For many, Thanksgiving was canceled last year, family gatherings having been deemed unsafe due to a certain pesky public health crisis. Not that the pandemic ever ended, but thanks to vaccines, things are much, much safer than last November. (Even if some, uh, still refuse to get dosed.) So if you and your relatives didn’t get to pow-wow over turkey in 2020, your reward this year is a new South Park movie arriving on the big day.
As per The Hollywood Reporter, part of that ginormous $900 million deal Trey Parker and Matt Stone hatched with Paramount was the promise that they would make no less than 14 (!!) South Park made-for-Paramount+ movies, to be dropped on the company’s new streamer. The first, due on Thanksgiving Day, is called South Park: Post Covid — a hopeful, one could even say inaccurate title, considering the pandemic is far from over.
When Post Covid drops, it will have been almost two years since the last proper South Park episode. Since the Season 23 finale in December 2019, the show’s studios have remained shuttered, save two specials — one entitled “The Pandemic Special,” which aired in late September 2020, the other called “South ParQ Vaccination Special,” which bowed in early March 2021. That means Post Covid is the third consecutive South Park thing about COVID. But the other 13 made-for-streaming movies will almost certainly branch off to other topics.
“We’re at where a lot of people are at, which is the future kind of sucks,” Stone told THR. “We would like to get back to where each week we can to doing something totally different. We tried to experiment with serialization. That had mixed results. And the past five or six years have been dominated by Trump, being political and the tonal change of society. And then the pandemic. We don’t want everything to be about the pandemic, but that is what is going on.”
South Park: Post Covid will drop on Paramount+ on Nov. 25. The second of 14 movies is due at some point this December.
Welcome to SNX DLX, our weekly roundup of the best sneakers to hit the market. For the last couple of weeks, we at SNX have been heavily anticipating this year’s special Halloween drops that come out every year like clockwork from the likes of Nike, Adidas, and the other big brands. Well… they’re here, and they are so awful and lazy that not a single one of them has made it into our weekly roundup. We can’t, in good faith, recommend this shoe to you for example. Or thishalf-assed effort.
Nike makes billions of dollars every year, and the most they can offer us is a glow-in-the-dark Air Presto and Air Force 1? Do better Nike.
Luckily this week is stacked with dope collaborations and colorways that you’re sure to get a lot more mileage out of than a gimmicky Halloween drop. This week, we’ve got a Red October-esque Yeezy, Billie Eilish’s latest Jordan collaboration, and, like every week, another must-cop Jordan colorway just waiting to join your wardrobe as your new favorite pair of kicks.
Let’s jump into this week’s best sneakers.
Nike WMNS Dunk High Up Varsity Maize/ Summit White
Nike
Kicking off the week is a WMNS-exclusive two colorway drop of Nike’s Dunk High Up in Summit White and Varsity Maize. The High Up is a mixed-up rendition of the usual Dunk High style, with wild overlays, alternative paneling construction, and a mini and oversized Swoosh (one of which is embroidered) all on top of a stacked midsole.
The Summit White iteration features white leather mixed with Sail accents while the Varsity Maize features a much bolder design built on a Varsity Maize base with Midnight Navy and University Red accents. Both are dope and offer something very different.
The Nike WMNS Dunk High Up Varsity Maize/Summit White is out now for a retail price of $120. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.
NikeNike
Yeezy Foam Runner Vermillion
Adidas
I wish I had a time machine so I could go back seven years and show every Kanye West fan — which in 2014 was everyone — this Vermillion red Yeezy Foam Runner. Brains would melt, not because the Foam Runner is a ridiculous piece of footwear (albeit a very comfortable one), but because 2014 is also the year that Kanye and Nike dropped the iconic Air Yeezy 2 Red Octobers.
It’s not quite the same shade of red, but it’s an interesting throwback. Fans of Ye’s footwear have been waiting years to get a Yeezy that attempts to capture some of the magic of the Red Octobers, the fact that Kanye decided to reuse the color on a Foam Runner and not a more traditional sneaker is hilarious. Kanye is still trolling, even if his music has fallen off.
