Ah, Nissin Hot & Spicy Shrimp noodles. I have great memories of eating these. I remember one time in particular after a long night of playing Call of Duty 4 (2007) multiplayer Hardcore Team Deathmatch I quietly made these noodles in the late hours of the night with boiling water from my kettle. I'd just finished fragging people with the default Spec Ops class, embarassing for them. The loadout was:

• MP5
• USP.45 (silenced)
• C4
• Sonic Boom
• Steady aim.

It was a Friday night so no school the next day, nothing else to do. No responsibilities. Simply, beautifully, untouchably free. That night I'd consistently been top of the leaderboard on the most recent maps in rotation, Downpour and Killhouse, despite my team losing hard.

That night was last night, in 2025, with the friend who gifted me the Raptor Energy.

Anyhow.

The noodles of Nissin's Hot & Spicy Shrimp themselves are thin. Taking my first bite I notice they are quite bland. Subtly, they taste metallic but somehow still like seafood. For inoffensive, tame noodles these do the job of providing a meal of 420 calories. They do not stand out in any category. Of the dried vegetables the most notable is the cabbage which still has a great bite to it despite the God-knows how much processing and dehydrating it's been through. The rest of the vegetables don't taste like much.

The broth is vaguely spicy, appropriate of the 1-chili-out-of-6 rating with which they've endowed the livery on the front and top of the bowl. For reference, Nissin Hot Spicy Fire Wok Volcanic Mongolian Beef is 6-chilis-out-of-6. Otherwise, the broth here tastes like salt, tomato soup and an aquarium. There is a chili packet attached to the bowl which I assumed would make the broth far more oily than it actually became.

For anyone, shrimp broth is very hard to get right. Nissin did a great job with their Hot & Spicy Scorchin' Sesame Shrimp, but those are closer to stir-fry with shrimp added in.

Because shrimp is so hard to execute on I generally avoid any cup noodles with the word "shrimp" written anywhere near them. I don't think Nissin's gotten it right here, but they've at least avoided the mistake Maruchan Cup Chili Piquin and Shrimp and others make, that is, adding tiny dehydrated shrimp to the broth. Those suck hard. This sucks less.