One Culture Foods "Japanese Spicy Ramen" is Only Spicy if You Are Japanese

If you are Thai, you could rub the broth of One Culture Foods spicy Japanese ramen in your eye and not even shed a tear. Except not being spicy is just one bit of this One Culture Foods Japanese spicy ramen review to let you know if you should buy it.

Going through One Culture Foods Spicy Noodle ingredients, the “spicy” comes from the shichimi togarashi which is not spicy unless you are Japanese or the most ethnic food in your pantry is Wonder Bread.

Photo Description: a pic of me holding the container looking at the lid. The lid has a "made with bone broth reduction" label and the picture has the noodles, green onions, nori, and egg. — I’m not a fan of Whole Foods, but it was nearby, and it was the easiest way to pick up their product.

Is One Culture Spicy Ramen, Ramen?

It is not, and I just posted that One Culture foods is the only legit instant noodle brand, but are they actually selling you ramen noodles after I just hyped them? Well, I’ll let you decide based upon their noodle ingredients:

Noodle ingredients: Wheat flour, water, tapioca starch, salt, wheat gluten, lactic acid.

If you need help determining if One Culture foods is actually selling you a ramen noodle, check my last post “Are You Eating Real Ramen Noodles.“

Photo Description: a close up of the One Culture foods noodles which is not Japanese ramen. They are just instant noodles. — You like potato and I like potahto, you like tomato and I like tomahto, potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto. Let’s call the whole thing off

Going through all the ingredients, if you are wondering what lactic acid is used for, according to Wikipedia.org it is “used as a food preservative, curing agent, and flavoring agent. It is an ingredient in processed foods and is used as a decontaminant during meat processing.“

It is Not Ramen, But I Did Like It

Ohhhhhhhhhhh man, after I just went off on my rant of how legit One Culture foods is, I then try their product after I posted the article. Note to self, try their product first.

Photo Description: all three packets which contain the noodles, spice packet, and liquid/oils. — Who doesn’t love packets…. well, if you have ED, and you can’t get that packet open fast enough, then you don’t.

One Culture Foods Ingredients

I was not expecting this, and I thought it was going to be a dehydrated noodle although oddly, there a number of udon products that come exactly the same way, so maybe it’s due to the style of noodle?

Oh, and speaking of udon, this is what is in instant Japanese udon by Myojo:

Noodle ingredients: enriched wheat flour (flour, niacin, iron, thiamine, mononitrate, riboflavin, and folic acid), tapioca starch, water, salt, lactic acid, and sodium benzoate.

Do those ingredients sound familiar (here’s a direct comparison)?

Myojo Udon	Enriched wheat flour, tapioca starch, water, salt, lactic acid, and sodium benzoate.
One Culture Spicy “Ramen”	Wheat flour, water, tapioca starch, salt, wheat gluten, lactic acid.

Photo Description: the noodles in the rather large bowl, along with the spice packet. If you're familiar with Japanese noodles, these are closer to udon noodles. — If I had to snort a spice packet, this is quality spice packet without all the cut.

Opening up the spice packet, it smelled so eff’n good, and if you are wondering what is in it, I will tell you what is in the dried vegetable and seasoning power blend. Starting off, it is yeast extract, natural flavors, cane sugar, roasted soy sauce, sauteed onion, salt, roasted garlic, roasted seaweed, shichimi togarashi (chiles, seams seeds, orange peel, salt, seaweed, ginger), scallion, rice fiber, sesame seeds, red pepper, and white pepper.

Photo Description: the liquid goo of the final packet being poured into the bowl. If this shot is not — I could care less about organic, but if brands want to ride that bandwagon, have at it.

The chicken flavor bone broth concentrate consists of organic chicken stock, maltodextrin, natural flavor, chicken fat, canola oil, cane sugar, salt, sesame oil, yeast extract, and xanthan gum.

Photo Description: once you have everything poured in, there's not much in the cup. — Liquid goo, powder packet, and noodles all ready to go.

Preparation of One Culture Foods Noodles

All the ingredients get tossed in, then you pour water in, and you microwave it up to 3 minutes. Except I went two minutes, and I think my cup got kind of flaccid.

Photo Description: the One Culture Foods Japanese spicy ramen final product ready to be eaten. — I went to Chipotle afterwards, and if you want to know: chicken, white, pinto, queso, hot sauce, corn, cheese, and *lechuga.* Yes, and a soda, no chips.

I Liked It, but Size Matters

One of the most disappointing aspects of the product is the product size, and if you are American, are we not all about size? Well it does not seem that way with One Culture, so let’s compare sizes:

JFC Fresh Udon Bowl	8.29 oz	$4.16*
Myojo Udon	7.22 oz	$1.08**
One Culture Spicy “Ramen”	3.7oz	$3.89**

*Amazon, **Tokyo Central, ***Whole Foods

Photo Description: my noodle pull, and you see how these noodles are very white like udon noodles, not yellow like Japanese ramen noodles. — Somewhat spicy oriental noodles…. it’s not ramen tho (why did they think this is ramen?)

Why Are You Eating This?

All these brands tout how they are so healthy and those Jap’anese are clueless morons with their unhealthy and processed food, so it is up to Team America to save the day which is funny. Funny because the U.S. does not have the longest life expectancy or have the most fit people in the world, yet this is what they say you should be eating compared to the products produced by Japanese companies.

If you want to know which country ranks higher than the U.S. in terms of life expectancy and fitness, click here.

JFC Fresh Udon Bowl	1970mg / 82% daily value
Myojo Udon	1580mg / 66% daily value
One Culture Spicy “Ramen”	1200mg /52% daily value

If you are looking for an instant Japanese noodle, I highly suggest you try one of these “The idiots guide to 5 core Japanese noodles and ramen is not the only one.“

How Does One Culture Foods Noodles Taste?

Right off, it tastes good, but the flavor were only vaguely familiar, and all I can say is that it was “oriental flavor.” Oh, and if you are curious as to what that is, it is obviously a hot Asian girl/dudes bath water… I hope I got the Kendra Spade soup stock.

Conclusion, One Culture Foods Japanese Spicy Ramen is Not Ramen, Not Japanese, or Spicy

This is a tiny portion of oriental noodles with a slight familiarity to Japanese flavors only due to the use of shichimi togarashi and possibly the soy sauce.

Would I ever buy this product again? Well, I don’t mind paying almost 3.5x more sometimes, but for half the servings because they somehow have chosen to do “healthy organic B.S.,” well you can have at it because I just can’t do it.

I will be sticking with my instant Japanese udon while watching Kylin Kalani on IG.