If you’re picking up a pair of Foam Runners, be sure to order a full size up for the right fit.
The Yeezy Foam Runner Vermillion is set to drop on October 29th for a retail price of $80. Pick up a pair via the Adidas webstore, Yeezy Supply or on aftermarket sites like GOAT.
Air Jordan 3 Pine Green
Nike
I’m not completely sure we’ve ever seen a colorway of the Jordan 3 that we didn’t like, this is just a perfect piece of footwear. This week’s Pine Green iteration features black coated nubuck leather with popping Pine Green accents, a perforated leather collar, and that classic elephant print pattern on the forefoot and heel overlays.
It’s not a radical redesign, but it doesn’t need to be — it’s a Jordan 3!
The Air Jordan 3 Pine Green is set to drop on October 30th for a retail price of $190. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app or on aftermarket sites like GOAT or Flight Club.
NikeNike
Air Jordan 15 Billie Eilish
Nike
I’ve read a lot of online chatter surrounding Billie Eilish’s Air Jordan 15 design. If you’re one of those people, I have to ask: have you seen the Air Jordan 15? This is easily one of the ugliest Jordan silhouettes, and it doesn’t get a lot of collaboration love, for good reason. So I actually applaud Billie Eilish for picking a reviled silhouette and trying to flip the cultural conversation about it.
That’s punk rock baby. Are these ugly? Absolutely. So are “dad shoes” but Kanye has been able to make sneakerheads pretend that they aren’t for almost a decade now. Maybe Billie can do the same.
The Air Jordan 15 Billie Eilish is set to drop on October 28th for a retail price of $225. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.
NikeNike
Adidas SST AEC SUPEREARTH SW
Adidas
Sean Wotherspoon is back with another wild design that combines his love of mixed media fabrics and sustainable fashion. A follow-up to summer’s white iteration of the new silhouette, the big draw of the SUPEREARTH was its sustainable construction, the sneaker is made entirely without animal-derived products and utilizes recycled rubber and yarn accents, and an upper composed of partially recycled polyester.
This new iteration of the sneaker is constructed the exact same way but features a more eye-catching black colorway that serves as a better contrast to the bright yarn embroidery.
The Adidas SST AEC SUPEREARTH SW is set to drop on October 28th for a retail price of $110. Pick up a pair via the Adidas webstore.
AdidasAdidas
Air Jordan 1 Zoom Air Comfort Gold Laser
Nike
This new Zoom Air Comfort version of the Air Jordan 1 is so tricked out that it looks like the type of shoe you’d find on a sneaker customizer’s Instagram. There are just too many sought-after details on this thing, laser-etching against glittery gold panels, an icy outsole rim, and a shimmery blue indented Swoosh, it’s like a sneakerhead’s wet dream.
The Zoom Air Comfort was made with, well, comfort, in mind and features a base made from genuine and synthetic leathers, promising a broken-in feel.
The Air Jordan 1 Zoom Air Comfort Gold Laser is set to drop on October 28th for a retail price of $190. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.
NikeNike
Nike LDWaffle x Sacai x UNDERCOVER Collection
Nike
Nike, Sacai, and UNDERCOVER have teamed up once again for a triple sneaker LDWaffle collection that brings new colorways to the silhouette. Dropping in your choice of Black and Bright Citron, Night Maroon and Team Royal, and Midnight Spruce and University Red colorways, the collection features leather and suede overlays (or in the case of the Waffle, underlays) over a nylon upper with tri-branding throughout the shoes and the Waffle’s usual layered construction.
Disclaimer: While all of the products recommended here were chosen independently by our editorial staff, Uproxx may receive payment to direct readers to certain retail vendors who are offering these products for purchase.
According to CNBC, Greene filed a public disclosure for the transaction — a requirement for serving members of Congress — that revealed she spent $50,000 for a stake in Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC). The company saw prices for its shares skyrocket after announcing its plans to merge with Trump’s social media company, which should’ve been good news for Greene.
