Pot Noodle Fusions Chilli Chicken Flavour (Co-op) By @SpectreUK

I find soups, broths and spicy noodle pots a must have this time of year to warm me up in the autumn and winter months. This Pot Noodle Fusions Chilli Chicken Flavour definitely fits into the category of quick to make, and hot and messy to eat.

On un-peeling the top of the pot there was an "unleash what's inside: Hot Sauce" sachet on top of the noodles. So adding freshly boiled water, I followed the brief instructions on the pot. There was a spicy pepper and slight chicken aroma after a couple of minutes, as I mixed in the powder with the stringy noodles. I then unleashed the hot sauce sachet as my glasses steamed up from the heat from the pot.

On taste this Pot Noodle Fusions Chilli Chicken Flavour was medium to pepper hot and very tasty indeed. It made my mouth tingle with a pleasant flavoursome chilli burn. I couldn't pick up on much chicken flavour, as that was a bit lost in all the chilli. However, with some buttered bread, and some ham and tomato on the side it was a tasty meal. It made me feel like a student again, and made me smile and giggle a little each time I had to mop my chin, which was quite often. I'd have this Chilli Chicken Flavour again, but my favourite Pot Noodle will always be Beef and Tomato.

Information on the pot; The 100g pot contained 444 calories, with 17g of fat, 7.9g of sugar, and 2.4g of salt. Vegan friendly, please see photograph for the ingredients.

Pot Noodle Piri Piri Chicken Cluckin' Hot [@NLi10]

 I had this for ages in my lunch cupboard at home, and it was never the bset thing on offer (I have masala noodles!).  I took it to work and ate it the same week - mainly because a colleague went to Peri Fino which is the budget Nandos that started by us and seems to be sweeping the UK.

The gimmick is this - it's a chicken pot noodle, but with spices - and a sauce sachet designed to vary the power of the burn!

Like most things, I just don't care for the machismo of having the spiciest food so planned to just put a bit in at a time and see what it was like

Looks fairly inoffensive with no spice - but it turns out that the default setting is pretty close to a Nando's medium.  It's certainly got the flavour too - nicely done!

I put in some of the viscous red spiciness (in stages up to about half the sachet).  If you see this at home - please visit your GP.

I mixed it in well so I didn't get any nasty shocks - and essentially it was just chilli oil and some redness.  It didn't really develop the flavour, just made the existing flavour spicier.  As I approached the half a sachet mark I realised that I wasn't going to get any benefits by making the remaining part of my lunch really hot so I just binned the rest.

This did however enable me to fully enjoy the flavours that they had included in the normal mix without any concerns of burns when necking the remaining sauce.

Ignore the flavour sachet and just enjoy this as a lunch, with maybe some bread or something to mop up the sauce afterwards - and sprinkle on your own favourite spicy sauce to add both extra chilli and some deeper flavours and you have a pretty good lunch.

Merry Pot Noel - Pot Noodle Christmas Dinner (Asda) by @NLi10

So - it's very popular to make Christmas versions of popular snacks and foods - and Pot Noodle have really gone for the jackpot this year.

This is Christmas Dinner - well the stuffing and the gravy anyway - but in pot noodle form.  As non England commenters have pointed out this is essentially our most popular version of what international readers will know as Ramen.

Cup noodles are an international staple - and this is a big size version of ours.  It's seen as a luxury brand compared to the half-price international cheap versions.

You can see a normal size version of my favourite the Beef & Tomato flavour next to it - as well as a Santa sighting!  

I decided to go with this on the 20th as the 'mindfulness calendar' said I should make a meal with something I'd not tried before - and it gives local readers an opportunity to buy these to put under the tree. Yes - they sell these in cardboard crackers designed just for this purpose!

Unlike most of these it doesn't actually include the sauce sachet - you have to provide your own cranberry - and this lack of the sweetness I think was their first mistake.

As usual this is just cheap noodles and flavour dust - but with maybe a few more herby bits in than usual.

Add boiling water - recover - stir after 2 minutes - wait another 2 mins and eat away.

And here it is - in all it's glory! A gravy Pot Noodle! 

