A-kuan Instant Mashed Potato Noodles

This is one of the strangest and most charming instant noodles I’ve tasted in a long time. A-Kuan’s 土豆泥泥面 (Tu Dou Ni Ni Mian) translates literally as “Mashed Potato Mud Noodles.” It’s a Chinese viral packet from Sichuan that pairs a regular wheat noodle with a real instant mashed potato powder packet plus a tomato sauce.

You stir it all together in the cup and end up with a saucy, starchy, tomato-coated noodle that’s somewhere between mac and cheese, instant mashed potatoes, and Chinese sauced noodles. The cup also comes with a small plastic spork. James picked this one up at a grocery store on a whim. The flavor variant we got is 浓香番茄味 (Strong Tomato Flavor).

Produced in China.

What’s in the Package

Inside the cup, you get a round nest of thin, straight wheat noodles, three sachets, and a small white plastic spork. The sachets are: a red Tomato Sauce pouch (酱包), a yellow Potato Powder Pack (土豆泥粉包), and a silver dehydrated solids pack (实物包) with corn and dried greens. The plastic spork is a nice touch.

How to Cook A-Kuan Instant Mashed Potato Noodles

1. Open the cup and add the dehydrated solids pack to the noodle nest.
2. Fill with boiling water to the marked line inside the cup (about 300ml).
3. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes. No draining needed.
4. Once the noodles are tender, add the tomato sauce packet and the potato powder pack. Stir thoroughly with the included spork until the noodles are fully coated and the potato powder dissolves into a thick sauce. Eat right away.

How Does It Taste

I went in skeptical. The cup looks chaotic on the package. The first bite was startling, really thick, really tomato-forward, and definitely sour. James and I both stopped talking for a second.

The verdict: this is good. Strange but good. The texture is the wildest part. The noodles come out coated in what’s effectively a thick mashed-potato-and-tomato sauce, which makes every forkful feel heavier than a regular noodle. The tomato is the dominant flavor note, sour-sweet and concentrated, like a strong Chinese tomato cooking sauce.

I asked James what it tasted like beyond tomato and we settled on this: it tastes like KFC mashed potatoes met a tomato sauce noodle and refused to pick a side. It’s not subtle. It’s also not bad. The more I ate, the more I liked it.

James put the spice at 0 out of 5. Noodle thickness is 1 out of 5, thin straight wheat noodles. There’s no broth at all, so viscosity is N/A. This is a fully sauced noodle.

How Does It Compare

Nothing else on the site is doing this exact thing. The closest references in format are the other A-Kuan products: the A-Kuan Rice Noodle with Konjac Hot Pot Flavor, the A-Kuan Rice Noodle Garlic Crayfish, and the A-Kuan Steamed Rice Noodle Rolls Sweet & Spicy. A-Kuan as a brand clearly has a willingness to try different formats.

If you want a tomato-noodle direction in instant ramen, the Samyang Buldak Tomato Pasta is the spicier, Korean-tomato take. This A-Kuan is the milder, mashed potato version.

How to Level Up A-Kuan Instant Mashed Potato Noodles

James suggested butter and cheese, which is the obvious move once you accept that the bowl is basically a mashed-potato dish wearing a noodle costume. A pat of butter stirred into the hot finished noodles melts into the sauce and adds richness. A small handful of shredded sharp cheddar takes it across the line into a Chinese-Italian hybrid that shouldn’t work but probably does.

I’d also try this late at night. This is a 2am bowl. The sour tomato plus mashed potato plus carbs is exactly the kind of food you want when you’re not making careful choices.

For other directions: a few cracks of black pepper would lift the sauce, fresh basil leaves on top would push it Italian, and a fried egg with a runny yolk into the tomato-potato sauce would be a great video. I’m going to make one doing exactly that.

Final Verdict

The A-Kuan Instant Mashed Potato Noodles is the most surprising bowl I’ve had in a while. It looks bizarre, the concept is interesting, and somehow it works. Thick tomato-and-mashed-potato sauce coating thin wheat noodles, eaten with a plastic spork. James and I both kept eating and kept liking it more. I’m specifically going to buy this again to film a video for it. Strange but good. I’d buy it again.

How do I rate my ramen? Check out the Ramen Rating Guide.

Related Instant Ramen

• A-Kuan Rice Noodle With Konjac Hot Pot Flavor
• A-Kuan Rice Noodle Garlic Crayfish
• A-Kuan Steamed Rice Noodle Rolls Sweet & Spicy
• Samyang Buldak Tomato Pasta Spicy Chicken Stir-Fried Ramen
• Nongshim Chapagetti Jjajang Noodles