Nissin Cup Noodle Red Seafood is a seasonal product, meaning it’s not available year-round but Nissin brings it back into production every summer in Japan. Sort of like how the Hokkaido Milk Seafood cup comes around every late winter, you can find this one on Japanese store shelves during the summertime. As I’ve said many times, I love the original Cup Noodle Seafood flavor, and I love trying all the recipe variations that have come out of it. Read on for more info on what this flavor is!
The Verdict:
| Product: | Nissin Cup Noodle Red Seafood |
| Origin: | Japan |
| Noodle Quality: | 5/10 |
| Spice Level: | 3.5/10 |
| Overall Score: | 8/10 |
As you might already suspect, the presence of the color red on a Japanese ramen product (or many other noodle products, for that matter), indicates that this is spicy. And indeed, the “Red” in “Red Seafood” refers to the addition of red chili pepper into the broth, along with coarsely ground black pepper for a spicy finish. The also-seasonal Tropical Seafood flavor had a super mellow additional hit of red pepper in it, so I’m very curious if this will be similar to that or a different level of heat altogether.
You’ll find this around the July timeframe every year when it’s released in Japan, and if you live outside of Japan you’ll have to look around that time if you want to order it for shipping. My favorite place to buy Japanese noodles is Japanese-Snacks-Republic, so bookmark the product page if you want to buy this when it’s available.
Peeling back the lid, you can see a pretty standard-looking block of Nissin noodles, a red broth powder, and lots of toppings. The broth contains pork, chicken, and seafood extracts, plus garlic, sugar, soy sauce, fish sauce, and “spices.” For toppings, we’ve got the three best seafood add-ins Nissin can offer with one of these cups: squid, cabbage, imitation crab, plus my least favorite add-in, dehydrated eggs. Sodium is around a medium-high 1770mg.
Noodles:
Standard Cup Noodle quality. A vehicle for the broth and toppings but perfectly ordinary otherwise.
- 5/10
Spiciness:
The spice level is about what I expected. While it’s certainly hotter than the Tropical Seafood flavor was, it’s still a mild burn compared to Korean noodle spiciness or even Nissin’s mainstay Spicy Cup Noodle. It shouldn’t hurt you unless you’re very intolerant of spice.
- 3.5/10
Overall:
I don’t know that I necessarily needed a spicier version of the Seafood flavor, but it does work pretty well and changes some things in the flavor profile to my liking (and this is a flavor profile I already like). Along with the additional heat, this feels somehow more savory and less sweet than the original, possibly due to whatever combination of peppers and spices went into this or maybe just an extra dose of salt or MSG. The result is everything I love about the original flavor – a strong seafood backbone, rich & creamy finish, and great seafood toppings – with a little more umami and a reasonably approachable spice level to make it a little more interesting. Putting aside the eggs, which I always find to be unnecessary, the crab, squid, and cabbage toppings are plentiful and delicious and well-rehydrated. I’m apparently a sucker for a fusion of a well-established recipe and a little bit of spiciness, and this one delivers quite well.
- 8/10
Continuing the Journey:
- Nissin Jonetz Shrimp and Salt Flavour Ramen Bowl offers another Japanese Nissin seafood broth with a salty finish.
- For another great mildly spicy Cup Noodle with seafood, try Nissin Cup Noodles Tom Yum Kung.
- Nongshim Neoguri Spicy Seafood Stir-Fry Noodles takes the spicy seafood concept into a brothless Korean recipe.