And while the smell is OK, and it's certainly a standard Pot Noodle the flavour isn't that great.  Just tastes like cheap stuffing, but then the aftertaste - my goodness it's horrible - like one of those genetic tests for offensive flavours!  I'm guessing that whoever had this in the taste sessions was a heavy smoker, or just didn't have the right make up to detect this massive problem. Maybe they always added cranberry?    Either way - this is a lovely potential joke present that just doesn't work for me.

Bonus: I did a video for YouTube Shorts but it cut off the commentary when I added the music...

Lost The Pot Noodle - Sweet Chilli (Asda) By @Cinabar

So this is the latest product from Pot Noodle, the aptly name Lost The Pot, Noodles in a bag. I don’t eat a lot of Pot Noodles if I’m honest but these appealed, in a retro student kind of way. The bag said it did two portions, so I split half into a bowl (my own pot), added seasoning, hot water and microwaved the contents. I gave it a little stir and it actually looked pretty decent. In true student style I made a slice of Taos to accompany it, oh yes pure class.

 

The noodles were surprisingly decent. I’m working from home at the minute and it made a quick lunch between Teams meetings. The flavour of these Lost The Pot Noodle Sweet Chilli was a little spicy and little sweet, but mostly had a fair bit of umami. It went well with the buttered toast and made a decent lunch. I’d actually buy it again! I do have an issue with the product though. They lost the post, presumably for environmental reasons? The only thing is that the tin foil lid and the plastic pot on a traditional Pot Noodle are fully recyclable, but this bag packaging isn’t. I think that part is a shame, taste wise I’d happily buy them again.

Naked Japanese Style Katsu Curry Long Grain Rice (@NLi10)

Naked do lots of great instant snacks for when I need a quick and decent sized lunch.  I'm just not used to them not being noodles.  This looks like a noodle pot, but it's a (BIG) rice pot.  So what's inside?

 Wet rice of course!  Smells fantastic - not quite perfect Katsu, but you aren't going to get a rich gravy just by pouring a kettle into a (reduced) plastic tub.

It does make up nicely though - I expected it to not quite work, but the rice was fluffy but still had bite, and the sauce was sticky enough that I could eat it with a fork like a heathen.

It's also fairly clear what's in it from the ingredients - a little curry and a little garlic - and a whole lot of great rice.  It filled me up for the day quite nicely and while relatively unexciting is definitely something I'd pick up again for the emergency cupboard.

Pot Noodle Sweet & Sour (Morrison’s) By @SpectreUK

Pot Noodle are calling their Sweet & Sour a "Power Pair" for a "Double Down, Down Up" balanced flavour. I must admit that I haven't seen a Sweet & Sour meal marketed like that before. Don't get me wrong as it seems like a fair assumption, but the Sweet & Sour dishes I've eaten in the past don't really separate themselves out as different flavours combined so much as to just taste like Sweet & Sour… No, I don't know what I'm talking about either, but I guess I've just eaten them in the past without thinking so much about it! 
Described on their website as "Noodles in a Chinese sweet and sour flavour sauce with vegetables and a little sachet of sweet and sour sauce", this Pot Noodle Sweet & Sour has diced carrots, peas and red peppers mixed in with the noodles, sauce mix, and sachet. I haven't had a Pot Noodle for a while. They're pretty high in calories, fat, sugar and salt, so I've had to miss out on a few of the other things I usually prefer to eat on Cinabar and her Mom's pizza night to account for the extra calories in this Pot Noodle. 

After adding in the freshly boiled water, then the small sachet before stirring, this Pot Noodle Sweet & Sour had a decent sweet and sour sauce aroma, but it was pretty heavy on tomato in flavour. I only say that in a bad way because it's supposed to taste of Sweet & Sour, rather than a tomato noodle soup. Even though I stirred regularly whilst eating the noodles in their sauce and diced vegetables, I noticed that the real Sweet & Sour flavour seemed to have still sunk to the bottom of the pot. There was a good strong flavour of Sweet & Sour down at the bottom, but I could have been fooled that I was eating a tomato flavoured pot noodle for most of the meal. This Pot Noodle Sweet & Sour was still tasty and tangy, but I'm not sure I'd rush out to buy another one. If I was to separate them out as a "Power Pair", I'd say it was more like "Tomato and Sweet & Sour". 
Information on the pot; Per pot there are 436 calories, with 17g of fat, 12g of sugar, and 1.4g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Kabuto - Beef Pho Noodle Pot (@NLi10)

Today is a hot day.  And what better way to manage that heat with some lovely spicy noodles.

