The Gift of Noodles.

My friends, my loyal readers... I am stunned, absolutely stunned, at the parcel which I have just unpacked. A while back, fellow Seattle-ite Patrick McK. informed me that a whole bunch of ramen – collected from three different stores! – was on its way to my humble abode. It would have been here much sooner, but it was delivered not to my flat but to the front office, and they helpfully gave not a single lick of indication that it had arrived. Once I was able to open it up, I took some photos.


Not only were the noodles were packed in there rather well, but there was a two-page letter sitting on top. I skimmed it, and then had to highlight some segments. From first to last, I address these.

• "the world's most addictive ramen" – That's a tall order, there. We shall see!


• noodlely goodness – Is noodlely a word? You bet your sweet bippy it is now.


• fake mushroom – This caused the gears in my head to skip a tooth. Why would anybody try to fake a mushroom?


• Oh, and treat the chili powder with respect. I like hot foods and even then I sometimes cut the amount of chili I add to it. – Ah, Pat, I do appreciate the warning, but that's just not how we do things in the Muppet Labs my orbital space station New Ramen City. I'm always obligated to use everything in the packet as directed. On the second eating of the same flavour, though, I'll adjust as needed. If it's too hot, I'll report on the flavour, but it'll get a five rank in heat and if I can't finish, I might even slip a six in there!


• TVP chunks – Ah, the magic words. Is there anything that textured vegetable protein can't accomplish?

Forwearned and forearmed, I proceeded to lay out a spread of the bounty. Note that the bottom row is from a variety of brands, but the rest of the packets are all from Indomie, a company specialising in Indonesian fare including instant noodles. That's, like, a million hundred packets of ramen! Also pictured is my little arctic fox, Diamond, attempting to claim one of the "Mi goreng" packets.

These are tears of joy, dear friends. Such a gift of ramen is so far beyond anything I could have asked or anticipated! My promise to all of you is that I will review each of these with photos (though, I might not bother with photos for every single Indomie packet review, just a few notable ones.) This will be a great time for noodle enthusiasts.

Also, as promised, Pat deserves a huge shout-out, and a link to his LiveJournal. Dude, you are the absolute best.