[Campbell] Chicken & Noodle Soup

Okay, so when I first started writing this article, I didn't realize that Campbell was actually a reputable company. I only bought the soup, because it was in the vending machine in my dorm. Also, after last week's fake tasting chicken flavored ramen, I felt that this would have a similar taste.

So, when I brought the can of soup upstairs to eat and my friends told me that Campbell soups aren't really sketchy, I was disappointed. But being the lazy person I am, I refused to go back to Garrett-Strong for another burger. Maybe today, I will actually have something that I will really enjoy.

The concept of a soup in a can is certainly new to me. To be honest, it does sound pretty gross. But I mean, how bad could it be (Hmm. The last time I said this, I was pleasantly surprised with a disgusting and rubbery fake chicken).

I took the lid off, and peeled the top off, Annnnd the soup almost exploded out. A little suggestion here would be to peel the can as slowly as possible. The soup was filled all the way to the top, making it very difficult to open the can without spilling.

It definitely didn't seem very appetizing. The soup was very gooey, a texture I don't look for in soups. But on the plus side, it actually smelled like chicken stock. So, trying to only think of the positives, I cooked the soup as instructed. A pleasant smell of well seasoned chicken stock began to spill out of the microwave.

I began to get a little bit excited. Does this mean that I can have good soup whenever I wanted? Well we'll find out.

When I took the soup out of the microwave, the gooey texture was gone and the soup was now at a perfect, liquidy consistency, definitely a good sign. I put the lid back on, and took a gulp.

Wow. It was actually quite nice. Warm and flavorful chicken stock tasted like what it needed to taste like. But I found that having the lid on really didn't help at all. So I took the lid back off, and began to eat the soup with a spoon.

Now, although it says to cook for a minute and 15 seconds, I think cooking it for another 15~30 seconds would have been better, since the actual noodles and "chicken" weren't fully heated. Also, there really weren't enough noodles and vegetables. They were tiny, cut-up pieces of carrots and salary, but they were barely noticeable, especially since they were very slimy and soggy. Also, I was led to believe that there was going to be chicken in the soup.

There really wasn't. Sure there were almost negligible amount of cut up strips of chicken that I barely noticed, but other than that, there really wasn't much. I would recommend actually putting some real vegetables and chicken in it, and cooking it for a little while. It would definitely improve the flavor. However, it was good enough to make me change my mind about canned soups and I would gladly go back and eat another one when I am too busy to go to the Union.

Edit. I'm sorry about the lack of pictures in my last two posts, for some reason, blogger is refusing to let me upload pictures, I will have them up as soon as the problem is fixed.

[Maruchan Ramen] Chicken Flavor

I'm sorry guys for my absence last week... I got lazy, things led to another and I just didn't have the time to write this post last week. I'm also really running out of things to review... I would review the Union food, but everyone knows how bad their food is. So today, I decided to steal one of my roommate's ramen!

Now, as a Korean student, ramen is... kind of like the holy grail of cheap and delicious food. If any of you haven't tried Korean ramen yet, you are really missing out in life. In fact, if you comment on this post, I will randomly pick two people and get them a pack of ramen each!

But anyways, even though I'm pretty much addicted to ramen, I haven't had any ramen since I came to the United States. The ramen I will be eating today is my roommate's favorite, the Chicken Flavored Maruchan Ramen.

I cooked the ramen as I would cook any ramen. Open the package, broke the noodles in half, put water in the bowl and cooked it for 5 minutes in the microwave. Up until then, everything was normal. Then, I put the powdered flavoring in. That was when things started looking weird.

The thing is, almost all Korean ramen are spicy. So any ramen that doesn't look red or some shade or red looks... weird to me. But I mean, I've had non-spicy ramen before. So I mixed the flavoring in and let it sit for a minute to cool down a little.

Hmm. The smell was interesting. It really wasn't the smell of "chicken" but rather herbs used in traditional Korean medicine. The slightly bitter and earthy smell mixed in with what I assume was the artificial flavoring to make the soup taste like chicken stock. It wasn't completely unpleasant, but it definitely didn't smell like chicken soup.

Nonetheless, I took a bite.

Well. It really wasn't too bad. It was very... plain and one dimensional. It wasn't that the soup wasn't flavored, but it was rather flat. I could tell what was meant to taste like chicken, but it tasted more like artificial flavoring. The texture of the noodle was actually pretty decent. There was a slight bit of chew in the middle although the outsides were soft. Almost perfectly al-dente.

Overall, the ramen itself really wasn't too bad. It was a little too salty for my taste, but it's cheap and filling. Maybe next time, I'll try cooking it with actual chicken stock with some vegetables and actual chicken to give it more flavor and depth. But as a quick dinner when you're too lazy or busy to make an actual dinner, this would serve as an acceptable alternative. 

[Provisions on Demand] Ham on Wheat Bread

Alright, alright, after last week's shock, I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue eating any of the burgers in the vending machine this week. I know, I'm getting weaker... But I really didn't want to eat a burger today. So, I decided to eat a sandwich instead.

 This time, I actually wasn't sure what to do. Did I need to microwave this? Should I just eat it without doing anything to it?

Lost in the newly found freedom called the lack of instructions, I decided that since it was a sandwich, I could just eat it without microwaving. I peeled the wrappers off, which was surprisingly difficult by the way, and took my first bite off.

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it tasted exactly like a ham cheese sandwich. There really isn't much else to be said about the taste... (which is a problem because I don't have anything else to talk about...)

The bread actually tasted fresh and the ham and cheese tasted "normal" for once. It definitely wasn't the best ham-cheese sandwich I have had, but it definitely wasn't bad.

....

Well this is bad... I'm out of things to talk about... I usually have more things to complain about, but today the sandwich was so normal, that there really isn't much to talk about...

So, I decided to eat another one! Except this time, I decided to microwave the sandwich.

Thankfully, my roommate reminded me that perhaps it wasn't a good idea to microwave the sandwich while it's still in the plastic bag that wasn't supposed to be microwaved.

But after closely avoiding setting off the fire alarm, I microwaved the sandwich.

O.O

This... was... by far the best thing I have eaten since the beginning of this blog... The gooey molten cheese spilled out of the side, coating the bread that was now actually slightly toasted. The cheese covered ham tasted heavenly.

It actually tasted so good, that I forgot to take pictures of it. If you are ever really hungry, and in need of a good sandwich, get this sandwich, MICROWAVE IT for about 45 seconds to a minute. You will actually be surprised by how good it tastes.