Ganso Misen Taiwan Ramen Semi-Instant 元祖味仙本店 台湾ラーメン
Misen is probably Nagoya’s most famous ramen shop and Chinese restaurant at the same time. It’s a staple for locals and a must try for tourists alike. History has it, that the Taiwan Ramen dish was originally a simple staff meal, using clear chicken bone soup, mince meat fried with chilies and garlic chives. Apparently regular customers saw the staff eating those bowls of ramen during their break times and requested to be served the same thing. From there, it gained popularity as more and more people started ordering it, until it finally found its way to the official menu.
Today, you can find Misen all over Nagoya, serving a full line up of Chinese dishes and of course their famous Taiwan Ramen in various versions. You can check out the Misen Imaike location below:
Since then, Misen has turned their famous dish into a very popular souvenir that can be found either directly at the Misen restaurants or in and around Nagoya station, in many of the souvenir shops. The one I grabbed came with 2 portions of Taiwan ramen, but I have also seen bigger versions online with 3 or more portions.
Content
The package comes with enough food for 2 people:
2 portions of noodles
2 big sachets of minced meat, chili and concentrated soup
2 sachets of freeze dried nira garlic chives
Preparation
This time I also took a picture of the package, to show you what the preparation looks like in Japanese. These are the instructions for one of the portions:
Bring 1.5L of water to a boil and boil the noodles for 4.5 minutes. Stir the noodles a few minutes in a bit around.
Add 150ml of water to a pot and add in the soup package and dried nira garlic chives.
Combine strained noodles and soup in a pre-heated bowl. Add the noodles first, so you get the meat goodness and chili on top of the noodles, instead of having it all at the bottom of the bowl.
A fully prepared bowl of Misen Taiwan Ramen instant noodles.
Review
I don’t have hard evidence for this, but I am guessing that this is one of the most commonly bought savory souvenirs from Nagoya, since you can buy it all over the place in and around Nagoya station, plus at the Misen restaurants.
The most important point first: Did they manage to recreate the flavor of the legendary Taiwan Ramen with their instant noodle pack? Peeking at the scoop of soup above, it does have a very similar look and feel to it, with copious amounts of red chili oil floating on top of the soup and sticking to the rim of the bowl and the spoon. The aroma that emanates from the bowl was also quite promising, quite garlicky and a nice chili fragrance.
The soup had a quite meaty and rich quality to it with a relatively subdued spiciness to it, that is still noticeable, but probably will not make you break a sweat. Compared to the original bowls at the Misen restaurants, which have a sharp and spiking hotness to them, the instant version is way less spicy. That does not mean it is not spicy at all, you still have to be careful when slurping to not get it into the wrong hole, otherwise you can look forward a fun coughing fit. Ask me how I know.
A delicious look at the noodles of the Misen instant Taiwan Ramen.
The noodles are definitely a highlight here as well, tasting actually pretty close to what you get served in a ramen shop, maybe even better than what you get at the original Misen, since their restaurant noodles aren’t really all that great.
The meat topping is probably some of my favorite proteins among instant ramen proteins. In general, it seems like minced meat toppings seem to work much better in instant form than any attempts at chashu, which ultimately fall flat.
Overall, even though it does not replicate the Misen restaurant Taiwan Ramen a hundred percent, it is still one of the best instant ramen products out there in my opinion. If you enjoy spicy food, this is a great dish that can easily be spiced up more with some of your own chili powder or chili sauce, as it builds a great base for adding hotness. It also works well with more of your own toppings, since the soup is so rich and does not get diluted too easily with additional toppings.
9 out of 10