Unfortunately, stock prices have since dipped from the starting point of $118.80 a share to around $63 per share. Greene got in on the deal soon after it was announced, so she likely paid close to top-dollar for her shares, which means she’s probably lost a good deal of money on Trump’s latest business venture.
“At best, Greene has lost about 4.5% on her investment,” CNBC reported. That translates to thousands of dollars.
BREAKING NEWS
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene bought $DWAC, the Trump media SPAC, last Friday.
In an email from Greene to CNBC, she addressed the investment, saying, “This transaction was reported in compliance with House rules and provides all required details about the transaction.” Since she bought in when the market price was at its highest, the only thing she seems guilty of right now — other than having a financial interest in the future misinformation tactics of a disgraced ex-president — is making really terrible business decisions.
No matter how one feels about Facebook, it’s clear that Mark Zuckerberg’s been through some stuff lately while attempting to salvage the social media network’s reputation. Like, Jimmy Kimmel’s launching Bond villain remarks around, and Joy Behar had even more unflattering words. Well, Zuckerberg is starting to read the room and realizes that his audience is largely skewed. He’d like to entice more young adults onboard, which might mean that he knows that everyone’s crazy uncle is the one dominating timelines with talk of Ivermectin and (nonexistent) election fraud.
No one can argue too much about how social media helped the MAGA-misinformation machine to flourish, so one would think that former President Trump would at least be slightly grateful to the big ones, like Facebook, but nope, he’s incensed. Trump is now blaming Mark Zuckerberg, along with former Attorney General Bill Barr, for the “rigged” election. Trump’s argument responded to a Wall Street Journal editorial that discussed Pennsylvania and mail-in ballots and also how “Mr. Biden won the state by 80,555, but the country is lucky the election wasn’t closer.” Well, Trump still believes that his rigging claims should prevail, and he concluded by listing his reasons why he believes that Zuckerberg and Barr screwed him:
• Attorney General Bill Barr ordered U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain to stand down and not investigate election irregularities.
• Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook poured over $17 million to interfere in the Pennsylvania election, including $5.5 million on “ballot processing equipment” in Philadelphia and $552,000 for drop boxes where the voting pattern was not possible.
And so much more! This is why Democrats and the Fake News Media do not want a full forensic audit in Pennsylvania. In reality, 80,555 ballots are nothing when there is this much corruption or voter irregularities.
The reasons for Trump being upset with Barr are clear. He believed that the AG should do his bidding. As for Zuckerberg, what’s actually the case is that the ballot-counting process could have used an infusion in cash, and federal funds were lacking, so (as NPR previously reported) “Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife donated $350 million to the Center for Tech and Civic Life, a nonprofit that works to make elections more inclusive and secure.” Sure, this may have been a redemptive strategy on Zuckerberg’s part (for not shutting down election misinformation), but whatever the case, Trump’s only looking for someone else to blame. And he’s angrily shaking his fist at the most convenient cloud.
While Timothée Chalamet might now be a fully-fledge movie star, renowned for his subdued performances and prominent bone structure, long before he ever starred alongside Saoirse Ronan he was sharing the spotlight with a different co-star: an Xbox 360 controller. Back in 2010, Chalamet entertained people not on the big screen but on his YouTube channel, ModdedController360, where he shared the custom paint jobs he did on his Xbox 360 controllers. While the actor only uploaded three videos showcasing his artistic talents, the channel currently has over 17,000 followers — though we suspect him revealing his channel name in a recent interviewmight have something to do with that.
In the interview with internet personality Nate Hill, Chalamet and his Dune co-star Zendaya sat down with the YouTuber to talk about their new Fortnite skins and show off their impressive gameplay skills. However, one thing led to another and during the interview Chalamet let it slip that he and gaming go way back, casually admitting to Hill that he once had a YouTube channel that some dedicated fans had even stumbled upon despite his face not appearing in any of the videos.
“I had a YouTube channel people found,” Chalamet said. “It’s YouTube dot com back-slash ‘ModdedController360. And I used to paint-mod controllers.”
Despite Chalamet only uploading three videos during his brief career as a YouTuber, each one of them is truly something special, with the video of Chalamet showing off his “nice” and “sexy” red tiger print design being particularly delightful.
