Noodle Journey Episode 116: Acecook Hao Hao Saté Onion

Today, I’m reviewing Acecook Hao Hao Saté Onion, and to be perfectly frank, I’m not sure what this flavor is supposed to be. “Saté onion” doesn’t point to anything I can find via Google (aside from this specific product), so I’m going into this review trying to figure out what Acecook is aiming for – is it Indonesian satay with peanut and grilled meat notes, or the Vietnamese saté chili-lemongrass condiment? Neither of those things really makes me think of oniony noodles, so the origin of the name here is a bit of a mystery.

This costs $0.69 at my local Asian grocery store, and it’s also sold online at places like Yami and Amazon. There’s also a cup version that appears to include more dried vegetables from what I can tell. Sodium is pretty high for the size of this pack at 1,760 mg. Inside the bag, we’ve got very thin, crumbly wheat noodles with flavor enhancers including fish sauce (they even have an orangish-brown tinge), a soup powder that’s essentially salt/sugar/MSG with generic “spices” plus dried spring onion, and an oil packet of palm oil with non-specific spices. Prepping this is a simple steeping method: put everything into a bowl, add 400mL of boiling water, and cover for three minutes.

Noodles:
Thin but firm they remind me of Mama but slightly less bouncy. Good enough for the price, though not memorable in spite of the additional flavorings.
• 6/10

Spiciness:
Extremely mild; I caught a faint tickle that could be a tiny hint of chili powder, but nothing drastic.
• 1.5/10

Overall:
The aroma screams oil and onion and not much else. The powder smelled like straight onion powder before I added it, and the oil was basically an onion-infused oil, with maybe a tiny touch of garlic. In the bowl, this doesn’t suggest Vietnamese saté or Indonesian satay to me, since there’s neither peanut nor lemongrass/chili/garlic depth to it. It comes across as a basic salty onion soup with a slightly oily finish and a few small green-onion flecks that don’t add texture. The closest thing I can compare this to is “Funyuns in soup form.” It isn’t unpleasant, and onion snack fans might genuinely enjoy it, but there isn’t much beyond that single flavor note, so it lands in the middle-of-the-road for me.
• 5.5/10