Product information
About
A whole mapo tofu bowl in one box, with the rice already in it: microwave it in its own tray. No pan, no kettle, nothing to keep cold. This is the Japanese version rather than the Sichuan one, so it lands gentler: chilli-bean heat, a lot of ginger, and none of the numbing peppercorn. Everyday Japanese supermarket food, and a light-to-normal lunch rather than a big dinner.
麻婆丼, mabo don.
What you're getting
- What it tastes like: savoury with a sweet edge, chilli-bean paste doing the heat and a clear run of ginger through it. Milder, sweeter and rounder than the Sichuan version of the same dish.
- How hot it actually is: it is chilli-bean warmth, not the tingling, mouth-numbing kind; there is no Sichuan peppercorn in it. How hot that lands is genuinely personal: plenty of people who avoid chilli are fine with it, and plenty find that "medium" undersells it. Treat it as a warm dish rather than a hot one, and keep something cold to hand the first time. Where a Japanese review mentions choosing the medium-hot, that is this one. Marumiya makes no mild version, and medium is the only heat this bowl comes in.
- Texture: if you are expecting the tofu to have gone crumbly, it hasn't: the cubes hold their shape. Wood ear mushroom keeps its bite against them, and the sauce is glossy and spoon-thick.
- What is actually in it: tofu, chicken mince and wood ear mushroom on Japanese short-grain rice. Chicken, not the pork most mapo recipes call for.
- The honest bit: it is one modest serve. Plenty for a light lunch; if you want it to be dinner, plan on something alongside it.
- Allergens: contains wheat, sesame, soy and apple. Australia's allergen chart has no apple category, so apple cannot appear in the pack's allergen box here — check the ingredients, not the chart; ours is the fuller list. The pack also declares chicken and pork. Japan asks for those, Australia does not treat them as allergens.
- Pork is worth a second look if you avoid it: it is on the pack's contains-list rather than a may-contain warning, yet appears under none of the ingredient names: it arrives through a hydrolysed protein or an extract, and the visible meat is chicken.
A few things worth knowing before you buy. The rice is in the box. This is a complete meal, not a sauce to pour over rice you cook yourself, which is what "instant mapo" almost always means in English. The pack is timed in Japanese wattages, so check your microwave's wattage on the plate inside its door and use the matching time: 500 W about 3 minutes · 600 W about 2 minutes 30 · 1000 W about 1 minute 30 · 1500 W about 1 minute. The three minutes printed largest on the pack is the 500 W figure, not a default. Do not put it in an oven or a toaster oven, and do not use your microwave's automatic reheat setting: the maker warns that it overheats the pack. Wood ear mushroom is the same thing sold here as black fungus or cloud ear.
Ingredients
The maker's ingredient list, translated from the Japanese pack. Anything after the break is an additive — the Japanese label lists those separately.
Rice: Japanese short-grain rice, acidity regulator. Topping: tofu, chicken, wood ear mushroom, textured soy protein, soy sauce, sugar, doubanjiang (chilli bean paste), sesame oil, extracts (chicken, yeast), soybean oil, garlic paste, ginger paste, hydrolysed protein, salt, apple paste, apple vinegar, thickeners (modified starch, polysaccharide), seasoning (amino acids etc.), trehalose, tofu coagulant, colours (caramel, carotenoid).
The printed label on the pack is always the authority on ingredients and allergens, not this page — please read it in full before you rely on our summary. If you are unsure about an ingredient, contact us.
Allergens
The maker declares:
- Allergens
-
- Wheat
- Sesame
- Soy
- Apple
- Dietary notes
-
The visible meat is chicken mince. Pork is on Marumiya's contains-list but appears under none of the ingredient names: it arrives through a hydrolysed protein or an extract, and the maker does not say which.
The printed label on the pack is always the authority on ingredients and allergens, not this page — please read it in full before you rely on our summary. If you are unsure about an ingredient, contact us.
Details
- Maker
- Marumiya
- Prefecture
- Tokyo
- Made in
- Japan
- Net contents
- One box: 297 g, of which 160 g is rice and 137 g the mapo tofu topping
Our guide
How to eat it
- Peel the rice tray's lid right off, tip the whole pouch over the rice and level it, then rest the lid back on loosely rather than pressing it down, pressed flat, it squashes the tofu, and heat it to the time for your microwave's wattage: 500W about 3 minutes · 600W about 2:30 · 1000W about 1:30 · 1500W about 1 minute. The three minutes printed largest on the pack is the 500W figure, not a default.
- Eat it straight out of the tray: the empty box folds flat afterwards.
- No microwave? Drop the sealed pouch into boiling water for about five minutes, and the rice tray, lid still on, for about fifteen.