In addition to the red tiger-striped controller, Chalamet also designed a blue and sliver controller as well as a Christmas-themed green and red one that “works perfectly” and “is not for sale.” While in his videos Chalamet urged viewers to comment what colors he should use next, the comments have, unsurprisingly, since been turned off.
Unfortunately, Chalamet’s days of designing and potentially selling Xbox 360 controllers have come to a close. However, much less unfortunately, the young star is pretty consistently blowing fans away with his acting chops and is making a real name for himself among Hollywood’s best and brightest. You can catch Chalamet in both Dune and Wes Anderson’s newest film, The French Dispatch, in theaters now. Or on his YouTube channel.
Unlike another Josh Schwartz show, there are no current plans to reboot The O.C. Much of the cast (including top-five TV dad / top-one eyebrow haver Peter Gallagher) is game, but as the creator said during the 2020 Television Critics Association press tour, “For us, that was a very, very singular story. We felt like we completed that tale by the end.”
Adam Brody, who played Seth Cohen, doesn’t think a reboot would even work in the 2020s.
“I kind of don’t think it can be done because socially we’re in a different place and we’re in a more conscious place,” he told co-stars Rachel Bilson (Summer) and Melinda Clarke (Julie) on the Welcome to the OC, Bitches! podcast. “While The O.C. claims to be — in a similar sense as a Gossip Girl — while it would sort of say it’s a critique, it’s not. It’s a celebration — it’s a celebration of affluence in my opinion.”
Brody continued:
“For me, in a post-Donald Trump America to go, ‘Let’s go back to Orange County,’ I feel like you have to have a real reckoning politically and socially, and is that what people want to see with this show? I don’t know. And is there a way to do both? There is, I suppose, but in my eyes, I probably want to torch it more than the fans would want.”
How about this as a compromise for The O.C. fans? No reboot, but Seth and Summer get to appear in one Spider-Man movie. It can be Spider-Man: No Way Home or Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2 or Venom 3, or whatever. I just want to see those crazy kids share a smooch in the rain while an Oasis cover plays again.
You can listen to the Welcome to the OC, Bitches! episode above.
Hypnotic (Netflix film) — When a young woman decides to aim for self-improvement, she visits a widely-respected hypnotist, and everything soon goes wrong. Intense sessions and deadly consequences are afoot, all after her own personal trauma. Will she ever recover, even with the help of a detective who can help her solve a mystery that apparently erupted from her consciousness after being buried for so long? The spooky season continues.
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (CW, 8:00pm) — Gideon is overwhelmed by her newfound humanity and all of the decisions now available to her, and she’s not handling it well. Meanwhile, it’s up to Astra and Spooner to rescue the Legends.
Batwoman (CW, 9:00pm) — Gotham experiences a very unfortunate incident, which alerts Batwoman and the crew to the whereabouts of a missing trophy. This show’s been mired in so much controversy lately, it’s easy to forget that there’s an actual story here, so enjoy.
The Wonder Years (ABC, 8:30pm) — This reimagining adopts a different perspective (from the Fred Savage-starring original show) with the focus on an African-American family and their home base in 1960s Montgomery, Alabama. Don Cheadle narrates the usual tween ordeals and also the experience of being part of a Southern Black family. This week, it’s time for a camping trip for Coach Long, Bill, and the scout troop. In the process, Dean learns that his dad isn’t perfect. Surprise!
The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon — Elton John, Ava DuVernay, Walker Hayes
Jimmy Kimmel Live! — Dan Levy; Rüfüs Du Sol
The Late Late Show With James Corden — Edgar Wright, Glass Animals
In case you missed these recent Wednesday streaming picks:
Night Teeth (Netflix film) — Debby Ryan and Lucy Fry play the lead-character vampires of this film, but there are also vampires played by Megan Fox and Sydney Sweeney, so you know what that means: any human in their sights is in big trouble. That includes a college-student-turned-chauffeur, Benny (Jorge Lendeborg, Jr.), who’s tasked with driving the two primary vamps around to parties, where they can get their thirst on. Can Benny stay alive, can he save Los Angeles, and can he possibly do both things? Talk about a guilty pleasure of a movie.