Today we have the Beef Pho version of the Kabuto range of Noodles in a Pot, fresh off the Ocado order.

Asian flavours, from our freinds in Bristol. And lots of Samurai themed things - which is odd because I've always associated Pho with Vietnam.

It has egg in it but is vegetarian.

One thing this certainly has over the cheap versions is this smells amazing - like 'restaurant just brought your food out' good.

And while a little of that is lost in the adding of water, there is a great aroma and taste to be had.  The egg noodles are a little soft for me, I prefer other styles - but the zingy sauce is spot on.And they even actively encourage separating and recycling all the bits after you clean them which us very responsible of them.I'm always happy to have one of these - even if i do tend to use them as a rare treat instead of a staple lunch.

Thai Green Curry, Rice & Quinoa (Degusta) By @SpectreUK

In a close to apocalyptic world what seems to be chiefly missing right now is toilet roll, hand wash, rice, and Thai Green Curry. I can't imagine anywhere has run out of quinoa, as it's possibly a little too pretentious. Apparently this Thai Green Curry, Rice & Quinoa pot can be considered as one of my five a day, which could be pretty useful as recently we've been struggling to buy fresh fruit too!
Thai Green Curry is one of my favourite curries and the manufacturer's seem to have stopped making ready meals of them at the moment. I can't blame them as it's pretty scary out there right now, so if you are able it's just best to stay inside until the experts give us the all clear, whenever that may be.

I've recently had a few Thai Green Curry pot noodles lately, and this Thai Green Curry, Rice & Quinoa by Prep Co. was another one in the Foodstufffinds's stock cupboard. I'm supposed to be handing over a few items to Cinabar and writing more about beer to even the load, as the shops are a little too difficult to get anywhere near at the moment. So we're relying on deliveries from supermarkets, but they are few and far between. Cinabar has already been known to start an online order at 3.30am just to get a delivery slot, as the websites are completely blocked with traffic during the day, and there am I sleep drunk shouting things like beer, sour sweets and scampi at her whilst lying half asleep on the floor. Fortunately we've just had a delivery of toilet rolls!

The main problem I've found with a few of these Thai Green Curry pots is that they can be pretty heavy on the lime leaves or lemongrass, which makes them often taste a little like eating washing up liquid. As you can see from the photograph on peeling back the lid of this Prep Co. Thai Green Curry, Rice & Quinona it was half full (or half empty depending on how you look at things) of rice, quinoa, and lots of diced vegetables such as carrots, green beans, red peppers and also tomato pieces. After adding freshly boiled water and leaving the pot to stand with the lid on, I noticed the smell of lime leaves and lemongrass wasn't particularly overpowering. The same can be said about the flavour, as I could taste the spices as well as the mixture of vegetables. I had some toast on the side and found this a hearty and very flavoursome Thai Green Curry, rice and quinoa pot. I'd definitely have this again, it's probably my favourite Thai Green Curry pot so far.

Information on the pot;
Each 251g pot contains 274 calories, with 5.8g of fat, 6.3g of sugar, and 1.1g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Pot Noodle Thai Green Curry (Send Me A Sample - Alexa) By @SpectreUK

Alexa sent me this Pot Noodle Thai Green Curry from her Send Me A Sample Application (or 'App' as the cool kids call it). I may have mentioned before that I get on very well with Alexa. She resides in our kitchen. I do like her voice, as I don't find it particularly robotic and she plays me classical music whilst I eat my lunch every day. Cinabar doesn't seem to like her so much, mainly because with that voice I reckon Alexa would be a 'Looker' in real life! ;-D

Anyway, I do like a good Thai Green Curry. I generally have them once or twice a month with some rice and prawn crackers. I'll have this calorie heavy Pot Noodle Thai Green Curry with some fried mushrooms, two boiled eggs and a piece of buttered toast. I'm not at the gym today so I'll have to miss off the crisps to compensate for the massive 447 calories in the Pot Noodle.

