Meet the Pot Noodle superfan who has munched through more than 4,000 of the snacks in his lifetime - and even eats some which are 14 years out of date. Dad-of-three Dean Pugh, 53, has dined out on the popular snack every day for nearly a decade.
He's spent more than £3,000 on memorabilia dedicated to his favourite meal including three vending machines and a Chicken Korma pot signed by 90s model Caprice. Plasterer Dean loves the classic Chicken and Mushroom flavour, but also has a soft spot for the Bombay Bad Boy.
He scours the web for unopened pots of discontinued flavours, like Mac and Cheese and Brazilian BBQ Steak, and has over 50 different varieties in his kitchen cupboard. The fanatic recently bought a new vending machine from eBay for £500 which plays tunes while it cooks his noodles.
He was delighted to see it still contained 14-year out-of-date Beef and Tomato snacks which he happily tucked into to raise money for charity. Dean, from Pershore, Worcestershire, said: “They tasted awful. I could only imagine licking the bottom of my granny’s knicker drawer.
“There is no real way to describe the taste - you’d have to try one yourself! My friend said 'try the juice’ as a joke, and next thing you know we were nearly throwing up everywhere.
“We’re probably ill now – we’ve probably started the noodle virus!"
Dean said he started eating Pot Noodles - and Pot Rice - about 30 years ago, when he first started working, and would have one or two a week. He really got seriously hooked when he started taking them out on his regular metal detecting tips, and his pals started calling him 'Mr Noodle' or 'Noodle King'.
The name stuck - and he began eating them every day about nine years ago. He said: “Everyone likes a Pot Noodle on the field.
“It only needs a bit of hot water - it’s better than a cold sandwich!
“The next thing you know the guys all seem to get a kick out of it, and I become the Noodle King, and they all started bringing me Pot Noodles.”
Dean goes out with his Anglo Celtic Metal Detecting group twice a week, but he also takes them to have for lunch when working at his covings and cornices business. He uses the washed out left over pots to pour plaster at work and limits himself to eating one Pot Noodle a day as to not “overdo things”.
Dean said: “I like Pot Noodles because they are a quick, easy, tasty snack. I look at the shelves at work and think ‘do I really eat that many?’"
Over the years, he estimates he has spent about £3,000 on over a hundred Pot Noodle-themed towels, T Shirts, cardboard signs and a Chicken Korma pot allegedly signed by 90s model Caprice Bourret. He scours the web for unopened pots of discontinued flavours.
“They’re all unopened - I’ve found out what it tastes like to eat a bad one and believe me it's not very nice!” he said.
He estimates he buys a new piece of Pot Noodle merch or snack once a fortnight, and even splurged £60 on an unopened Christmas Dinner flavoured pot. He said: “How can you make a Christmas dinner into a Pot Noodle?
“I’m always on the lookout for new additions to my collection, I look online constantly for items.”
He stores his clobber in his office at home, to the dismay of his wife Louise Pugh, 49. “She thinks I’m nuts!” he said.
The fanatic also has three Pot Noodle vending machines, the largest of which he purchased in April from eBay for £500 and plays music while cooking the noodles for you. When it was delivered he saw that it had been loaded up with four Pot Noodles – that had expiration dates of November 2008 and February 2009.
“When I saw the fourteen year old Pot Noodles I laughed, an added bonus to my collection!” Dean said. The expired Beef and Tomato noodles inspired Dean and two fellow detectorists to raise money for six-year-old Hadley Jae Werrett who has Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome.
They did a sponsored eat on April 16, adding to a £3,500 total raised by three metal detecting troupes. He said: “We opened them, poured them and ate them - and they tasted horrible!
“At first they didn’t smell too bad but once we started getting the taste... you’ll see me vomiting! You don’t normally do that with a Pot Noodle!
“It tasted of chemically old wax, worse than soap, the flavour was disgusting, we only got halfway through. Thankfully we had a BBQ on standby.”
