Umai Crate by Japan Crate focuses on bringing you Japanese-exclusive instant noodles. Each month, you'll receive 7-8 instant noodles to try, along with a bonus collectible!
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The Subscription Box: Umai Crate
The Cost: $25 a month + free shipping
The Products: 7-8 Japanese-exclusive instant noodle dish + a bonus collectible
Ships To: Worldwide
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This month’s Umai Crate booklet is extra special because it is their 1st year anniversary! Want to see what the past year looked like for the Umai Crate family? Browse through #UMAICRATE or add a photo of your latest noodle dish for a chance to win a monthly prize! This month’s featured dish and recipe is Yakisoba, the perfect summer treat! The booklet also goes into detail of each ramen package featured in this month’s box with cooking instructions.
Time to cook and enjoy!
Maru-Chan - Gotsumori Yakisoba
The first ramen of the month comes with a packet of Kewpie Mayonnaise and is commonly found at street stalls across Japan at summer festivals. I was a little nervous by the mayonnaise packet for this one, but was surprised by how delicious this bowl was! The broth is packed full of flavor giving you a little sweet, a little sour, and the mayo adds a creaminess that was very unique to any ramen I have tried. The scallions provide a nice little crunch and keep the flavors bursting. There were so many noodles in this larger than what I’ve ever seen ramen package that you could share this with another person, which is exactly what I did!
Ace - Hokuto Mushroom Soup Noodles
This mini noodle cup was like chicken soup for the soul. I was feeling a bit under the weather when I ate this and it made me feel so much better! The broth is made with bonito, kep, and shiitake mushrooms with little dried mushrooms in the flavor packets. The broth is salty with a strong mushroom flavor and hints of ginger that really wake you up. Even though this is a mini cup, there were so many skinny noodles that it again was just comfort food at its best!
Itomen - Ki Soba
This is a more traditional Japanese broth with Chinese style noodles that were much thicker in size. The dried packets had mini shrimp, green onion that added a nice crunch, and tempura pearls. This dish fell a little flat for me in terms of flavor as I didn’t really get a strong taste of the shrimp or onion. The tempura pearls added a unique look to the bowl, but they didn’t come with much flavor of any kind and left a bit of a strange after taste. I really enjoyed the larger noodles in this one, but overall it didn’t pack the flavor punch that the other ramen dishes this month had.
Sanyo Foods - Otonano Mini Kitsune Udon
This dish is perfect for anyone that is looking for a healthier ramen option as it is a reduced sodium broth with whole grain flour noodles. The noodles were flat and very light, but it still was a very filling mini cup. The broth is made with Japanese soy and egg vinegar that really create this rich yet sweet broth that doesn’t have all of that extra salt flavor that you normally get. This was such a delicious mini noodle cup that I enjoyed for lunch and would absolutely eat again as it is a way to indulge without the guilt!
Sanyo Foods - Hiyashi Chuka - Soy Sauce
Hiyashi Chuka is a cold Chinese noodle, and there are two versions of this for the month! You basically make this noodle dish the same way you would a warm one, only you drain the warm water and cool the noodles either in cold water or with ice. Once the noodles have cooled, you can add the flavor packet which for this was a soy sauce based broth flavor with lemon juice and apple cider vinegar.
This dish was very sweet mainly from the lemon and apple cider vinegar, which you get a lot of the vinegar flavor in this broth. I don’t know if it was because it is a cold dish, but the soy sauce broth was a little overpowering with this one. I really enjoyed the noodles and the broth to taste, but it was almost too sweet to eat the whole thing.
Sanya Foods - Hiyashi Chuka - Sesame Sauce
This is our second cold Chinese noodle packet for the month and wow did I love it! The noodles are not flash fried which gave them a really nice texture that was almost crunchy but still creamy. The sesame sauce is thicker so the noodles basically absorb it instantly which took the noodles and overall flavors over the edge! I was surprised how much I loved this dish considering the first cold noodle packet was not for me, but this really worked I think because of the noodles and the richness of the sauce. Such a unique dish!
Itomen - Onion Ramen - Soy Sauce
Our last ramen for the month is a soy based broth flavored with roasted onions. There were two flavor packets in this one, both were onion flavored. So you can imagine that this really was a salty onion broth. I ate this extra hot and found it to be really enjoyable, and I really loved the curly noodles. I didn’t have any chicken to add to this dish, but I think I would add a meat the next time just to break up the onion flavors. All in all, this was a really enjoyable dish!
Bonus Item - Lucky Rabbit Training Chopsticks
The bonus item for the month is a lucky rabbit training chopstick! I like to think that I am very skilled when it comes to eating with chopsticks, but I can always use the practice. Also, using this training set made me realize that I am probably not that skilled because I was able to gobble up each of these ramen dishes much faster than normal. I can’t wait until my son is able to start using chopsticks because I will absolutely be saving these for him to train with!
Verdict: I really enjoyed this month’s Umai Crate and the variety of noodles that were featured! I probably would have never known or tried Hiyashi Chuka, but they were such a delicious way to enjoy ramen. Adding mayonnaise to Yakisoba is a more traditional way to eat this dish that I didn’t know about as well, but again loved the extra layer of flavor that this provided to the broth. I received 7 ramen packets this month, valued at about $3.50 for each, but the noodle dishes this month were so big I even had leftovers! I was able to eat the mini cups for lunch and that enjoyed the larger bowls for dinner that I shared with my husband. The value is totally worth the $25 a month since you are getting so many packets that are larger in size, and plus you get the bonus gift each month that is always so cute!
What was your favorite dish from the August Umai Crate?
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