On opening the pot there was some seasoning on top of the block of noodles and a sachet of soy and ginger sauce. I added the freshly boiled water and left it to stand for a while. There was quite a strong smell of lime leaves on mixing the noodles and sauce together. There was a few pieces of diced red chilli pepper amongst the noodles. On taste the lime leaves were the dominant flavour, even after adding in the soy and ginger sauce. Unfortunately this Pot Noodle Thai Green Curry didn't taste like the Thai Green Curries I have with rice and crackers on the evenings. The lime leaves give it a slight washing up liquid flavour. It wasn't too bad and the diced red chilli pepper pieces gave it a bit of a kick, but I wouldn't have it again… especially for the high calorie content and the fact that there are far more appealing flavours of noodle pots out there!

Information on the Pot;
The 90g pot contains 447 calories, with 19g of fat, 4.5g of sugar, and 1.9g salt - nope I'm not sure at any stretch someone could say this pot noodle is particularly good for you! Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Noodle Mix (96%): Dried Noodles (67%) [Wheat Flour (contains Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Palm Oil, Salt, Firming Agents (Sodium Carbonate, Potassium Carbonate)], Wheat Flour, Maltodextrin, Potato Starch, Flavour Enhancers (Monosodium Glutamate, Disodium Inosinate, Disodium Guanylate), Coconut Milk Powder (2%), Flavourings, Sugar, Palm Fat, Onion Powder (0.9%), Red Bell Pepper (0.5%), Spices (Turmeric, Galangal Root, Chilli Pepper, Garlic Powder) (0.5%), Herbs (Kaffir Lime Leaves, Coriander Leaves), Milk Protein, Salt, Acid (Citric Acid), Sauce Sachet (4%): Soy and Ginger Sauce [Water, Sugar, Spirit Vinegar, Modified Corn Starch, Salt, Maltodextrin, Spices, Garlic Powder, Soy Sauce (Soybeans, Wheat), Acid (Acetic Acid), Colour (Anthocyanins)]

Pot Noodle: Asian Street Style Thai Red Curry (Alexa) By @SpectreUK

I get on very well with Alexa. She sits in the kitchen and plays Classical radio stations for me during my lunchtime, and asks us a "question of the day". I often find her voice quiet soothing. Cinabar doesn't get on with Alexa so well, but she did ask her to send me this Asian Street Style Thai Red Curry from Pot Noodle. I have tried many Pot Noodles in the past, my favourite being Beef and Tomato. So I'm quite looking forward to this, especially as I love Thai Red Curry. What could go wrong?

Opening the Asian Street Style Thai Red Curry Pot Noodle there was a ball of fine stringy noodles covered in reddish seasoning and some diced vegetables. I boiled the kettle and also a couple of boiled eggs, with some toast and butter on the side. After leaving the pot to stew and stirring, I pulled off the foil top from the pot and was at first struck by the sheer strength of a lemongrass type smell. I say "type" because I couldn't see any lemongrass in the ingredients, and believe me, the smell was so strong I read through them several times!

Once cooled a little the strength of the lemongrass type flavour was overwhelming. If you had told me in a blind taste test that this was a lemongrass noodle soup I'd have believed you. There was quite a hot chilli strength behind this overwhelming almost washing-up liquid type flavour, which made me sweat little also. Of course I don't eat washing-up liquid, but I'm sure you get the idea. It's fortunate I don't mind lemongrass that much, but those of you who don't like it (like Cinabar) are probably best to avoid this pot noodle. It unfortunately didn't taste like any Thai Red Curry I've ever tasted before, and I've enjoyed quite a few in my time…

Information on the Pot;
The 69g pot included 243 calories, 1.5g of fat, 4.9g of sugar, and 2.6g of salt. I was pretty surprised by the amount of salt. That seems pretty high. Please see photograph for ingredients.

Mac and Cheese Pot Noodle (Morrisons) [By @Cinabar]

I have a place in my heart for macaroni and cheese. There is nothing better that scooping soft macaroni cheese thought a golden crust and onto a place. I’d happily eat it as a main meal, or as a side to some bacon chops. Spectre hates Mac and Cheese, but he likes Pot Noodles. I added one of these new Mac n Cheese Pot Noodles to our grocery order with the assumption that he’d review it, but he suggested I take it work with me and have it at lunch.
I have had few Pot Noodles in my lifetime, mostly as a student, but not for a long while. This meant I focussed more on the instructions than Spectre or a regular consumer would have.