Dopesick: Season 1 (Hulu series) — Michael Keaton (who is still the greatest Batman in history, so don’t mess with him in any role) finally comes to TV beyond cameo mode. Here, he takes on Big Pharma as a physician whose patients are dying off amid an opioid epidemic, and Rosario Dawson portrays one of the heroes who want to take the makers of Oxycontin down. The title of the source material (Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors and the Drug Company that Addicted America, the book by Beth Macy) tells you a lot, but this trailer promises an intense ride, and the cast includes Michael Stuhlbarg and Kaitlyn Dever, who’s all over TV now and making Justified‘s Loretta proud here.
I had a Cup Noodles — I still mistakenly say “Cup ‘O Noodles” — just two weeks ago. I was buzzed, it was crazy late, I was in a new city, and I needed a snack. I think that’s how a lot of adults experience Cup Noodles and, as such, it typically hits the spot. It’s not a food I’ve intellectualized much or ever had much brand loyalty for.
But when the chance came to taste and rank the full line, I snatched it. Mostly, to see if Cup Noodles hits me like Kraft Macaroni and Cheese — which I find to be legitimately good, no matter your age — or if I’d grown out of eating the stuff (at least while sober). “My palate is very sophisticated now” (said the guy who recently tested 22 hot dogs), could I still enjoy the stuff?
The answer is “yes.” I found a solid handful that I liked, in fact. Which was a surprise, because I assumed Cup Noodles only had a handful of flavors all together. Discovering that there were actually 17 varieties on the market (plus Top Ramen and various instant “bowls of noodles”) came as something of a shock. I’d signed up for a bigger project than I realized.
Still, I tested them all. There were some stinkers (including one which tasted like poison), a bunch in the middle, and a few absolute gems. The chasm between the horribly putrid and legitimately tasty was so large, in fact, that if you have Cup Noodles in your meal rotation, even if it’s just on drunken nights, you’ll definitely want to know which is which. So I feel like I’m doing a public service here — if I can keep even one person from buying entry #17, I’ve done my job.
Check the full ranking below.
THE ABSOLUTE WORST
18. Cup Noodles — Pumpkin Spice
NISSIN FOODS
This is a terrible idea. I know it’s a stunt. But even as a stunt, it’s horrible. Borderline offensive.
And yes, I know that stunt food is not truly meant to be eaten, it’s meant to get free PR from media companies. Which — when viewed through the right prism after a nonsense explanation by an expert in incoherent #brandspeak — theoretically increases overall awareness and is, therefore, a net positive for the company who made it. I even know that this technique actually worked with Starbucks when they did those dumb neon shakes. A craze to which Uproxx’s food section directly contributed. (Help, I’m being devoured by an ouroboros of my own design!)
But even with all that context, this is putrid. The brainchild of someone who hates food and maybe also… humanity at large?
I ate these soups in batches based on how much water my electric kettle holds and had to taste this one first because its smell was putting me off all five of the other soups I prepped with it. It’s not like “a pumpkin spiced latte with noodles” or even a riff on Elf’s “candy-syrup spaghetti.” As bad as those ideas sound, this is worse.
I think the biggest problem — beyond the entire concept and the very existence of this flavor — is that the ramen noodles have a natural savoriness to them. Perhaps the noodles are made in the same factory as the spices and absorb some flavors by osmosis. Frankly, I don’t want to see how this particular sausage is made. But the result is like a weak-chicken Cup Noodles that then is piled with sugar and cinnamon and — most of all — strange compounds that taste distinctly chemically.
Please note: This is going to be a theme in this ranking. Nissin does sugar in a way that tastes nothing like sugar and everything like a toxic approximation of sugar invented in a lab. They should stick to savory and never try to hit sweet flavor notes at all.
