Cup Noodle: "Due Italian"

This past weekend I went camping. It was great! However, it didn't allow me enough time to visit a new ramen shop. I decided that instead of skipping posts, that I would post about a cup noodle I had recently. There are crazy numbers of cup noodle to choose from and only a handful are actually the Cup Noodle brand that Nissin makes. With so many options how is one to choose!

 Lately, if I go the cup noodle route I choose based on whether or not I have seen or had that particular type before. One of my favorites is actually a 7-11 brand that roughly translates to "Mongolian" style.

You can look at a Japanese page about it here. I eat it a lot when I am not feeling well at work and the spice helps my congested nose. This time I bought Due Italian in Family Mart, another popular convenience store chain. I was drawn to it because I hadn't seen it before and the word Italian intrigued me. What was Italian about this cup noodle? The answer...cheese. Dehydrated cheese. As is the obvious case with cup noodles, the ingredients are dehydrated. After poking around online I have discovered that Due Italian is a cup noodle made by Nissin to emulate an actual shop in Chiyoda (maybe I will have to check it out sometime). This happens more than you might think with cup noodles! So, how was Due Italian?

You can see the partially hydradated cheese there at the top of the cup and after I mixed it into the rest. I actually wish that it was chessier. Really. It all kind of disappeared after mixing. Due Italian tasted a little like garlic and a lot like salt. Not my favorite of the cup noodle experiences I have had. Due Italian gets a 2/5 for trying and for being intriguing, but not for being so Italian or delicious.

Here is a map to the shop of the original Due Italian. Maybe I will try the real deal some day!