I opened the lid, removed the tomato sauce sachet and filled to the fill line. I didn’t think the fill line was that clear, but I went for the lower one that I could see. Then I stirred, added the content of the tomato sauce packet and stirred again.

First things first, I’d assumed the pasta shapes would be macaroni, isn’t that the point? I’m assuming these are the regular pot noodle noodles though. Long, thin and flat.
The noodles softened easily with the hot water in the preparation and the sauce thickened up nicely too. I liked the flavour, the cheese sauce was creamy, but had a nice depth of flavour. There was a hint of mustard and from the sauce a hint of tomato. The chives and red pepper bits mixed up the flavour enough to make each mouthful interesting, and I was enjoying my Pot Noodle experience. IT was surprisingly pleasant.
As I was at work, one of the ladies spotted me having my Mac and Cheese Pot Noodle and came to take a look, she immediately noticed the calories. There are 450 Kcal in the pot, which is quite a large amount for a smallish portion of noodles.
As I much as I liked them, I didn’t think they were quite close enough to being Mac N Cheese to justify the variety title. I was naively expecting actual macaroni. This new Pot Noodle Mac and Cheese is probably something I’ll only have occasionally, when I know I’m going to be short for time at lunch.

By Cinabar

Sausage Casserole @Pot_Noodle (Sainsburys) [By @SpectreUK]

I haven't had a sausage casserole for ages. I used to have them nearly every week when I lived with my parents, so when Cinabar passed me this Sausage Casserole Pot Noodle I was excited and dubious at the same time. Could Pot Noodle pull off a traditional sausage casserole and without the sausages? I couldn't tell just by looking at the pot! Traditionally Pot Noodles have been the staple diet for students and late night snacks after an evening down the pub. Even though I'm waiting for a start date to begin my new job, I'm still technically a student. After a gym session and a good swim I decided to pop open this Pot Noodle and give it a try. I added the sachet of tomato ketchup after the boiling water and gave the Pot Noodle noodles a good stir so the sauce and vegetables would be well mixed. The Pot Noodle had a meaty sausage smell with diced pieces of carrots and onions bobbing around in amongst the noodles and thick brown sauce. The Pot Noodle had a thick wholesome gravy sauce and meaty sausage flavour with a mixture of herbs such as parsley and sage, as well as spices such as black pepper. This was a really tasty healthy feeling meal and perfect for dunking bread. I thought that this was a really good Pot Noodle, and not just for students and boozers, so give it a try.

Information on the pot;

90g pot with 414 calories, 16g of fat, 4.5g of sugar and 1.6g of salt. Ingredients (see photograph) included no artificial colours or preservatives. Vegetarian friendly.

By Spectre

Brazilian BBQ Steak flavour Pot Noodle (Tesco) [By @SpectreUK]

Not much of a follower of Football I'm afraid, but I did watch some of the England versus Italy match on Saturday night after an enjoyable performance of Happy Days, at the Grand Theatre in Wolverhampton. It's a shame we didn't win, but I did think we needed far more attack in the second half, rather than kicking the ball backwards all the time. After the theatre I was rather peckish and decided it was appropriate to eat this Brazilian BBQ Steak flavour Pot Noodle. Glancing over the World Cup themed Pot Noodle pot, I could see that this flavour was noodles in a peppered steak flavoured sauce with an added sachet of barbecue sauce. This sounded right up my street as I love peppered steak and I also love barbecues in general. So what could go wrong?

I noticed that there was cumin, black pepper and cayenne pepper in the ingredients, as well as smoke flavour in the sachet. I added freshly boiled water, the solid noodles a powder stirred together easily, and then added the smoky barbecue sauce sachet. The mixture had a lovely smoky barbecue beef smell to it. After cooling the taste had a smoky barbecue beef flavour with a peppery kick and a blend of cumin and parsley. I suspect the diced green bits amongst the sauce and noodles were the parsley. This pot noodle had a medium spicy chilli heat to it and bunches of flavour. Over the years Pot Noodles have definitely increased the quality of their flavours, and this Brazilian BBQ Steak flavour Pot Noodle was certainly no exception. I hope it stays as a flavour for the future as it would be a shame just to keep it as a limited flavour for the World Cup. Whatever team you support or don't support I'd recommend you try one of these Pot Noodles with some bread to dip in for a quick and tasty snack whilst you stick your feet up and watch the Footy on the box!