I could go on about all of this. I have more to say. I have jokes and cutting metaphors. Alas, time marches on. We are but finite beings doing our damndest to savor the brief, liminal space between “before birth” and “after death.” Knowing that our time on this mortal coil is but a blink, let us not tarry any longer with such noxious frivolities as this one.
The Bottom Line:
Some 12-year-old is going to make eating this insanely popular on TikTok and make me look like an asshole. There will be a viral challenge and the person who came up with this concept will become a billionaire and buy Uproxx Life just to fire me.
And still, I will not repent: this tastes awful.
But who knows, maybe I just didn’t like it because I didn’t put WHIPPED FUCKING CREAM on it.
I have no understanding of why Cup Noodles would use “chile” here vs. “chili” but the “e” must stand for “experimental chemicals.” This has a very distinct and odd — extremely off-putting — chemical flavor.
It’s not spicy but it is troubling.
The Bottom Line:
From my notes: “I’m… discomfited.” That’s not a reaction you want when tasting soup.
I don’t like sweet chili in general and definitely not sweet chili-flavored consumer packaged goods — which always taste artificially sweet. This entry, from Nissin’s “Stir Fry” line, is no exception to that rule. There’s no actual spice to these noodles but the sweet flavor is a little too strong to be enjoyable and a little too chemical-tasting to feel comfortable eating at all.
That said, the noodles in the Stir Fry series are better than that the standard Cup Noodles noodles.
The Bottom Line:
These are not good. Even for sweet lovers, the reminder that you are ingesting serious chemicals just feels too blatant and distracting.
Once again we’re suffering from the sweet-chemical issue. I cook curries (Indian, Thai, etc.), I eat a lot of curries, I have lived in nations that rely on various curries as pillars of their cuisine, but Cup Noodles Curry does not taste like any curry I’ve ever sampled. It tastes like if a first-year food engineering student who took Chem 1 as a pass-fail course was tasked with making a “curry flavoring” but couldn’t use any plant-derived spice to complete the task.
The Bottom Line:
According to the label, this is the #1 curry-flavored instant ramen in Japan. So… maybe it’s an acquired taste? I personally found it inedible.
This is the OG Cup Noodles. Not the one you remember from your childhood — these noodles predate that. I remember this variety being accessible in the 80s, but chicken and beef were already the standards. Anyway, if you told me this flavor had never been updated, I would 100% believe you. The egg is unsightly and tastes like drywall, the beef (or chicken? pork?) is troublesome in shape, color, and texture, and the shrimp looks almost identical to a plastic shrimp from a child’s play kitchen.
Taken all together, it’s distinctly un-good. And that egg, in particular, is trash.
The Bottom Line:
Nissin has moved on from the Original flavor. You should, too.
I was excited for spice with this flavor but… it’s not here. What is here is a sort of taco-spice season that doesn’t work well with broth or ramen. It’s incongruent and, even more, it’s a light flavoring.
It’s both wrong-seasoned and under-seasoned — not a great combo.
The Bottom Line:
Not spicy. Not well seasoned. Sort of like taco-seasoning flavored ramen. But tasting far worse than that sounds.
Am I justified in being deeply unnerved by these shrimp? They’re minuscule? Where do you find a shrimp this small? Sure, they seem to shrink in dehydration and not re-hydrate very well but they’re definitely weird, right?
NISSIN
As part of my due diligence, I ate that shrimp above and it was fine. Small, obviously — I had to make an effort not to swallow it whole — but its taste was okay. It was hard and had the texture of Lucky Charms marshmallows, but the flavor was fine and tasted akin to real shrimp. The problem is that the broth is also shrimpy in a way that felt significantlyly more artificial.
The bigger issue: it’s one of the lighter broths from the brand, so it’s a little low on flavor.
The Bottom Line:
You can do better. Even if you want a shrimp flavor, you can do better. So why waste time with this?
This is supposed to be “hearty” and I guess the noodles are. But the broth itself tasted weaker than regular chicken — making that the better flavor overall and this irrelevant.
The Bottom Line:
If you’re not the best plain chicken flavor in your instant ramen line, is there even a reason for you to exist? Discuss.
