raw charamel

Demae Iccho is an old brand of Japanese instant noodles that has a cute boy character logo. I hardly eat instant noodles now but I remember that I often ate it for Saturday lunch with my brothers. A few years ago, Japan had a "gorgeous instant noodles" boom and gourmet instant noodles became available. For example, Goota costs over 300 yen and it has rich ingredients like the ones you see in the YouTube video. Of course it's delicious, but basically people always love plain old reasonably priced instant noodles like Demae Iccho, Chicken ramen, Sapporo Ichiban, Cup Noodles. Those brands have about 50 years of history, but they're still very popular. Maybe we love the artificial, "instant" taste of them since they have more character than halfway-rich instant noodles. In Akihabara, there is an instant noodles restaurant called "Akiba Noodle SAKURA" where you can try over 400 kinds of Japanese instant noodles. You know, we love instant noodles and there's a lot of variety.

When I went to the US, I often saw Maru-chan noodles available in regular American supermarkets. Of course Asian food stores have more variety. Then I found this article: Hong Kong people love "Demae Iccho" very much. Stores basically stock only Demae Iccho brand instant noodles and even restaurants offer Demae Iccho on their menus. The funny part is that in Hong Kong, Demae Iccho is part of a morning set menu with eggs and a sandwich like this. Here is a photo of a Hong Kong subway station. Those colorful ads show how big Demae Iccho is in the city. Nissin said that they started to export Demae Iccho to Hong Kong the 80s. It was the first instant noodle from Japan and Hong Kong people loved these Japanese noodles very much. This good image kept Demae Iccho going as the #1 brand, even today. In the US I saw a lot of Maru-chan noodles. Each area has a different prevailing brand. Hmm｡ﾄ Interesting.

As another food topic, Nama Caramel (a very soft caramel called "raw caramel") is very popular in Japan. The most famous shop is Hanabatake Farm. Their online shop sold out in 30 minutes. I will try them after the boom. :-)

Comments

Oh I remember Damae Iccho ramen :) When they first came to Singapore, they were really rich in taste. But a few years later they are made by a factory in Malaysia and exported to us, the taste is not so good :(

[Anonymous]

Funny. I was having Demae Iccho noodles when I was reading this. Of course, I didn't know it was called Demae Iccho until I read your post. ┐('～`；)┌

Yes, I love the "artificial" character and the cheap way instant noodles fill you up.