Information on the pot;
90g pot has 430 calories, with 15g of fat and 8g of sugar. No artificial colours or preservatives. Ingredients see photograph.

By Spectre

New Piri-Piri Chicken Pot Noodle (Asda) [By @SpectreUK]

I’ve noticed a bit of a theme with some of the recent flavours of Pot Noodles, such as Donner Kebab and Southern Fried Chicken to name but a couple. This new Piri-Piri Chicken flavour reminded me of the main ingredients for Nandos chicken, well asides chicken of course. As Pot Noodles are supposed to be a quick, cheap and cheerful alternative to eating out at your favourite restaurant, why not create Pot Noodles that remind us of our favourite meals? There’s genius in this idea somewhere, especially for those hard up students that need a pick me up after a hard day of ‘study’ in the student union or boozers who have been ‘studying’ down the local pub or nightclub and need a food fix late at night. Sometimes you need something quick and simple to prepare, and that’s where Pot Noodles come in. Of course, there are other folk such as myself who can’t boil an egg without sitting on the toilet for two days afterwards, but are generally okay pouring freshly boiled water in a pot and stirring!

In the 90g pot of this Piri-Piri Chicken Pot Noodle there was 430 calories, with 15g of fat and 11g of sugar. The ingredients included, the usual noodles, as well as sauce which contained; wheat flour, sugar, water, onion, potato starch, tomato, garlic, red pepper flakes, spice, chilli powder, palm oil, citric acid, lemon juice, and salt; and there was also a ‘zingy sachet of lime sauce’, which contained; concentrated lime juice, sugar, water, spirit vinegar, and modified corn starch. On peeling back the metal top of the Pot Noodle I noticed there was a large amount of powdery red sauce covering the usual noodles. I added freshly boiled water and mixed in the noodles with the fiery looking red coloured sauce. I had already picked out the green coloured sachet of ‘zingy lime sauce’ before adding the freshly boiled water – not so bad at cooking as I first proclaimed you know! I tore open the packet and poured in the green coloured liquid giving the Pot Noodle a good stir with a metal fork. I noticed there were red bits or flakes of chilli in the sauce. There was a fiery hot taste of chilli first, with the well accustomed Piri-Piri flavour close behind that did remind me of the Piri-Piri on chips and the medium hot sauce on their chicken I usually enjoy at Nando’s. There was a lime tang at the end of the Piri-Piri flavour that mixed well with the noodles and sauce. I found this was one of the spiciest pot noodles I’ve eaten and certainly one of the most flavoursome, having said that there wasn’t much chicken flavour in the sauce, but the lime tang was an unusual yet very welcome addition. I reckon it would be a good soberer after a night on the tiles. The chilli heat made my nose run a bit whilst I ate the Pot Noodle. I enjoyed it with a good pint of ale whilst dipping in chunks of brown bread, and with some cheese and onion crisps on the side. I’d recommend this Pot Noodle to anyone and would have it again.

By Spectre

Southern Fried Chicken Pot Noodle [By @SpectreUK]

This was definitely the weirdest sounding flavour of Pot Noodle I’ve tried to date, and I’ve tried plenty of Pot Noodles for this blog. Southern Fried Chicken flavoured Pot Noodle appealed the least. I like a trip to KFC just as much as the next person, well just as long as the next person likes Kentucky Fried Chicken I suppose. I must admit, this Pot Noodle sat in the Foodstufffind’s Cupboard of “Deadly Sounding Foods” for some time before I dared to try it. It’s not that I thought it would be too spicy or taste revolting, it was the concept of Southern Fried Chicken flavoured noodles, without munching on actual pieces of chicken, which sounded so wrong in my head.

