Kikanbo Instant Karashibi Miso Ramen 鬼金棒カラシビ味噌らー麺

Kikanbo is ramen shop near Akihabara in Tokyo, famous for their rich miso based spicy and numbing ramen with thick pieces of flavorful pork belly on top. It has built up quite the reputation among locals and tourists alike. This creates quite an expectation for their Kikanbo cup ramen version. Does it match the spicy miso ramen flavors found at their store? The cup would suggest so, as it it proudly states “Karashibi Miso Ramen”, which is what Kikanbo calls their famous ramen bowl.

So let’s find out if the promises of this cup are fulfilled.

Content

Classic cup noodles, already dusted with the flavor powder, topped with dried meat bits and freeze dried green onion
Aroma oil sachet

Preparation

Fill cup to the line with boiling water. Close lid. Put aroma oil pack on top of the lid.
Wait 5 minutes.
Add aroma oil and stir well.

Review

The first thing you notice is the strong aroma of lemongrass, which is really surprising, since Japanese instant ramen (or regular ramen) rarely use lemongrass. After the first slurps, I distinctly made a connection to a instant flavor from my teenage years: Yum Yum Tom Yum instant noodles. The lemongrass is so dominating, the other aromas of miso, chili and numbing peppers move into the background. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad cup, on the contrary, it’s very enjoyable, just not what I expected from a Kikanbo instant ramen cup. Without the “Kikanbo” being stated on the cup, I would have never guessed that this instant cup is supposed to emulate the Karashibi Miso Ramen at Kikanbo.

Overall the soup is very aromatic and rich, clings well to the noodles and makes you want to throw in some rice into the cup, once you are done with the noodles. The noodles and dried meat/veggies are standard cup noodle fare, nothing extraordinary.