Miyatake Sanuki Udon Noodles 900 g

I bought some Chajang Noodles along with this to make some jjajangmyeon, compared to the dry noodles, this one was really revolting! From the pack it smells like freshly mixed cement and tasted like it smells. The texture is way too soft, zero bite to it and just tasted awful. I'm glad I didn't buy too many of these, not nice at all! I really hate wasting food but this has to go in the bin!

I really expected to eat thick Udon with this price. However expire is still left but Udon itself smells very old flour and plastic package smell. very disappointed.

Excellent quality, easy to use - added them to a slow cooked Korean Beef Cheek & they were delicious. I actually bought too many packets - but they gave a long shelf life - so great value!

Not bad quality. Nice shape.

Let’s address the elephant in the room first: yes, you can find these cheaper at specialist or wholesalers. But unless you plan on hitting their massive free delivery minimums, the Amazon price is actually fair. You are basically paying the 'lazy tax' to get them delivered to your door tomorrow. Quality-wise, these are in a different league to the likes of Yutaka, Itsu or the mushy supermarket brands. You can tell it’s true high-quality stuff just by looking at the label: flour, water, salt, starch. That’s it. No weird gums or stabilisers to fake the texture; this is the genuine article imported from Japan. Crucial tip: Boil them separately first. They use a mild acidic preservative 'acidulant', to keep them fresh (standard for shelf-stable udon), so they smell a bit vinegary out of the bag. A quick boil and rinse gets rid of that completely. Don't be lazy and throw them straight into your broth or it’ll taste funky. As you can see in my photo, once boiled for 2-3 mins, they come out thick, glossy and maintain that proper koshi (chewiness). They soak up soup and dipping sauce quite well. Just keep in mind they are fairly low calorie on their own, so make sure you load up the bowl with protein and veg. Unless you have the freezer space for frozen Sanuki udon (which is the gold standard), these are the best shelf-stable noodles you can buy. Highly recommended.

Overall good

I'm not very picky when it comes to udon, but it just seems to have a much better taste/texture compared to the usual instant udon brands I've had. Fresh udon, of course, is really different and incomparable, but for the usual thick, round and white noodles, it's just really good (tbf, maybe I haven't had a huge variety of instant noodles to make a fair judgement, but I think I've tried a decent amount to make a somewhat sound judgement) + it doesn't need to be put in a fridge, and it still feels great without going through a 'cold wash'

I liked it