Product review: Annie Chun's noodle bowls

While these perhaps fall short of being "gourmet," Annie Chun's soup and noodle bowls are actually quite good and very handy snacks, at about $4 per serving, which is comparable with what you'd pay for the same thing at a restaurant.  Based on a sampling of two of the flavors offered in the lines, the Korean Sweet Chili noodle bowl and the Miso Soup bowl, these are quite definitely worth a try for the money, particularly if you like 100% all natural ingredients, no preservatives, no MSG, and the convenience of making something really good quickly and easily with no more technology required than the ability to boil some water: on a stove top, in a microwave oven, or with an electric kettle.

There are seven flavors of soup bowls, which contain noodles in addition to soup, to choose from: chicken noodle, hot and sour, Korean kimchi, miso, Thai tom yum, udon, and Vietnamese pho.  In addition, there are six flavors of noodle bowls to choose from: garlic scallion, Korean sweet chili, kung pao, pad Thai, peanut sauce, and teriyaki.  Annie Chun's also offers dried noodles, sauces, "noodles express," "rice express," sushi wraps, and other all natural Asian cuisine items in her lineup.

Of particular note with both the soup and noodle bows, the noodles are not provided in a solid, dried brick that must be reconsituted but rather in a sealed plastic envelope that keeps the fresh noodles inside moist and fresh.  The vegetables are freeze-dried in a little packet, and the flavoring sauce is either a sauce or paste in a separate pouch.  Basically, the quality is miles and miles above that of Smack or Maruchan Ramen in almost every conceivable way (except price... $0.15 or less per packet of Smack or Maruchan Ramen is hard to beat, except that its really bad for you and not very good).  They are also packaged in their own plastic bowl with a lid for the convenience of making them at the office.

To speak directly of the Korean sweet chili noodle bowl, the description reads: "fresh cooked Hokkien noodles in a uniquely sweet and spicy red chili sauce."  While the heat isn't going to blow anybody's hat into the creek, the chili flavor is upfront and honest.  The taste is also distinctly Korean, so it is fair to say that these noodles, for being instant, are representative of their claims.  They are available locally, for instance, in the organic and specialty foods area in the local Kroger stores.

If you don't feel so good about the plastic bowl that comes with these bowls, you can always use them to share your own culinary creations with friends and relatives without the worry of having to get your dishes back.

Buy them locally!  Annie Chun's soup and noodle bowls are available in the organic section in Knoxville-area Kroger stores as well as at the two Knoxville Earth Fare locations.

Like what you've read here? The author maintains a personal cooking blog called The Untrained Gourmet.  Visit it for his personal experiences with food and plenty of other recipes!