JCC Manpuku Club Oyatsu Ramen Snacks Chicken Soup

Oyatsu ramen means snack ramen, and the name describes a category that barely exists outside Japan: a block of instant noodles sold to be eaten dry, straight from the wrapper, the way you would eat crisps.

The noodles come pre-seasoned rather than with a separate soup sachet, fried until brittle, and you break the block apart and eat the pieces.

Japanese children have done this for generations, and Japanese adults do it with beer.

The seasoning is chicken soup, built properly — chicken and pork extract, soy sauce, vegetable extract and spices worked into the noodle itself before frying.

The manufacturer notes on the back that the flavour is deliberately concentrated so the block still works when you pour hot water over it, which means eaten dry it hits hard: salty, savoury, unmistakably ramen.

The texture is a dense, crunchy snap rather than an airy crisp, closer to a pretzel than to a potato chip.

What makes this format genuinely useful is that it works three ways.

Simmer a block for two minutes with an egg and vegetables in 230 ml of water and it is a bowl of ramen.

Pour 200 ml of hot water over it, wait three minutes, and it is a light soup.

Or eat it straight out of the packet. Thirteen individually wrapped blocks come in the bag at roughly 30 g each, 135 kcal apiece — enough to keep in a cupboard and use however the day calls for it.

Made in Japan by Shin’ei Foods in Tochigi.

About this item
Item Name : Manpuku Club Oyatsu Ramen Chicken Soup
Brand : JCC
Item Form : Snacks
Allergens: Wheat, soybean, chicken, pork
Number of Items : 390g x 13 Counts (Pack of 1)