Don’t worry, no poodles are harmed in the making of Seapoodle.
Over the years, Nissin, the makers of Cup Noodle, have blessed us with many different delicious flavors of instant ramen. That spirit of innovation is still going strong, too, as next month Nissin is rolling out its latest creation: Seapoodle ramen!
OK, so maybe “poodle” isn’t such a mouthwatering element of the name, what with Cup Noodle being the brand famous for its “mystery meat.” Don’t worry, though, because Seapoodle isn’t some sort of aquatic canine creature, it’s just what happens when you combine a cup of Seafood Cup Noodle with a cup of original flavor Cup Noodle, as shown in the top left of the image below.
The way the F in “SEAFOOD” smashes into the N in “CUP NOODLE” makes them look like a P. It’s not just the exterior packaging that Nissin is combining, though, but their contents too, as the company has crated four new entries in its Super Combined (or “Super Gattai”) series.
Currently, Nissin has a total of 10 regular Cup Noodle flavors (i.e. flavors that are offered continually, not as limited-time or seasonal flavors). That means they are 45 different possible two-flavor combinations, and Nissin tried them all to find out which were the four most super-tasting. The following four made the cut for round two of the Super Combined series.
1. Seapoodle
The Seafood’s fish/pork stock is accented by the strong pepperiness of the original Cup Noodle broth. The toppings are an all-star team of the two flavors as well, giving you mystery meat (the real identity of which is revealed here), shrimp, imitation crab, scrambled egg, and green onion.
2. Cheeurso
Next we have the fusion of European Cheese Curry Cup Noodle and Miso Cup Noodle. “European” in this case refers to the presence of demi-glace sauce in the curry, and you also get no fewer than three different kinds of miso (red miso, white miso, and barley miso) in the mix, plus ginger and garlic. In addition to all that’s going on with the broth, you get mystery meat seasoned with sansho (a kind of Japanese peppercorn), corn, cabbage, cheddar cheese cubes, and carrot.
3. Chilitomkung
The name here comes from a spaceless stringing together of Chili Tomato and Tom Yum Kung, the latter being a spicy soup from Thailand that’s Japan’s favorite example of the southeast Asian country’s cuisine. The toppings here are shrimp, corn, tomato, and cabbage.
4. Karabone
And last, we come to the most linguistically complex combination, which gets its name from combining Karamen (“Spicy Noodle”) and Garlic Tonkotsu (pork stock) Cup Noodle varieties. In Japanese, tonkotsu is written with two kanji characters, 豚骨. When you take away the first one, though, 骨 becomes hone, which can also sometimes be pronounced bone in other combinations, which is what’s happening here.
Knowing that, you can guess that the broth is a spicy, garlicky pork stock broth, and the toppings are mystery meat, scrambled egg, roasted chilies, minced garlic, kikurage (wood ear mushroom), and green onion.
All four of the new Super Combined Cup Noodle flavors go on sale September 12, priced at 214 yen (US$1.60).
Source, images: Nissin
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