We taste-test Family Mart’s new Famichiki cup ramen, which contains no Famichiki.
Like all Japanese convenience stores, branches of the Family Mart chain are stocked with dozens, if not hundreds, of delicious things to eat. That said, the star of the store at Family Mart is definitely Famichiki.
This year Family Mart’s cooked-in-store fried chicken cutlets are celebrating the 20th anniversary of their debut, and they’re more popular than ever. They’re so tasty that if we’re craving fried chicken we’re probably as likely to find our feet carrying us to Family Mart as they are to KFC.
As part of the party for Famichiki’s 20th birthday, Family Mart has a couple of special treats lined up, and on October 6 they started selling a brand-new Famichiki-flavor instant ramen!
Here’s where things get mysterious, though. Famichiki Flavor Noodle isn’t cup ramen with sliced Famichiki inside of it. As a matter of fact, Famichiki Flavor Noodle doesn’t actually contain any Family Mart fried chicken, but Family Mart still promise they have the flavor of their namesake. To quote the company’s description:
“An addictively delicious cup of ramen combining spices, a fragrant, fried-flavor savoriness, and a broth brimming with umami that’ll have you feeling like you’re eating a juicy piece of Famichiki”
Family Mart is clearly confident in its new instant ramen, but can it really recreate the flavor of Famichiki? There was only one way to find out, so when we brought our 321-yen (US$2) cup of Famichiki Flavor Noodle up to the register, we asked the Family Mart clerk to also grab us a 248-yen Famichiki from the display case so that we could perform a back-to-back taste test.
Taste-testing duties fell to our Japanese-language reporter P.K. Sanjun.
▼ P.K., feeling both giddy at having a job where he gets paid to eat ramen and fried chicken, but also apprehensive at the solemn responsibility that comes with such an important assignment as this.
P.K. decided on a simple, straightforward testing protocol. First, he would take a bite of Famichiki, letting its familiarly juicy deliciousness wash over his taste buds. Then, resisting both the urge to lapse into a food coma or keep eating the Famichiki until it was all gone, he would immediately eat a mouthful of Famichiki Flavor Noodles, and see if the flavor sensation shifted.
So what did he think after tasting both?
“Yeah, they’re actually really close to each other!”
The flavors of the Famichiki and Famichiki Flavor Noodles are very similar, but what’s really remarkable is how their aromas are almost identical. Since eating cup noodles involves putting your face down into a cloud of steam rising from the broth, your olfactory sensors often play almost as big a role in how you perceive the flavor as your taste buds do. There’s a peppery meatiness to the scent of the Famichiki Flavor Noodles, and if you’ve ever eaten Family Mart’s fried chicken, it’ll feel very familiar, despite the unexpected source that it’s coming from.
However, once the broth cools down, the aroma also becomes less pronounced, since it’s no longer riding those rapidly rising hot air currents up to your nose. So as P.K. continued eating, the flavor of the Famichiki Flavor Noodle started reminding him of something else: Nissin’s Cup Noodle, specifically the flagship soy sauce-broth ramen flavor. Of course, maybe he should have seen that coming…
…since the Famichiki-flavor instant ramen is actually a joint project that Family Mart joined forces with Nissin to create.
But hey, if you’re looking for a partner to make cup ramen with, you can’t pick a better one than Nissin, and aside from tasting like Famichiki when its hot, the Famichiki Flavor Noodle tastes good all the way through to the last bite.
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