Nissin Donbei Kitsune Udon Cup — Fried Tofu, 82g

Instant udon in a cup: thick wheat noodles in a soy-and-dashi broth built on bonito, mackerel, sardine and kombu kelp, with a piece of sweet seasoned fried tofu on top. The tofu is made with sugar syrup and soy sauce, so it eats sweet against a savoury broth: that sweet-against-savoury is what makes it kitsune udon rather than just noodles in soup. Boiling water to the line, five minutes, stir.

日清のどん兵衛 きつねうどん: the Japanese name across the cup, so you can match it to the one you remember.

Donbei is Japan's everyday udon rather than a specialty one. It is the standard supermarket cup there, and Nissin's premium udon lines sit above it. This particular cup is the export version, made in Hong Kong for markets outside Japan, and its recipe is not the same as the cups sold inside Japan: worth knowing before you weigh it against one you had over there.

What you're getting

• Thick wheat udon, a heavier, softer noodle than the curly one in a ramen cup, which is why it wants five minutes rather than three.
• A broth built on bonito, mackerel, sardine, anchovy and kombu kelp, with soy sauce and sugar in it. It is a fish-stock flavour rather than a meat-stock one.
• A piece of seasoned fried tofu, aburaage, made with sugar syrup and soy. You taste the sweetness first, not a savoury topping.
• Shichimi seasoning through it: chilli, tangerine peel, sesame, Japanese pepper, seaweed and perilla.
• It is a salty cup, treat it as a meal rather than a light snack.
• Allergens: contains fish, sesame, gluten, soy and wheat, and may contain lupin. Japan's chart has no general fish category, so the bonito, sardine and anchovy sit in the pack's ingredient list rather than its allergen box: check the ingredients, not the chart; ours is the fuller list.

It is not vegetarian. The broth is built on fish, and the fried tofu is set with gelatine made from pork skin. Worth saying plainly, because an ingredient list will usually just print "gelatine" without telling you what it came from.

"Kitsune" means fox, and there is no fox in it. It is simply the Japanese name for udon topped with fried tofu.

This is udon, not ramen: a fatter, softer wheat noodle in a soy-and-dashi broth rather than a curly noodle in a rich soup. And if you have read about Donbei's regional versions, do not go looking for a letter on this cup: those recipes belong to the cups sold inside Japan, and this export pack carries no region mark at all.

Do not microwave the cup. The lid is foil. There is a microwave method and it does give a firmer noodle, but it starts by tipping the noodles and broth into a bowl of your own.