Here To Eat: Ace Eats America 10 Plates at a Time

Price: $.80
Rating: *** / *****

While playing poker, a friend of a friend told me that his idea of a perfect lunch was a cup of noodles and a sandwich. Apart they are nothing more than common food...but together, they bring balance and contrast to make your meal interesting. I, being rather drunk at the time, found his statement to be incredibly profound. So profound, in fact, that I loudly declared that I was stealing his idea to write a review. Well, fast forward a few months and I finally wrote it. Since I have already reviewed cup noodles in the past, I decided to go with bowl of noodles to try this little experiment. To make it a meal, I ate it with a Vietnamese sandwich made with barbecued pork, pickled daikon and carrots, jalapenos, cilantro, and French bread(I'll probably review that sometime too).

So this is truly a cheap meal...costing less than 3 dollars in all and big enough to fill the biggest appetites for breakfast or lunch. For those of you not familiar with the Korean treat known as kimchi, it is basically brined cabbage that is traditionally fermented for a long period of time in large jars. Magically, it comes out crunchy and extremely spicy. This may or may not sound appetizing, but either way, this soup mix for the noodles don't really taste like kimchi. It's basically a spicy broth that'll probably burn your mouth if you put the whole packet in. I, being a wuss, usually only use 3/4ths of the soup powder. It doesn't make me any less of a man, it just means that I have sensitive lips. No, I don't think that last sentence sounded queer at all. Anyways, the lesson is: add accordingly!

The appeal of noodles in a plastic bowl is that they're noodles in a plastic bowl. By definition, there is nothing that tops that in the awesomeness or convenience meter. The best ones are the ones that come with a fold-up fork that can barely lift a few strands of noodles at a time. It is extremely impractical, but the novelty value alone is worth the price of purchase. While most ramen noodles come in the form of a brick, these noodles are shaped like a small discus and are packaged with a single seasoning pouch. I noticed that the ubiquitous pouch of fat was missing in this particular brand. The texture is also quite a bit different from regular instant noodles. I found them to be rather soft, though they held up quite well and didn't inflate with the soup as most noodles do. It was different, but pretty good. I prefer a little more texture in my noodles.

In the end, I find my life basically unchanged. This experience did not give me an epiphany as I hoped it would, but I must say that this and the Vietnamese sandwich it made for a pretty good combination. Try this instead of the usual tomato soup/grilled cheese combo sometime.

Posted by Anthony Nguyen on Sunday, March 11, 2007 at 9:28 PM | Permalink