I’m not exactly a fan of “seafood broth.” I like shellfish soups but not fish soups. But I can certainly see the allure to this. Compared to most Cup Noodles flavors, it’s absolutely brimming with ingredients and the crab and clam taste crabby and clammy (I’m sure the crab is artificial but it’s still very passable). Those same elements are also chewy and gummy, which is sort of disconcerting with seafood, but I got over it.
I guess this really comes down to preference. I don’t like this that much, but it is much more seafood-forward than any other cup noodles and there’s certainly nothing offensive about it, like so many of the previous entries. If you’re a lover of seafood broth, I could see this becoming your favorite
The Bottom Line:
Very fish soupy with tons of accouterments, if that sounds tasty to you, I’d recommend this.
This actually doesn’t have the sweetness problem seen in so many of the low-ranking soups (the sweetness is fake, but it’s not overpowering). But it has the overall chicken problem — in that it’s a little underseasoned. That feels crazy to write about something that is so famous for being high in sodium, but here we are.
The Bottom Line:
Ultimately, this is good. But if the Korean Chicken is this one’s sister flavor, that’s significantly better.
This is marginally better than Stir Fry Terriyaki Chicken but not better than regular chicken. What a horrible place to be trapped! Moreover, this is redundant — there are better flavors that hit similar flavor notes still to come, so I can’t imagine what would motivate you to get this.
The Bottom line:
Fine. It’s fine. We’re all fine. Everything’s fine.
This tastes like classic ramen in a cup that I grew up with, chicken flavor (or rather, chicken flavoring flavor) and some nice heartiness. It’s not a revelation, but as a 3 am snack it definitely still works.
The Bottom Line:
Things improve significantly from here, so don’t get this unless you’re feeling nostalgic.
All the cool kids at my school knew that beef Cup Noodles was better than chicken. But chicken sold more and it was what more families seemed to buy in bulk. So there was a beef exclusivity issue when I was growing up.
It was cooler. Rebel ramen.
The Bottom Line:
Memories aside, beef is more savory than the chicken flavor and, therefore, marginally better.
I’m an avowed hater of lime in foods — it’s why I don’t go to Chipotle, where they overuse lime seasoning on freaking everything — and expected to hate this. I literally dreaded tasting it at all. But I have to say, it worked. In fact, it worked really well.
There was some actual spice to this and a nice depth to the broth. Much more depth than the actual shrimp flavor. If there was much lime, I certainly wasn’t put off by it.
The Bottom Line:
Cup Noodles is best when it leans into savory. This is the first flavor I could see myself buying retail when I needed a snack.
There’s a hint of fake sweetness but not as much as teriyaki. What this has — and it’s a literally brilliant call — is flakes of cabbage. They rehydrate nicely and taste real and fresh. The freshest-tasting vegetable in the whole line. And that brightness accents everything wonderfully.
The Bottom Line:
The addition of cabbage in this soup levels it up significantly. You will notice it and be glad it’s there.
3. Cup Noodles Stir Fry Rice With Noodles — Korean Spicy Beef
NISSIN FOODS
This has al dente rice! And cabbage! And these long carrot strands that taste like real carrots! And it’s actually spicy! There’s no fake sweetness or strange chemical notes. The broth is deep and savory.
It’s a really good snack.
The Bottom Line:
This works really well. So well that you have to begin to speculate why Nissin even has so many other flavors. Because I know everyone has a different palate, etc. but there is no chance on earth that someone likes the “Chlie” flavor more than this.
Drunk or hungover, this is a win. It’s the spiciest of the flavors and doesn’t suffer from any artificiality issues. Plus it’s got… you guessed it, cabbage! The second best Nissin innovation in my lifetime. If this was at my grocer, I’d buy a dozen today.
The Bottom Line:
This is very good. In fact, it’s so many miles better than the bottom entries that it almost feels bizarre to think that they’re from the same company at all. And with the fact that everything about Nissin labeling — from the spicy scale to the spelling of “chile” — is irregular, I legitimately wonder if some of these aren’t made by completely different third-party vendors.
