FF Tom Yum Seafood Creamy Flavor

Made By:  Fashion Food Co. (Thailand)
Tools Required:  Hot water, sharp object
270 calories per package

Rating:  :)

(available through Amazon.com)

My sweetie told me I should have a "Japanese-style" breakfast this morning, which is her way of saying she's going to sleep in and I can eat noodle soup for breakfast.  I picked this Tom Yum Seafood bowl from Fashion Food, since the portion size is fairly small and I won't be ruining our 'real' breakfast later.  I've had this one in the cabinet for a while and I've been avoiding it for some reason; maybe the "Fashion Food" name gives me the feeling that the presentation took precedence over quality or something.  Anyway, this seems like the perfect time, so let's open it up and see what's in there!

I ended up needing a knife to open the shrink wrap; not a real problem but good to know if I were packing this for lunch.  (I also nearly destroyed the instructions by tearing the shrinkwrap off.)  Once we get in there, we find an inner liner that contains our dark-colored brick ramen noodles, a packet of powdered seasoning, and a packet of orange oil.  There is also a small pack of dried seafood and veggies, and another one of those silly little forks which I shall ignore.  We put all of our ingredients into the bowl, fill to the line with "bowling" water, and put the lid on for three minutes.  Once the time is up, I give it a stir, and notice that the noodles seem to resist separating out of their block shape, which is unusual.  I eventually get it all stirred up and photogenic, though.

The noodles are firm and flavorful; they are very similar in color and texture to the ramen-style noodles made by MAMA brand, also from Thailand.  The broth is significantly spicy, and unlike the MAMA products, the chili powder is not packaged separately, so there wouldn't be any good way for someone to 'tone it down' if they didn't want that much heat.  The flavor is nice, though; it seems comparable to the MAMA Shrimp Tom Yum, with the addition of the seafood bits.  One thing that might be a positive about not having the chili powder separately is that the broth does seem a little less grainy once we get down to the bottom of the bowl.

I did enjoy this one, although I can't help thinking the fancy bowl and fork were wasted on me.  Since the purchase price of these is roughly triple that of the MAMA packet-style product, I think that one would get the nod from me over this one.  :|