Yakisoba and chocolate : Valentines match made in heaven?

Japanese manufacturer Myojo is well known for selling their popular and super convenient 'Ippei-chan' yakisoba noodles. They apparently thought that their marketing needed something completely wild and crazy and jumped on the Valentine's bandwagon, by adding...chocolate sauce, what?

As soon as I saw the promo for this on the internet I decided on the spot that I HAD to eat this. Who the hell thinks of chocolate and noodles together? Typically yakisoba is ramen noodles fried in a slightly salty soy, Worchestershire kind of sauce. Some flavour combinations just naturally don't work together. You aren't going to add whipped cream to your squid and you won't put baked beans on a chocolate cake. So how anyone decided to make this combo is beyond me. But I remained faithful, after all, adding chocolate to a curry is a great way to add some bitterness to it, maybe this would work?

My local supermarket had an ample stack that was larger yesterday.

Sites like RocketNews have gone for the 'sensational' OMG it's so gross, so unique, rare and hard to find reporting approach. Whilst it will certainly disappear quickly like all limited edition flavours here, within a week or two max, I could find them in pretty much every convenience store and supermarket. Interestingly, it is a good 50 yen cheaper than the standard flavour, I guess even the most adventurous need a little cash incentive...!

So you buy a packet, what do you get inside?

You get the standard packet with the cool drainage lid and 3 packets that you simply need to add after boiling the noodles and draining them, then just mix the hell out of it. Adding the furikake packet last, which is kind of the crunchy topping. Even if you don't know Japanese, the instructions are crazy simple.

So you mix it all up, wait with anticipation and you see this...oh.
I'm sure the obvious comparison is very clear...I tasted a quick sample of the sauce before putting it on an it did indeed taste like legitimate chocolate sauce!

Appetizing?

However, if you go beyond the visuals and mix it up, the taste is pretty surprising.
The texture is very much the same as your standard yakisoba but with a little added crunch from the topping. The starchyness of the noodles actually helps to mellow out the chocolate taste into something a bit more natural.
My immediate comparison would be a standard chocolate mister donut's donut. What I hadn't realized until I had began eating is that it is noodles plus chocolate AND cinnamon. This was a real deal breaker. The cinnamon, for me actually added a nice after taste and complimented the natural noodle taste. You could even say it was pretty good!

Mix, mix...!

That's a bit more natural looking...!

It became one of those dishes where the more you eat it, the more you begin to like it. I found myself saying "Hey...I could actually eat this again!" and not just to be edgy. I have had worse tasting regular yakisoba's. Perhaps I have a more forgiving palate but for that combination and for so cheap, it was a nice surprise!

If you want to try this novelty noodle dish I really recommend you go out and grab one within a week or so otherwise you will have to hunt hard. It has been released for valentines but often it seems that Japan removes these items way before the event has actually finished, marketing is weird.

If you give it a go, let me know what you think!