Veggi Manchow - India Bazaar

Veggi Manchow - India Bazaar 

A long overdue Meatless Monday post. I bought this right before Easter at the India Bazaar, and I picked it up for a few reasons.

1. It's called Manchow, and I find that really funny, but it's a real soup. 
2. It's veggie-based, and I'm always looking for easy veggie meals. 
3. It's Manchester United Football Team themed!

I don't follow sports, but I love movies, and whenever I see Manchester United, I think of the Soccer Hooligans from Eurotrip, which is a raunchy, but extremely underappreciated film that everyone (over the age of 18) should see at least once. Also, fun fact, when I was traveling through Eastern Europe I saw a sign for Bratislava and nearly jumped off the bus to take a photo.

Before I go off on a tangent about my love for Eurotrip, let's cook up some cup noodles!

When it comes to packaging, I kind of love it as-is. It looks kind of dated, and the photos are oddly blue-tinged. Is this a really old product? Are these guys even playing for this team anymore? Even so, I find it charming. I don't have much to say or critique about the outside but...

There's a freaking folding fork inside! Why don't all cup noodles come with this? It's so convenient! Whenever I eat instant food at work I can never find a fork, so I scour the office looking for utensil odds and ends. I've eaten quite a few things with spoons, since I seem to have an abundance of those, and I once craftily used two plastic knives as chopsticks. (A MacGyver moment I was quite proud of no matter how pathetic that sounds when I type it out.) A few instant noodle dishes I buy from Aldi come with a tiny baby fork inside, and it works, but the handle is really short. I always end up getting broth/sauce on my hand, but this collapsible fork? Once assembled, it's impressively sturdy! I kind of want to wash it and keep in in my lunch box. (Did anyone else's grandparents wash and re-use plastic disposable dishwear? Or was that just mine?)

Once I got over my tiny folding fork obsession, I took a closer look inside the cup. That's a lot of dried peppers and seasoning. I'm thinking this instant noodle cup is going to pack quite the punch.

I warmed up my electric kettle, poured some hot water inside, waited a few minutes, and it was ready to eat!

Oh, wow! This is way tastier than I'd expected. The seasoning and dried peppers on the surface created a really flavorful, spicy, broth, and the other veggie mix-ins re-hydrated nicely to add a bit of texture to this otherwise soft noodle dish. The overall flavoring is very salty, like most instant noodles, but there is a fair amount of pepper (the vegetable) flavoring as well as garlic, onion and maybe jalapeno pepper?

The spice level is no joke either. For me, I'd gauge this at medium-high to hot heat-level. It won't send anyone running for a glass of milk, but it's far from wimpy. If you can't handle medium salsa, this isn't for you. The spiciness builds as you eat and towards the end I felt my nose burning and I broke out into a light sweat, which is always a sign that spicy food is GOOD.

It's still cup-noodles, so it's not like this will be passing as gourmet cuisine any time soon, but as far as cup-products go, this is one of the tastiest I've come across. I really loved the heat level, and my sister really liked it too. Even if future cups didn't feature the Manchester United team, I'd still buy this again in the future. Spicy ramen and noodle lovers should keep an eye out for this one.

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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