I pealed back the lid to find a sachet of tomato sauce, and a hard block of stringy noodles covered in dry sandy coloured Southern Fried Chicken mix with small pieces of sweetcorn, soya, red pepper, and onion. The ingredients on the back of the pot also mentioned “spices”, and oregano and basil herbs. I went through the usual motions of adding freshly boiled water to the pot, adding the sachet of tomato sauce, stirring, and leaving to cool for a short while before eating. I must admit there was a hint of Southern Fried Chicken smell in the air after stirring. The 381 calorie Pot Noodle had a fairly pleasant, lightly spiced, mild chicken flavour, but more like a very mildly spiced chicken curry than Southern Fried Chicken. I think I’ll stick with the other more flavoursome Pot Noodle flavours, as I do prefer to bite, gnaw and tear at my Southern Fried Chicken (of actual pieces of chicken), rather than slurp and chew at flavoured noodles, so I reckon KFC is safe for now…

By Spectre

Pot Noodle – Chinese Chow Mein (Sainsburys) [By @SpectreUK]

I picked up this Pot Noodle with a second in the local supermarket. The second Pot Noodle was Southern Fried Chicken flavour. I put the SFC flavour on a cupboard shelf and have been quietly dreading eating it ever since. On opening the Chinese Chow Mein flavour I noticed this pot consisted of the usual type of noodles with dried bits. There was also the usual sachet, this time full of Soy Sauce. I added freshly boiled water, left it to stand for a while and then stirred in the Soy Sauce. This produced a lovely smell of Chow Mein. I noticed there were bits of carrots and chives in with the brownish liquid and noodles. The ingredients also included; tomato, ginger, cinnamon and garlic. All the flavours subtlety blended into one to provide a delicate Chow Mein taste that belied the stronger smell. This was a good quality moreish Chinese noodle soup. Actually, “good” doesn’t give this Pot Noodle justice. I reckon it’s one of the best Pot Noodles I’ve tasted to date. It wasn’t over spicy, as some are, and didn’t taste a bit weird as some do. I’m sure it’s perfect for a late night snack in front of the television, especially after too much booze and something light is required for a dickey tummy. I enjoyed John Wayne’s Horse Soldiers whilst I ate this Pot Noodle, dipping in bits of bread to soak up the sauce, and had a couple of packets of Salt ‘n’ Vinegar flavoured Chipsticks on the side to dip in Salad Cream. I’d definitely buy this Chinese Chow Mein Pot Noodle again, but it hasn’t stopped me from dreading the Southern Fried Chicken flavour... not one bit!

By Spectre

Pot Noodle GTi Tikka Masala [By @SpectreUK] (Tesco)

Jim from Chocolate Mission recommended I try this new Pot Noodle GTi Tikka Masala. Apparently it’s the first Pot Noodle with actual meat in it. Unlike the usual Pot Noodles, the GTi isn’t a case of “just add boiling water and stir”, the GTi is microwavable in two minutes (depending on the wattage of your microwave oven). I remember the old microwavable curry’s in the 90’s that were downright rotten and didn’t taste much like curry after you’d nuked the plastic packaging for an age. I know nowadays that microwave meals taste better and are better for you healthwise, but you still have to keep them chilled or freeze them to eat them after a longer period of time. The GTi doesn’t need chilling or freezing, and has a good long best before date, so it doesn’t take up room in your fridge or freezer.

Our microwave oven is 1000W, and as the instructions on the back of the packet only went up to 850W, I had to guess a little on the cooking time. After about a minute and a half I pulled the rest of the lid off and was impressed at the aroma of Tikka Masala. The microwave oven hadn’t dried out the contents of the GTi at all. On stirring the brown Tikka sauce I could see a decent helping of noodles, with small pieces of chicken and herbs. The noodles had been cut short so the meal was not messy at all. Cinabar’s mom had put bread aside for me and made up a salad of cucumber, tomatoes and lettuce. I also had a beer to wash the meal down. The Tikka Masala sauce had a medium spice to it with a tomato taste, and a touch of paprika, garlic and onion. The chicken had cooked well in the microwave, and was succulent and soft on the teeth. The Tikka Masala went well with the salad and I enjoyed mopping up the rest of the sauce with the bread once I’d finished the noodles and chicken. Even more of a plus I found that the Pot Noodle GTi went very well with a pint of beer. I’ll definitely have to seek out the Chilli Con Carne and Bolognaise flavours in the GTi range. Thanks Jim! :-)

By Spectre

King Pot Noodle - Bombay Bad Boy [By Spectre] (Asda)

A little while ago I was railroaded into trying the Donner Kebab Pot Noodle. Although I was dubious at first, I rather enjoyed the Pot Noodle and visited the website to see what other flavours Unilever had on offer. The Bombay Bad Boy sprang out at me from the web page promising to be even hotter than the Donner Kebab, so I decided to hunt one down. I picked one up from a local supermarket and decided to have it with a Kamikaze BLT one night whilst watching The Fellowship of the Ring. My Kamikaze BLTs involve several finely chopped chilli's (these were grown by my own fair hand in our greenhouse), a thickly cut tomato, a huge amount of iceberg lettuce and six just cooked rashers of bacon. This sandwich looks like and tastes like the perfect hot Scooby Snack.

