A-Sha Is Revamping Its Crazy Rich Ramen In A $199 Gift Set
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Even if you're a lover of homemade food, chances are you've tucked into a cup — or several — of instant ramen at some point in your life. College student cramming for an exam? Ramen is there for you. Trying to save money on your grocery bill in this era of rampant inflation? Ramen's got your back. Are you simply a dyed-in-the-wool snacker? Ramen is a great choice for you, as well.
First packaged by Japan's Nissin Foods in 1971, according to Tokyo Ramen Tours, instant ramen — those styrofoam cups of dry noodles and seasoning which magically become a hot, salty soup when boiling water is added — has conquered the world in the decades since. Today, the instant ramen market is booming, its worth predicted to reach nearly $66 billion by the end of 2027 (via GlobalNewswire). While the snack remains, for the most part, a low-priced one that's marketed to eaters on a budget, a few instant ramen makers have released fancified versions of their products, such as Ichiran's $8 Ramen Curly Noodles and Nissin's $12 Ippudo Instant Ramen.
Last winter, however, the Taiwanese instant noodle maker A-Sha blew these moderately priced ramens out of the water with its fabulously luxurious "Crazy Rich Ramen," which they marketed as a romantic, gold leaf- and caviar-topped option for Valentine's Day.
Priced at $550 for four servings, the super-pricey noodles are back — with a few edits and a price drop — for the holiday season.
A truffled version of ramen that's slightly more affordable
Last winter, the Taiwanese noodle brand A-Sha announced the drop of its crazy expensive "Crazy Rich Ramen" set, a limited-time, mail-order Valentine's Day offering in the form of a gift box containing four servings of its instant Knife Cut Noodles, four 30-milligram tins of Astrea Premier sturgeon caviar, one 25-milligram tin of edible gold flakes, and one scallion. Priced at $137.50 per serving, the over-the-top ramen undoubtedly joined the ranks of some of the most expensive instant noodle dishes of all time.
If the luxe noodles sounded good to you but you couldn't justify dropping $550 on the set, you might want to check out A-Sha's remix of the noodles, a collaboration with the New York City truffle shop The Truffleist. As described on the noodle maker's website, the $199 set contains a more generous eight servings of knife-cut wheat noodles, which get lightly boiled, tossed with sesame-soy-scallion sauce, and coated in The Truffleist's Truffle Sauce, a thick tapenade of mushrooms, black olives, and, of course, truffles. Once plated, the noodles are drizzled with truffle oil and showered with edible gold leaf — a dish fit for a romantic evening at home, according to a press release shared with Tasting Table, or for gifting to friends and colleagues this holiday season.
The noodle set, which comes in a sleek black box, is available online at A-Sha's website, as well as at retailers including Costco, Target, and H-Mart.