This is the best Nissin flavor, hands down. It’s the toasted garlic that does it. How could you have 17 varieties and only one featuring that brilliant ingredient? The brand should be doing so many riffs on garlic that it has to buy a few garlic farms. It’s just such a good taste for instant ramen. And these toasted garlic chips taste both real and potent — making the whole soup seem fresher and more complex.
Beyond the garlic, which rules, the chicken is hearty, the big noodles are wonderfully springy, and there’s actually some spice. To be real, I didn’t think there was going to be a flavor that I liked this much. This surprised me by how good it was in precisely the opposite way that pumpkin spice surprised me with how bad it was.
The Bottom Line:
Does it compare with any sort of restaurant Ramen? No. But I have certainly ordered late-night ramens that are only marginally better and cost 1500% more. Certainly this could beat a few late-night fast food bugers in a drunk food face-off.
While we might not have gotten Universal Studio’s “Dark Universe” like we were promised oh-so many years ago, it looks like the studio isn’t letting their monster-filled dreams (nightmares?) die yet. Following their film debut flop, Universal has decided to pivot in a new direction to carry on the legacy of their classic, creepy creatures: video games.
Earlier today, Universal Pictures revealed the first trailer for their upcoming animated four-episode miniseries We Will Be Monsters, a creep-filled and creative collaboration between the studio and Fortnite developer Epic Games (via The Hollywood Reporter). The series follows the Bride of Frankenstein as she embarks on “a globe-trotting quest to rescue fellow Monsters,” and offers a more modern and diverse depiction of Universal’s classic monsters, completely reimagining character’s such as Frankenstein’s Monster, Dracula, and the Mummy while also taking viewers on a trip to places like Hong Kong, Morocco, Los Angeles and Lagos, Nigeria.
However, the real kicker is that as part of the partnership, each one of the newly designed characters in the show will also be available for gamers to purchase as Fortnite skins following the premiere of the show on October 28 within the game. The first episode is slated to be a part of Fortnite‘s Shortnitemares Festival, and re-envisions the Bride of Frankenstein and Dracula. Both the content and release dates of episodes three through four have yet to be announced.
Universal Films Entertainment Group president Abhijay Prakash says We Will Be Monsters is the film studio’s attempt at “evolving and building [the] IP and content for different formats,” and with the growing popularity of video games (and staying power of Fortnite), it’s easy to see why they’re going that route. At the helm of the project is Rick Famuyiwa, the same director behind several episodes of Disney+’s The Mandalorian, and voicing the various monsters are Chemon Theys (the Bride), current Hamilton actor Victory Ndukwe (Frankenstein’s Monster), and Emmy Saheki (the Mummy). The series’ hits Fortnite‘s Shortnitemares Festival on October 28.
JJ Redick’s NBA career came to an end last month when the veteran sharpshooter decided he did not want to pursue a 16th year in the league. Redick has plenty of off-court pursuits to keep him in the public eye, and on Wednesday afternoon, it was announced that he’s adding something else to his to-do list.
Redick is slated to join ESPN as an NBA analyst. He’ll kick things off as a studio analyst on Nov. 3, and according to the Worldwide Leader, Redick will also serve as an in-game analyst on a few occasions.
In a statement, Redick expressed his excitement about the new gig.
“After 15 years in the NBA, I am excited to take what I have learned on the court and be able to provide my insight and strong opinions about the game I love,” Redick said. “I am thrilled to have found a place on the biggest platform in sports, ESPN. I look forward to starting my post-playing career with such an incredible organization.”
Beyond his new television pursuits, Redick has long been a podcaster, as he began hosting shows back in 2015 and now serves as the host of The Old Man and the Three. Additionally, Redick started the company ThreeFourTwo productions in 2020.
Following a prolific college basketball career at Duke that saw him named the consensus national player of the year in 2006, Redick was drafted by the Orlando Magic and had pit stops with the Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Clippers, Philadelphia 76ers, New Orleans Pelicans, and Dallas Mavericks. For his career, Redick averaged 12.8 points per game and connected on 41.5 percent of his attempts from three.
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