Pot Noodle

...other famous student experience the Pot Noodle. For some reason this brand of instant noodle snacks/meal replacements is automatically associated with student life.

Of course I had come across Pot Noodle before I became a student. When my mum was hospitalised a few years ago my sister and I had Pot Noodles for our dinner because neither of us could cook (being a touch too young to be allowed near my mother’s precious pans) and our ...
...ill effects from our brief Pot Noodle reliance and continued to enjoy the occasional one but then for some reason we stopped. I can’t quite remember why but by the time I came to university it had been several years since I had last had a Pot Noodle. Upon my arrival at university (and for that matter catered halls) I started to get bizarre cravings for Pot Noodles.

So I decided that there was only one thing to do. Give in to the craving. ... more

As I am not much of a drinker I realised that I would probably miss out on a huge chunk of the typical student experience. As such I decided that I had to make up for this. I was determined not to miss out on that other famous student experience the Pot Noodle. For some reason this brand of instant noodle snacks/meal replacements is automatically associated with student life.

Of course I had come across Pot Noodle before I became a student. When my mum was hospitalised a few years ago my sister and I had Pot Noodles for our dinner because neither of us could cook (being a touch too young to be allowed near my mother’s precious pans) and our Dad worked late and he couldn’t cook either. We seemed to suffer no ill effects from our brief Pot Noodle reliance and continued to enjoy the occasional one but then for some reason we stopped. I can’t quite remember why but by the time I came to university it had been several years since I had last had a Pot Noodle. Upon my arrival at university (and for that matter catered halls) I started to get bizarre cravings for Pot Noodles.

So I decided that there was only one thing to do. Give in to the craving. In particular I set myself the challenge of trying every flavour of Pot Noodle available on the market. Oh yes, I wasn’t going to miss out on this definitive student experience.

I am sure you have all seen Pot Noodles in the supermarkets/ petrol stations/ convenience stores. You can buy them just about anywhere and apparently most Pot Noodle purchases are impulse buys. It would seem I ma in the minority in planning on buying them. Depending on where you buy your Pot Noodles you can expect to pay from under 50p (Asda) to almost £1 (The Student’s Union). However occasionally supermarkets do special deals where you can buy several Pot Noodles for cheaper.

Each Pot Noodle comes in a round plastic pot in a variety of colours depending on the flavour. There are (at moment of writing) nine flavours of Pot Noodle on the market. The standard size pot contains about 90grams in it but you can get some Flavours in a King size pot of about 120grams. You can also get little mini-pots but I cannot be sure on how much they each contain.

No matter which Pot Noodle you have purchased the method of cooking (or re-hydrating) is always the same. You peel off the foil lid and remove the sachet of sauce. You add boiling water to the fill line level and leave it to stand for two minutes. Then you stir well and I mean really well you want to make sure that it is well mixed. Leave it for another two minutes, and then stir again. At this point you can add more water if you want and you can also add the sachet contents if you want them. If you add the sachet, stir again. The packet then recommends that you eat it. I recommend that you let it cool down for another couple of minutes otherwise you’ll burn your tongue.

I have organised the flavours alphabetically for ease of reference. You can consider this my own little homage to Morgan Spurlock.

BEEF AND TOMATO

This flavour is available in the mini-sized pots, the standard sized pots and the King Sized pots. It comes in a brown coloured pot. I have to say that the brown colour is very unappealing. Inside the pot there is a little sachet marked “tomato sauce”. The appearance of this one is grey/brown powder with lots of dehydrated peas, carrots and a few bit of tomato. It did not really have much of a smell there was perhaps a hint of beefiness.

What difference did cooking (if you can call it that) make? Well the pot noodle was transformed into noodles floating in brown water with bits of vegetables floating with them. If that sound unappealing it is because it is unappealing. There was no noticeable aroma to distract from the way it looks. When I put my nose really close I though that perhaps I could get a whiff of chicken stock cube.

However it passed the taste test. At first I though it tasted a little bit like beef flavoured crisps but then as I ate on there did not seem to be much real taste. I could detect a hint of tomato but that may have been the sauce I added (I am fairly certain that it was just tomato ketchup) and it still seemed to taste vaguely chickeny. What did surprise me was that the peas tasted of peas when you ate them. I have to say it was a pleasant surprise.

Overall this was an all right flavour, nothing to write home about.

BOMBAY BAD BOY

This is one of the newer flavours on the market. It comes in an all black pot with a flaming fork through the “o” in “Hot Noodle” (instead of pot noodle). It is available in the standard size or king size. The packaging seem to heavily emphasise the spiceyness of the product. The sauce sachet back this up with pictures of flames and a warning to keep away from your eyes. Why anyone would put sauce in their eyes is beyond me but then I remembered Pot Noodles are aimed at adolescent boys who always manage to plumb new depths in stupidity.

Removing the foil lid reveals a green/yellow powder with lots of peas and sweet corn bits. The powder also has lots of little green bits in it which I am going to assume are the chives. The smell from this powder was a very strong curry smell, with no sweetish undertones like you get with mild curries.

