Nissin’s New Hawker-Inspired Fish Head Curry Cup Noodles Taste Test: Nice Or Not?

Singapore’s hawker favourite, fish head curry, is now a Nissin cup noodle flavour. The Japanese instant noodle manufacturer announced its new flavour on April Fool’s Day, leading many to believe that it was a prank. But plot twist, it’s a real product that officially launched yesterday (Apr 4).

Fish head curry doesn’t seem so far-fetched for Nissin, considering that it has other popular localised cup noodle flavours such as Laksa, Chilli Crab and Black Pepper Crab. The latest flavour is limited-edition, and will be sold at major supermarkets and convenience stores at S$1.50 a cup.

• 

  1 of 4Comes with taupok, fishballs and cabbage

  According to Nissin, the Fish Head Curry cup noodles has a “new full-bodied soup base that tantalises your tastebuds with mildly spicy stewed fish umami and hints of creamy coconut milk and lemongrass fragrance”. It also has cabbage, taupok, fishballs and spring onions (a printed label on the cup boasts that it has "LOTS of ingredients!"). Interesting. Obviously, there’s no fish head in this $1.50 cup; the fishballs replace the fish in this curry.

• 

  2 of 4What you get

  Each cup comes with a sachet of curry paste, plus dried ingredients and noodles. You’re meant to pour boiling water into the cup, cover it for three minutes and add the curry paste to the mix later. The amount of curry paste seems too little to us — we like our curry thick and lemak, so we added less water to avoid over-diluting the soup.

• 

  3 of 4Smells great

  The soup turns a vivid orange after we add the curry paste, with the piquant fragrance of curry. Ooh. We hope it’s just as good as the brand’s Laksa flavour.

• 

  4 of 4Taste test

  We gotta say, the itsy-bitsy taupok bits in the cup noodles are adorable. They puff up after we added water, and soak up the rich, tangy curry that has a mild spicy kick and even a whiff of fish flavour (in the ingredients list, chicken, shrimp and fish are listed as flavourings, while the curry paste is spiked with spices like turmeric, cumin and lemongrass).
  
  Flecks of cabbage and spring onions add some crunchiness, though we didn’t much care for the standard Nissin ‘fishballs’ that usually taste like blobs of bland flour. We wouldn’t say this completely hits the spot like a good claypot of fish head curry, but it’s still a fine supper that you don’t have to get out of the house for. Nissin, could you make this a permanent flavour please?
  
  Available at all major supermarkets and convenience stores while stocks last (price may vary according to retailer’s discretion).
  
  Photos: Yip Jieying