Whilst grilling the bacon (trying to be healthy) I opened the pot and boiled the kettle. I followed the usual instructions of add boiling water, leave two minutes, stir, leave two minutes, add sachet of Hot Fire Chilli Sauce and stir again. After a few minutes I decided to have a taste. I was suddenly reminded of the messiness of Pot Noodles as noodles and sauce went in all directions, some of which went in my mouth after a rather uncouth slurp. I noticed the peas and sweet corn bobbing around between the noodles in the pot and felt a good heat from the sauce. Despite the "incredibly hot curry flavour" warning on the outside of the Pot Noodle, I was slightly disappointed. My Kamikaze BLT was hotter than this Pot Noodle. I felt that the chopped red chilli's that were in the Donner Kebab Pot Noodle made me sweat a little and set my mouth aflame. Compared to the Donner Kebab (and my sandwich), the Bombay Bad Boy appears a bit lame, although very tasty with a medium hot curry flavour. I did actually like the taste of this Pot Noodle more than the Donner Kebab flavour. Having said that, the last time Cinabar went to the store she asked me if I wanted a Pot Noodle and I immediately asked for the Donner Kebab, I guess I prefer the heat after all.

By Spectre

Doner Kebab Pot Noodle [By Spectre] (Sainsburys)

First launched in 1977, Pot Noodles have been a benchmark of student life ever since. I initially braved them in the 1980s and didn’t think much to the flavours. The last one I ate I think was Curry flavour and that was about twenty years ago. Geez… that makes me feel old! Doner Kebabs first came out in the UK in 1971, so it was only natural that this flavour would find itself in a Pot Noodle at some point. Okay, not really. Been as though I’ve never professed a liking for Pot Noodles to Cinabar, in fact, quite the opposite, it too was only natural that I’d be lumbered with trying this new flavour. To be honest I can think of other things I’d prefer to try that begin with “Pot” before revisiting this brand, such as “Pot Holing”, where the phrase “Every hole’s a goal” simply doesn’t apply. To be honest, after some recent and disastrous horror films involving deep holes in the ground, monsters and people being eaten alive, I may never go into a cave again! Potatoes are nice. There’s pot roast too. Hell I’d even prefer to eat Potpourri, rather than a Pot Noodle. But as I could see the fear in Cinabar’s eyes, I agreed to do the review.

After a number of weeks of staring at the Pot Noodle I came across a point where I had no choice but to eat it. Cinabar was away on holiday with her mom and I’d been swimming after a long day at work. Apart from some eggs, a little cheese and some bread, the Pot Noodle was the only thing left to eat in the whole house (there wasn't even any Potpourri). I boiled some eggs and made a cheese sandwich with lashings of beer mustard. I followed the instructions on the plastic pot to a tee. Add boiling water, leave for two minutes, stir, add sachet, leave for two minutes and (for God’s sake) don’t reheat. I scratched around and managed to find a bag of Welsh Rarebit crisps and a Hot flavoured Pepperami. I sat down to “Battle of the River Plate”. I have to admit my unusual concoction of food all went rather well together, whilst I watched battleships pounding each other with shells. The hot spice in the pot noodle took me back a little, especially on noticing the finely chopped chillis mixed in with the curly noodles. The instructions on the pot recommend you eat it with a fork, which makes for a loud and particularly messy meal. I ate a few noodles, my mouth began to burn after a while, but I had to imagine the taste of lamb, because it seemed to be missing from the pot. I used the boiled eggs to cool my mouth, dipped my sandwich in the pot, the Hot flavoured Pepperami also complemented the pot noodle well. All in all I had a strange, yet very tasty meal indeed. If I’m devilishly hungry and desperate for a very quick meal in the future, I may look to the other flavours of Pot Noodle and give them a try to see which one I like the best, but the Doner Kebab flavour has a thumbs up from me!

By Spectre