After dutifully pouring in the water and waiting the required length of time it was ready. This time the noodles were floating in sludgy green water with peas and sweet corn merrily floating alongside them. From the smell I could tell it was going to be hot. It smelt very spicy and very hot.

Licking my fork I could feel just how hot it was. The spices burnt my mouth and went straight to the back of my throat. I tentatively tasted a noodle. This flavour is very, very hot. I looked at the sauce sachet. Dare I add it? Heck you only live once. In it went. After eating this I had a mouth that felt like it was on fire and a slight sweat on my forehead. This was quite possibly one of the hottest things I have ever eaten. However the heat was such that I couldn’t really taste much. This is definitely a flavour for the spice addicts out there.

CHICKEN AND MUSHROOM

Apparently this flavour was the original flavour way back when Pot Noodle were introduced. I will admit that this is the only flavour that I had ever tried before. It comes in a green pot the same colour of green as a packet of cheese and onion crisps. It is available in the standard size, the mini-pot size and King size. It comes with a sachet of soy sauce to flavour it.

Removing the foil lid reveals a yellow/green powder with bits of mushroom in it. The smell was that of a very chivey, chicken stock cube. I dutifully poured in the boiling water and waited for the noodles to re-hydrate. Once it was re-hydrated I noticed a distinct chickeny smell which I have to say was rather appetising but then I was hungry. The appearance was that of noodles in a yellow/green sludge coloured water with sweet corn and chives floating in it.

The taste was reasonably chickeny with a distinct hint of chives. Overall it was very nice. The one thing that annoys me though is they call it chicken and mushroom flavour yet everyone know that mushrooms don’t really have a flavour of their own. They tend to absorb the flavours of whatever they have been cooked in.

I would recommend this flavour to anyone who like all the other chicken and mushroom instant snacks out there. They all taste pretty much the same.

CHOW MEIN

This flavour comes in a dark blue pot which is rather eye-catching. It is available in the standard size and king size. The sachet inside this pot is one of soy sauce. In case you haven’t noticed this is a Chinese themed pot noodle so soy sauce is the obvious choice.

The uncooked appearance of this one is rather worrying. Checking the label told me that the vegetable inside this one were peas and carrots. However the peas were very pale and the carrots were very red. The powder in this one is a yellow colour a lot like a ground up chicken stock cube. The powder smelt very chivey.

After approximately five minutes my pot noodle was ready to eat. By this time the carrots were not orange, the peas were green and the liquid was yellow-brown in colour. The smell is best described as being a chivey sort of Chinese take-away smell. I did not find it altogether unappealing.

The flavour in this pot noodle seemed to accumulate as I ate it. At first it tasted quite chivey but then I started to get little hints of hoisin sauce and other similar Chinese take-away dishes. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by this flavour as when you order chow mein you are never quite sure what is going to turn up. It was, however, very salty.

NICE ‘N’ SPICY

This pot noodle comes in an orange pot and is only available in the standard size. Inside the pot you will find an orange sachet labelled spicy sauce. It is nestled a-top the disturbingly orange powder but if you look close you can clearly see some pale green peas. This pot noodle smells just like a bag of Nice ‘n’ Spicy Nik Naks. That is to say it smells like very sweet (and mild) curry powder.

Once cooked the smell takes on a slight hint of chicken and there is also a slight smell of curry. I was disappointed that it did not smell more strongly of the curry flavour. This time the noodles were floating in an orangey sauce with the occasional piece of carrot or the odd pea floating by in a vain attempt at a balanced diet.

The taste I must say was disappointingly bland. It was not very spicy at all, even with the addition of the “spicy sauce”. I think that this flavour might be one for the Korma addicts out there. However when I got to the dregs of the pot there was slightly more flavour but my mouth was definitely not on fire. I daresay that I have had spicier macaroni and cheese.

SEEDY SANCHEZ

This is one of the newer flavours on the market. It comes in an all yellow pot with a sort of wild west theme going on with regards to the font and graphics used. It is described as “Mexican Fajita Flavour”. Clearly this flavour was issued to take advantage of the Mexican explosion which has led to Mexican cuisine becoming pretty popular in the UK. This flavour is available in the standard and king size pots. The sachet of sauce I found inside the pot continued the Wild West theme by called it “Seedy Salsa Sauce” and having “Wanted” on the sachet.

The uncooked appearance was one of red powder with miscellaneous bits of dehydrated vegetable mixed in. The smell was similar to that of mild chilli powder. I know what chilli powder smells like because when I have access to a kitchen I can actually cook fajitas. Once cooked the smell morphed into one that was more tomatoes than anything else. The sauce was also tomato coloured but at least it looked moderately more edible than other Pot Noodles.

This one passed the taste test rather well. I have to say that it was nicely hot but the flavour was hard to pin down. It was sort of a spicy tomato/garlic flavour. The heat gradually accumulated and by the end my mouth was nicely tingling but not on fire as after the Bombay Bad Boy. I don’t think it was very Mexican though.

