The inventor of instant noodles died not long ago, but his legacy lives on. Instant noodles serve the need for quick food, and there are many varieties. One of my favorites is the unusual U.F.O. Unidentified Flying Object. The name may derive from extraterrestrial origins or from the flat bowl, or perhaps both. Besides the name, UFO Noodles are unusual in that they are not in a soup. They have a flavor that approximates yakisoba, fried noodles. The flavor is perhaps a slight push for Western tastes, but I like it.

UFO noodles are made by peeling back the lid from 1 to the line marked 2, pouring boil water into the bowl with the noodles and dried vegetables, and letting it steep for three minutes. Don’t put the sauce into the bowl with the water. After the three minutes, peel back the tab 3 to reveal the strainer and pour out the water.

Then peel off the entire lid, add the contents of the sauce packet and the seasoning packet, and stir. Here is how it looks before stirring:

The instructions are on the container in Japanese. The strainer is metal, so don’t microwave the bowl.

The interesting flavor attempts to replicate yakisoba, which are fried noodles. The ingredients label says the flavoring contains glucose, vegetable oil, salt, spice, pork extract, fruit paste (apple), pork fat, chicken fat, seaweed, ginger, clam extract, soy protein, chicken extract, and yeast extract. No wonder I like it. If you were making some noodles from scratch, would dig out all that stuff to put on them? I think not.

There is a fascinating official U.F.O. product site which is animated and musical. It’s in Japanese, but just click around and be amazed. It features “U.F.O. High School” with anime-style characters in a way I cannot parse. U.F.O. noodles are available from Koamart Surprisingly, Ramen Depot doesn’t seem to stock them. Ramen are noodles in soup, and these are not. Boy are they strict.