Join us as we come face-to-face with enough Mystery Meat to fill 47 Cup Noodles.

Nissin’s Cup Noodle might be world-famous for instant noodles, but it’s also famous for Mystery Meat, or “Nazoniku” as it’s known in Japan. In fact, these tiny bite-sized morsels are so popular with the noodle-loving masses that Nissin has now packaged them up in boxes, selling them to the public under the name Nazoniku Hodai, or Unlimited Mystery Meat.

▼ The new product was released in stores on 25 March at a recommended retail price of 650 yen (US$4.30), though as the photo below shows, you can sometimes find them at a cheaper price point.

Each 200-gram (7.1-ounce) box is said to contain as much mystery meat as you’d get in 47 cups of Cup Noodles, which is a lot by anyone’s standards.

▼ Not exactly an unlimited amount, but still way more than we could normally wish for.

The calorie count is 628 kilocalories per 100 grams, and the fat content is 51.7 grams, so bear in mind that a whole box of these contains double those amounts.

With so much mystery meat in one box, Nissin wants us to try it out as a cooking ingredient for other dishes besides ramen, listing half-a-dozen ideas on the back of the pack. Some of the suggestions include eating it on its own as a drinking snack, or using it to make Mystery Meat Fried Rice, a Mystery Meat and Kimchi Rice Bowl, Mystery Meat Stuffed Peppers, Mystery Meat Spaghetti Bolognese or a Mystery Meat Burger.

Those were certainly some outside-the-box ideas for mystery meat, but when we opened the box, the silver packaging inside glistened like secret treasure, totally distracting us from those suggestions.

Opening the bag revealed…

▼…a veritable treasure trove of mystery meat!

Pouring our bounty onto a plate showed just how much Mystery Meat we were working with here.

If we’d used a pet bowl instead of a plate, this pile could be mistaken for dog food, but for lovers of Mystery Meat, this was pure heaven. Resisting the urge to shovel spoonfuls of it into our mouth, we did what any respectable noodle lover would do and added half the pack to a Cup Noodle.

▼ The original, of course, seeing as that’s the one that usually contains mystery meat, and nothing less than a BIG size would do on this occasion.

▼ First, we poked a hole in the middle of the food, piled the meat inside it, and poured over boiling water…

▼…then waited the required three minutes.

▼ Time to eat!

As you can see, submerging the meat chunks beneath the food is essential to this meal, as it allows you to sip the broth and enjoy the noodles without any interference.

It tasted just as good as any Cup Noodle we’ve had in the past, but the beauty of this beefed-up meal is the fact that once you search beneath the liquid…

▼ …you pull up mountains of Mystery Meat.

What’s more, once you finish the main bulk of the noodles, what you’re left with is…

▼ …nothing but broth and Mystery Meat!

This is like a whole other meal, and kind of like the reverse of the meat-heavy Covered In Mystery Meat Cup Noodle, which had extra Mystery Meat on top of the noodles.

▼ This much meat calls for a spoon rather than chopsticks.

With 100 grams of Mystery Meat here, in addition to the morsels that were already included in the Cup Noodle, this was more Mystery Meat than we’ve ever eaten in one sitting, and it gave an intense flavour to the broth, making it even more delicious.

If you like Mystery Meat, this is a must-try meal, but be aware that it really dials up the meatiness, giving it a very strong flavour. For us, though, it was perfect, and we’re now keen to use the Mystery Meat with other meals to add a dash of Cup Noodle flavour to them.

And in case you were wondering what these cubes of goodness really contain, the answer to the mystery behind them can be found here.

Photos© SoraNews24
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