Instant Noodles and Beyond: Your Shopping List for the Five Recipes We Tested

If you caught our full writeup on cooking five recipes from Robin Ha's Instant Noodles and Beyond, you already know the verdict: Pad See Ew, made with fried tofu swapped in for seitan, was the runaway favorite in our house. But whichever recipe you want to try first, half the challenge is just knowing which instant noodle brand to grab and where to find it.

We already have a full Korean Pantry guide covering the staples we always keep stocked. This is the shorter, more specific list: the exact noodle brand behind each of the five dishes we tested, and where to actually buy them.

The Five Noodle Brands

Green Curry started with Mama noodles as the base, built into a coconut curry with tilapia and vegetables.

Pad See Ew, our winner, used Indomie Mi Goreng as the noodle base, stir-fried with vegetables and a protein, we went with fried tofu instead of the seitan the recipe called for, and it worked beautifully. If you're only trying one recipe from the book, this is the one.

Masala leaned on Sapporo Ichiban noodles for a warmly spiced, chicken-forward bowl.

Kimchi Jjigae used Shin Ramyun as its base, which made sense to us since it's a stew we already make three or four times a month, and Shin Ramyun's broth held up well against strong kimchi flavor.

Kung Pao was built on Buldak Spicy noodles, the heat-forward pick of the bunch, a favorite with the very-spice-tolerant members of our household, less so for the rest of us.

Where to Buy Them

All five are available directly through Walmart if you want a one-stop trip, and all five are also easy to find at any well-stocked Asian grocery store, usually for less per pack, if you have one nearby. Between the two, we'd point first-timers to Walmart for convenience and an Asian market for value if you're planning to restock regularly.

More From This Series

Read the full Instant Noodles and Beyond writeup for how each dish actually turned out, what we'd change, and why Pad See Ew ended up on top.

This post contains affiliate links. We may earn a small commission on purchases made through these links, at no extra cost to you.