Vifon Mi Chay

Name: Vifon Mi Chay Variety: Vegetarian oriental style Distributor: Vietnam Food Industries Joint Stock Company Noodle: Ramen Flavoring: Powdered soup base + dry vegetables + oil packet Preparation: Standard Notes: Picked this up in the uber-economy bin at Ranch 99. Also, JSCs still exist?!

Alex:
I'll have to preface this by saying, our first Vietnamese candidate is entering the running a bit behind the eight ball. This packet from Vifon is a representative of the "economy" weight class (there is such a thing in the ramen world, believe it or not) at a slim 70g net weight.
Initial signs gave me a "thar be dragons" kind of vibe:
- Packaging: so thin and crinkly I could see the noodles through the ink
- Oil sachet: a pale yellow suspension with white fibers floating in it
- Vegetable sachet: wait, those are vegetables?

Not to form too many preconceptions, we gave it a fair shot. The final product was, simply put, Cup Noodles in a bowl. My nose can't possibly mistake that slightly tangy, slightly fried aroma that wafts out of the styrofoam cup after peeling back the paper lid. Must be more than a few common ingredients. The noodles proved insubstantial, at best. For those familiar with Japanese bento, imagine trying to pass off a bowl full of heated rice somen as ramen. I thought the vegetables had completely disintegrated into the soup base until a rogue corn kernel lodged, shallowly, in my throat.

I have to be somewhat forgiving, in that the flavor was fine. It was just exactly the same as Cup Noodles, which, if you do the math, is even cheaper than econo-ramen. I wasn't all that impressed, especially considering the promise of three-packet flavor.





Anne Marie:

There really is absolutely nothing remarkable about this particular instant ramen. While cooking, it smelled exactly like the inside of a Jack in the Box eggroll. Alex disagrees with me, but I disagree with him in that I did not find the smell comparable to Cup Noodles, though perhaps that is because I am mostly familiar with their chicken flavor and the broth did not have a strong chicken smell to me at all. The noodle quality was decent, but the sauce lacked flavor. Completely bland, it didn't even taste like I was drinking flavored broth, but rather water that something slightly more flavorful had been cooking in for a bit. The taste wasn't a bad taste, it just was so strikingly insubstantial that I was surprised three packets could make such a weak showing. If you're interested in eating ramen for the pure texture of noodles in broth, perhaps you would enjoy this product.

1/2