Australian supermarket instant chicken noodle taste test: the best tastes ‘legit cooked’

Bertin Huynh and his colleagues put 21 brands of instant noodles to the taste test. Photograph: Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/The Guardian

When I close my eyes and think of instant noodles, I’m brought back to afternoon tea at my grandparents’ public housing flat. I imagine my yeye (grandfather) pouring the herbal pork bone broth my grandmother had made the previous night into the noodle-packed styrofoam cup. It was the ultimate comfort food.

But for this taste test comfort wasn’t the end goal. Instead I gathered 21 brands of instant chicken noodles that could satisfy hungry office workers on a deadline. The criteria: it needed to be a hot lunch you could make with only boiling water – and it needed to be quick.