SPICY CURRY

What else would a curry be? Honestly. If you ignore the stupid name you will see that the Spicy Curry flavour comes in an orange/ yellow pot. You can buy a King Size or standard sized Spicy Curry Pot Noodle. Either way they both will come with the same sachet of spicy sauce that came with the Nice ‘n’ Spicy flavour.

Removing the lid I peered in and was pleased to be greeted by a less sweet spicy smell than had greeted me with the Nice ‘n’ Spicy flavour. The snack itself consisted of yellow/orange powder with peas and was looked like pieces of tissue paper that had been through the wash. They were not tissue, however, they were in fact the textured Soya pieces.

The curry smell seemed to have been diluted by cooking but there was still a faint whiff of it. This time the noodles were surrounded by a browney-orangey coloured liquid. The taste of this Pot Noodle was not dissimilar to a mild Korma. This was a little disappointing. What I was surprised by was the fact that the carrot was actually crunchy. I couldn’t quite believe it. Once again draining the pot for the full experience delivered a nice little kick in the flavour department. However this flavour could have been a lot spicier.

SWEET AND SOUR

I am going to assume that this is a reflection of the British love of Chinese food. So far Pot Noodle covers Chinese and Indian but it does not cover Italian. What a lapse. Anyway I digress. The Sweet and Sour flavour comes in a pale blue pot with a sachet of sweet and sour sauce. It is available in the standard sized pot and the king sized pot.

Uncooked this flavour is mostly orange powder sitting on top of uncooked noodles with peas, red bits (carrots) and lumps of textured Soya. The smell emanating from it in this state is a sweet and sour smell like the processed sauces you get not the homemade stuff. In short it smells like a sweet and sour takeaway. When cooked the smell has a noticeably pineapply aroma which is rather pleasant. The sweet and sour smell was less pronounced when cooked. However the appearance is no more appetising than any other pot noodle. The water the noodles are merrily floating in is an orange-brown colour with bits of vegetable floating around.

I have to say that it did taste quite bland. It did have a noticeable sweet and sour taste but not as strong as I would have liked (i.e. like the sweet and sour chicken I make when I have access to cooking facilities). However it was a very nice taste and this would be my second favourite flavour. The vegetables actually tasted like they were supposed to and were not just there to give it texture. Overall it wasn’t bad and it could have been a lot worse.

THE SIZZLER

This is a relatively new flavour and like all the newer flavours comes in a single colour pot. The pot is a red-brown colour and instead of an ‘o’ in ‘pot’ there is a frying pan. Around the edges of the label there are little cartoon bacon rashers because this pot noodle is bacon flavoured. The sauce (tomato sauce) sachet is designed to look like a red top tabloid with some trite story in keeping with the pot noodle’s image of being a dirty snack.

I have to say that I found this pot noodles uncooked appearance very worrying. The powder seemed to be very orange. There was a strong smell of bacon, not freshly cooked bacon but smokey bacon crisps coming from the powder. When it was cooked the smell was maybe a little less strong. Its cooked appearance was noodles floating in an orange brown liquid. Interestingly this pot noodle only has the Soya pieces, it does not have any other vegetables in it.

Not surprisingly it tasted of smokey bacon crisps. So if you like smokey bacon crisps than you will like this pot noodle. I was amazed by just how much you could really taste the bacon. I couldn’t quite believe it. I think I may have even been bordering on impressed. What confused me though was why they had included tomato sauce and not brown sauce as surely either one would have gone equally well.

CONCLUSION

After eating all the Pot Noodles flavours I began to understand why they are so popular among students. The reasons are very simple and in no particular order. They are cheap, cheaper than real food, cheaper than a takeaway. They are easy to make and require virtually no culinary skills other than being able to turn on a kettle and use a fork. They are quick to prepare, you can come in and in about five or so minutes have a hot dinner waiting for you, with only a fork to wash up after you have finished. They are hot food that you can prepare easily. Think about it. After trudging home from a long day at uni in the cold you want something that will warm you up. Pot Noodles do just that. In short Pot Noodles are a quick, convenient hot meal that anyone can make.

But will I buy Pot Noodles again? The chances are that I just might. You see although I’m staying at catered halls the food is sometimes lacking a certain amount of edibility and in some cases taste. Admittedly I did find some of the Pot Noodles flavours a little bland but some of them had flavour I could taste. Which was a novelty. They do make a good back up for the nights when dinner has been awful. And as I mentioned earlier they are cheaper than a takeaway and you don’t end up wasting any food because Pot Noodles are just the right size for one person.

Of course the problem with Pot Noodles is that they are not very healthy. They are not the sort of thing you would want to live on for any real length of time. The packets do boast that they are free from artificial colours and flavourings and that they are a source of fibre. But lets not forget they are also a source of salt.

However as an emergency standby you could do a lot worse. I daresay that they are better for you than a McDonalds or a chip shop dinner. So perhaps I will keep a few in my room in case of emergencies but I’ll keep them alongside my other emergency standbys of soup and baked beans. Only problem is they require more washing up which takes time.

After my little challenge my craving for Pot Noodles has been satisfied. They are not bad as an occasional indulgence but they do not constitute a healthy diet.
 

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