America’s Best Bargain?

I’m the type of person who would be hard-pressed to try and sell a product in which I did not truly believe.   So, I just asked myself this question:  Which item that is not normally sold at a resale shop or discount store (skipping Goodwill Stores where I buy most of my clothes and all my record albums) or garage sale, offers the very best bargain at its price?

 

That is so darn easy!   Without a doubt, the answer is those 3-ounce packages of Ramen Noodle Soup.  Maruchan is my favorite brand, and for 25 cents or less, the contents of the package can be used as soup or simply as a side dish. 

I currently pay 19 cents each for them, but they are in so much demand that you can often get a Souper 6-Pack in any one of a few different flavors for about $1.35!  At that rate, you can probably get a 36-pack for about $8!   OK.  So, most Americans are not as mathematically functional as you and me!

You might be thinking, so what???  All you get is less than three ounces of curly noodles.  But NO!  The real bargain to me is that little rectangular pouch that contains the wildly flavorful dust! 

I admit that I had to do an Internet search to learn how many different dust flavors there are.  The answer is an even 10.  In alphabetical order, they are beef, chicken, chicken mushroom, chili, lime chili, Oriental, pork, roast beef, roast chicken, and shrimp.

Since I am a big-time chicken lover, that’s the flavor I buy most frequently.  Would you believe that the soup base features at least 19 different ingredients?  Some of the more creative ones are Disodium Inosinate and Disodium Guanylate.  Of course, they are both salt products, but the latter one sounds like a mixture of the flying bat (the mammal that is, and not the baseball one that slips out of a batter’s hand) and coffee bi-products.  Have any of you ever had a Guano latte?  Do you prefer it served hot, over shaved ice, or on the rocks? 

Reading further down the list to the final ingredients, we have powdered cooked chicken and cabbage extract.  With all the 17 other ingredients preceding them, it’s amazing that this magic dust actually DOES taste like chicken!  Heck!  Kentucky Fried Chicken’s original secret recipe only has 11 herbs and spices!

Speaking of sodium, I like the helpful hints posted on the back of the bag:  “You may reduce the sodium level by simply using less of the seasoning packet.”   That’s great advice for those who pay more per item by purchasing in quantity.  But why would anyone want to use less than the full packet and cheat themselves out of that full chicken flavor?

It also mentions that RAMEN NOODLES ARE VERSATILE!  “Ramen Noodles can be easily used as a main course or as an enticing side dish.  To do this, simply drain off the broth, then…”

But that’s not all that entices or even enchants or bewitches me to always have several packets on hand for my preference as a side dish.  Not only do they contain 0 grams of Trans Fat—important for all of us 100% health-conscious Americans—but they are also made in Irvine, California, right here in the good old U.S. of A.  

So, be like Jeff.  Buy American!  Buy Maruchan Ramen Noodle Soup!

Thank you for your undivided attention, and I’ll be playing here…err…I mean eating them…all week…based on my current financial situation!