- If you want more heat, add chilli oil at the end rather than cooking it in.
In their own words
What Japanese buyers say
- What they like
Even though it's a retort pack the wood-ear is crunchy and the tofu isn't tough!
レトルトなのにキクラゲこりこりしてるし豆腐も固くない！
from monolog
- What they grumble about
I really like the taste, but the quantity is small, so with a cup noodle alongside it'd be perfect.
味はとても好きですが、量的に少ないのでこれにカップラーメンを食べれば完璧かな。
from monolog
- What they like
The first time I bought it I was thrilled — you just open the pouch, tip it on top and microwave it, how easy is that.
初めて買った時は、パウチを開けて上に乗せてレンジでチンするだけなんて、なんて楽なんだろうと感激でした。
from monolog
- What they like
I think even someone who's no good with spice can handle this heat level.
辛いのが苦手な人でも 食べられる辛さだと思います！
from monolog
- What they grumble about
It says medium-hot but it's properly spicy, so people who don't handle heat should be careful.
中辛と書いているけどしっかり辛いので苦手なひとは注意が必要
- What they like
I thought the tofu would be more crumbly and dry, but it wasn't — I was surprised.
お豆腐はもっとぼそぼそしてるかなと思ったけどそんなことなくてびっくり。
- What they grumble about
This is not that make-it-yourself retort-pouch mapo tofu!
あの自分で作るレトルトパウチの麻婆豆腐じゃない！
from monolog
- What they like
The mapo flavour is the kind that isn't the tingly Sichuan-pepper type, and the heat level was just right and tasty.
麻婆豆腐の味は花山椒系のビリビリするタイプではない方の麻婆豆腐で、辛さも程よく美味しかったです。
- What they like
I think a woman or a light eater would be quite satisfied with this as one meal.
女性や小食な方ならこれ1食でかなり満足できると思います。
- What they grumble about
Also, as a single meal for an adult it might not be quite enough…
あと、大人の１食分としては物足りないかも…
- What they like
For rolling stock. During the West Japan floods it took ages before convenience-store meals were back on the shelves, so I keep about three to send with my husband.
ローリングストック用に。西日本豪雨災害のときに、コンビニ弁当が棚に並ぶまで時間がかかったので、旦那に持たすように、3個ぐらいストックしています。
from monolog
- What they like
It's a handy standby for lunch while working from home.
在宅ワークのランチに手軽に重宝しています。
- What they grumble about
Rather than mapo, it feels like eating rice with chilli oil.
麻婆と言うより辣油で米を食べている感じ。
from monolog
- What they like
I chose the medium-hot because we have children, and the heat felt more restrained than the same company's frying-pan version.
子供もいるため中辛を選択しましたが、フライパンで作る同社のものより辛さは控えめに感じました。
- What they grumble about
I'd like a mild version rather than the medium-hot.
中辛ではなく甘口？みたいなのが欲しいです。
from monolog
- What they like
There's plenty of filling and each ingredient has a proper texture of its own, so it's a satisfying thing to eat.
具材はたくさん入っており、素材それぞれの食感もきちんとしているので食べ応えのある商品でした。
- What they like
It doesn't need refrigeration, so it's easy to keep.
要冷蔵ではないので、保管しやすい
from monolog
- What they grumble about
Way too little tofu lol
豆腐少なすぎ！笑
from monolog
- What they like
Compared with other retort mapo tofu products, it was unexpectedly quite edible.
他の麻婆豆腐のレトルト食品と比較して 以外にもまあまあ食べられる味だった
from monolog
Real quotes from Japanese review sites, translated by us. We show no star rating from those sites.
The maker
Where it comes from
- Marumiya
- Tokyo
- Founded 1927
Marumiya began in 1927 as a food research shop and is headquartered in Tokyo. What made its name was furikake, the dry seasoning you shake over a bowl of rice, and one in particular, Noritama, launched in 1960 and still the product the company is best known for. Retort foods followed in 1970, and packed rice in 1999. This bowl belongs to that last line.
Marumiya is a Tokyo company, and that is the address on the box. The bowl itself is made for it in Niigata, by a contract manufacturer whose name has never appeared on a supermarket shelf anywhere: a company that describes itself as having left the selling to the people who are good at selling, and specialised in the making. Sterile-packed rice trays, sealed pouches that cook in the bag, six hundred-odd product types: none of them under its own brand.
Product facts here are checked against the maker's own page: marumiya-tsuhan.com (opens in a new tab)
Often bought together
-
Marumiya Mabo Don — Japanese Mapo Tofu Rice Bowl, 297g
$7.69
You are on this one
