We Took a Chef to a Self-Serve Instant Noodle Bar – Here’s What He Made

Instant noodles are so core to my diet, I find it hard to believe they weren’t invented until 1958, when Momofuku Ando made the first version: Nissin chicken ramen.

Now there are countless varieties from all over the world. Instant noodles are so popular that entire shops dedicated to the product have popped up in Melbourne. We took chef Raymond Tan of CBD bakery Raya and dessert shop Nimbo to Russell Street ramen restaurant Ju Noodle to experiment with the instant classic.

Walk in and you’ll find a wall of instant noodles and a fridge filled with ingredients such as sausages, fishballs and mushrooms that you can add to your bowl. Select your ingredients, weigh your bowl, pay for everything (plus $1.60 cover charge) and proceed to the cooking station where machines dispense the perfect amount of hot water into your bowl as it sits over an electric stove.

Tan had never been to a self-serve instant noodle shop before, so the experience was new for him. Would he go back again? “I think it's a fun party thing you can do with your friends,” he says of the experience. Here are the three bowls Tan made and his take on each.

Safe noodles

Tan: The first one was a very basic vibe, very breakfast vibe. It was a sausage and corn – there’s eggs, but it’s a pre-cooked boiled egg, so that’s sad – and it’s just Nissin chicken noodles. I used to have that a lot, the Shoyu Nissin noodles.

Initially I thought I wanted to put herbs like spring onions, but they don't have those, sadly. So it was a very safe instant noodle. Maybe too safe, but it was still good because everything was cooked perfectly. I think a kid could do it.

Sprite noodles

Tan: I noticed the walls had posters that tell you all these viral [noodles], from Tiktok viral videos. One was Korean cold noodles, but they put lemonade in it. I was very skeptical, but the staff were saying, ‘This actually tastes better than you expect.’ It was a nice day, so I made cold noodles.

It’s better than I imagined. I picked all the Korean cold noodles ingredients like frozen vegetables and bean sprouts. And the noodles come with a sauce pack – it’s a gochujang type sauce, and then you pour Sprite over it, and you put ice over it. It turned out like a sweet and sour vibe. Sweet, spicy and a bit tangy. So it's actually good. It's like a Korean naengmyeon.

Broadsheet: Would you do this again?

Tan: I would if I’m drunk. But spice it up a little more

I’d put a bit of cold meat. We need spring onions, kimchi, maybe mustard and vinegar.

Pringle mashed potatoes

Tan: I saw a poster saying you can make a cheesy mashed potato out of Pringles. So they have Pringles there; I did it. And then there’s also sliced cheese, those instant ones where you tear off the plastic.

I put hot water in the Pringles, but I took some out, because I wanted some crispy, crunchiness because there’s not much to work with. Then Kaede [the photographer] said, ‘we have to make this photogenic,’ so I tried. It was fine actually.

We cooked two noodles. The carbonara noodles, they’re a Japanese pink packet one – I think that packaging got me. And then the Buldak, which is the normal black packet spicy one. I was worried the Buldak was too spicy, so we mixed the two together and then we put potato over it, and that turned out really good too!

Broadsheet: And would you eat that again?

Tan: I would do that again, yet. With Spam and fried egg.

Broadsheet: And you would do the Pringle mashed potato again?

Tan: I think it’s a good trick. So quick and it tastes like mashed potato. If I'm stuck in an apocalypse in an instant noodle shop, I think I’d make it again, for sure.