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8 Best Sour and Spicy Instant Cup Noodles To Satisfy Your Cravings

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Food

8 Best Sour and Spicy Instant Cup Noodles To Satisfy Your Cravings

June 18, 2020
8 best sour and spicy instant cup noodles

Photo: The Straits Times

Are you a fan of mala steamboat soups cooked with instant noodles? Do you pair chilli padi with your meepok at the hawkers? Perhaps you simply love spicy foods like laksa or spicy instant noodles like the Nongshim noodles in Spicy Mushroom Flavour? If your answer is yes to one of these points, then you’re going to love the latest cup-noodle trend from China to sweep Singapore. Say hello to the sour and spicy instant cup noodles.

Suan la fen or sour and spicy instant cup noodles is fast becoming the go-to instant cup noodles in Singapore. You can easily find different brands and varieties being sold online.

The Sunday Times did a taste test of eight types of sour and spicy instant cup noodles over a Zoom video-conference call. The judges were ST food editor Tan Hsueh Yun, ST food critic Wong Ah Yoke and chef-owner Willin Low of the Wild Rocket Group.

All About Sour and Spicy Instant Cup Noodles

Each cup is filled with individually packed ingredients. More fancy options include vacuum-sealed clams, scallops and mushrooms – along with seasoning powders, vinegar and mala sauce.

A popular flavour is Hei Ren Bu Luo’s mala oden, comprising fishballs and a striped fishcake with roe filling.

Typical cup noodles come with a flimsy aluminium-foil lid. For the instant suan la fen, the cup lid is a cover that can be properly secured. This is perfect as it ensures that no heat escapes and your noodles are properly cooked.

The average cooking time for these sour and spicy instant cup noodles is five minutes. And the portion is good enough for a light meal or satisfying supper.

How the Noodles are Rated

Each noodle could get up to 30 points – 10 points each for taste, texture and ingredients respectively.

(The top two cups came from the Hai Chi Jia brand, which bears the face of Hong Kong actor Bobby Yip on its packaging.)

In conclusion, the suan la fen winner had the best noodle texture, with a good dose of spice. The runner-up, hua jia fen (spicy clam noodles), had a lighter broth.

Ms Tan said: “The top [sour and spicy instant cup noodles] didn’t paralyse my taste buds. The ones that failed had no nuance and no subtlety in the flavours. I desperately wanted to love the oden, but the spice just kept hammering at my palate.”

Chef Low added: “The winner ticks the boxes of ma (numbing) and la (spicy). For the spicy clam noodles, I wanted to keep drinking the soup. It didn’t taste like instant noodles, but [as though] someone had cooked it.”

Where To Buy

Supermarket chain Sheng Siong carries a few brands of these sour and spicy instant cup noodles. You can also find a wider range on e-commerce platforms. These include Shopee, Lazada, Qoo10 and Carousell. Preorders are usually required and prices and delivery charges vary.

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https://www.womensweekly.com.sg/gallery/food/sour-spicy-instant-cup-noodles-for-spicy-food-cravings/
8 Best Sour and Spicy Instant Cup Noodles To Satisfy Your Cravings
1. [Winner]: Hai Chi Jia Suan La Fen
image

Score: 66/90

Verdict: The unanimous winner for noodles with the best texture and a well-balanced spicy and fragrant soup.

Mr Wong Ah Yoke says: “The noodles are just right – very smooth and they have a good bite. Others were either too soggy or too hard.”

Ms Tan Hsueh Yun liked the inclusion of peanuts, which retained their crunch even after soaking in the hot soup. She said: “I love the mala flavour, where you still get that numbing feel without the intense heat.”

Mr Willin Low, who thought the soup looked “very scary”, said he would jazz up the noodles by adding pork slices.

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2. Hai Chi Jia Hua Jia Fen
image

Score: 65/90

Verdict: A standout for its light and flavourful broth, which the judges happily lapped up.

Mr Low said: “This soup is not too salty and very drinkable. I don’t want to stop.”

Mr Wong, who liked the addition of mushrooms, agreed that because it was less spicy than the rest, the soup was “drinkable till the last drop”.

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3. [Tie] Lao Min Nan Vermicelli with Scallop (Original Flavour)
image

Score: 64/90

Verdict: Ms Tan liked that the noodles offered plenty of ingredients, including scallops.

Mr Wong and Mr Low agreed that the scallops were tasty, and enjoyed the sweet and slightly salty soup.

Like the second-place hua jia fen, this broth was also less spicy and easier for the judges to drink.

Price: $3.30 from Sheng Siong

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3. [Tie] Sichuan Baijia Da Boss Suan La Fen
image

Score: 64/90

Verdict: The spiciest of all the noodles tasted here, with a good punch of vinegar. Ms Tan pointed out that there were many ingredients, such as cubed beancurd, peas and rolls of beancurd skin. “What sets this apart is that everything has a distinctive taste and texture. The ingredients are superb. I love this, except for the spiciness.”

As he slurped the noodles, Mr Low said he felt like he was in China. “Eating this in winter will be so shiok.”

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5. Lao Min Nan Shanbei Vermicelli With Scallop (Sour-hot Flavour)
image

Score: 61/90

Verdict: The only cup that sent all the judges into a coughing frenzy with its spicy and sour soup.

Mr Wong said: “It’s not that spicy because my lips are not burning. But there’s something that really hits your throat.”

The soup was on the sour side for Mr Low, while Ms Tan found it way too spicy.

Like the third-place Lao Min Nan Vermicelli with Scallop, there were also scallops, but their flavour was lost in the heat.

Price: $3.30 from Sheng Siong

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6. Hei Ren Bu Luo Mala Oden Noodles
image

Score: 59/90

Verdict: Ms Tan gave this top marks for the oden ingredients, but found everything else disappointing.

For a perfect combination, she said: “I’ll take the ingredients from this and eat it with the Hai Chi Jia suan la fen.”

The spicy soup fell flat for Mr Wong, who noted it was not as fragrant or tasty as the rest.

Mr Low enjoyed the texture of the noodles and the striped fishcake with roe filling. “The soup reminds me of what you get at some hot pot places, where you can’t drink the oily soup that is used to just boil ingredients.”

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7. Guang You Suan La Fen
image

Score: 42/90

Verdict: Ms Tan was disturbed by what she called an “oil slick” on the noodles. But without the thick layer of oil, the soup and noodles lacked flavour.

Agreeing, Mr Low added: “It smells good, but doesn’t taste good.”

Mr Wong noted that the beancurd skin rolls were dry, and the soya beans had gone soft in the soup.

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8. Guangyou Hua Jia Fen (Sweet Potato Vermicelli; Clam Flavour)
image

Score: 37/90

Verdict: Oily and unpleasant soup; noodles are mushy.

Mr Low said: “This tastes more like the instant noodles we used to get – one flavour, and that’s it.”

The judges joked that the packaging did specify an “artificial clam flavour”, which is precisely what they got.

Ms Tan added: “The spice is too overpowering, just a big punch of chilli with no nuances and no clam flavour.”

Price: $2.50 from Sheng Siong

We hope you like the products that we’ve curated! Just FYI, we may earn a commission from the links on this page. All prices are accurate and items in stock as of the time of publication.

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Text: Eunice Quek/The Straits Times, Additional reporting: Simone Wu

The Straits Times
  • TAGS:
  • cup noodles
  • food review
  • instant noodles
  • sour and spicy noodles
  • spicy and sour noodles
  • spicy cup noodles
  • suan la fen
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