Annie Chun's Spicy Szechuan Noodle Express: Review

I was attracted to the Annie Chun's Spicy Szechuan Noodle Express mainly because of the absence of any sort of preservatives and MSG. So going by that I expected it to be a low in salt noodles with no artificial ingredients added to it. This is definitely a completely natural product but sadly it is salty. It is observed that intake of a bowl of this noodle is enough to meet the half of the daily sodium consumption. Still compared to other noodles in the market it is less salty. To control the level of salt, I add only three fourth of the sauce to the preparation.

This does not come close to the typical Szechuan Noodle recipe, but given the fact that it can be savored without any laborious process involved in the traditional starchy noodle preparation, it is kind of ok. I would say that these bland tasting noodles are healthier than the fried noodles. If you are using a microwave, it gets done like an express in just a minute. However you got to stir it properly so that the noodles get fully soaked in the sauce. But I prefer to microwave this only if I am in a hurry to office or really running short of time. In that case it is really a time saver. Otherwise I stick to cook it in the stove because that gives me a satisfaction of the noodles fully getting coated and saturated with the tangy sauce.

Stir it only occasionally or else the strands get broken. Do not overcook as they tend to become sticky and messy. 2 to 3 minutes of stove preparation is fine. I add two drops of oil in the boiling water so that the noodles do not stick to each other. The texture of the noodles is fine and they are so soft that they gently wash down along with the hot sauce. In my opinion it is more of sweet in taste and not spicy as expected. It would have been better if the ratio of herbs and pepper is more so that it has an ideal blend of sweet, sour and spicy tang.