This special ice cream treat cannot be found in stores.

Baby Star is a popular snack food in Japan made up of dried ramen noodles and flavored with the great taste of chicken and soy sauce. However, due to its longevity, makers Oyatsu Company have been hard at work concocting new ways to enjoy it.

The result of their mission was Baby Star Ramen On Ice which, as its classy name suggests, is Baby Star noodles mixed into ice cream for a pleasant contrast of hard and soft textures as well as salty and sweet tastes.

The base ice cream is a custard vanilla from Oyama Dairy to provide a comfortable blanket of cool mellow sweetness for the chickeny noodles to get wrapped up in. It’s a perfect blend of unique and familiar tastes.

This all may be enough to send you rushing out to your local convenience store or supermarket, but hold your horses because it isn’t sold in any store. The only way to dig into a Baby Star Ramen On Ice is to win it from a Namco UFO catcher. Here’s a YouTuber demonstrating the challenge which that presents.

Has the tempting taste of noodles and ice cream been enough to bring people out to game centers around the country since its 7 October release? Let’s hear what they have to say:

“It’s the same reason you sprinkle a little salt when eating watermelon, it feels like the sweetness increases.”
“Baby Star On Ice was delicious!”
“I absolutely want to eat this!”
“Don’t play with your food!”
“Looks awful.”
“Why not just buy some Baby Star and vanilla ice cream yourself?”

In answer to that last question, Oyatsu Company and Namco Confectionery took a lot of time finding the perfect ratio of noodles and ice cream through trial and error to achieve the optimum taste. So while you could DIY your ramen ice cream, you risk disappointment.

That being said, Baby Star Ramen On Ice isn’t the only game on town. If you’re like me and can’t stand those cursed crane games, you can always check out Musashi in Yokohama which also uses Baby Star and vanilla ice cream or Chikira House in Osaka which uses Chiki Ramen noodles and chicken flavored ice cream. Or you can always flip the script and toss some pudding in a cup of ramen for a tasty clash of flavors.

Related: List of Namco game centers in Japan with a Baby Star ice cream machine
Source: Narinari.com, Hachima Kiko
Top image: PR Times