice packets go (for shrimp flavor)...They are very similar also, but with some more differences. Nissin brand is flavored with soy sauce, onion powder, spices, shrimp powder, garlic powder, clam powder, chicken powder, celery powder and chicken fat. While the Maruchan brand is flavored with soy sauce, dehydrated vegetables (onion, garlic and chive) and shrimp and lobster flavor. Maybe the chicken fat, chicken powder and celery powder in the Nissin brand dilute the shrimp flavor. And what about the clam powder? But the Maruchan has shrimp AND lobster ingredients. No wonder it costs more...and no wonder it tastes better. Maruchan wins two out of three, and thus, a place in my kitchen cupboard.