Maruchan Instant Lunch is cheap. Like $0.52 at Walmart cheap. At 290 calories it's an amazing proposition for the price. I have reviewed Maruchan's beef flavored cup noodles before, and the noodles I have today are the spicy variant of that. I had high expectations for the spicy beef flavor because the slight oilyness of the original beef flavor's broth surprised me. Maybe that was only because my expectations were very low when I started that review.

After letting the noodles sit in hot water for 3 minutes, the first thing I am struck by when I pick up the cup is how easy it is to hold considering there is water near its boiling point inside. The styrofoam cup is only just pleasantly warm and easy to hold but the noodles and broth are scaldingly hot.

In contrast to the regular beef flavor, these supposedly have a bit more spice in them. The broth is disappointing, tasting like a beef bouillon cube dropped in hot water with a bit of cayenne pepper spinkled in. It's not exactly just bouillon, though, I think the rehydrated vegetables lend a bit of their flavor to the broth. It is somewhat spicy but not particularly spicy. Maruchan Fire Bowl Spicy Beef Ramen was much more intense and left me sniffling. These are comparatively weak.

The noodles soak up a bit of this broth and are themselves weak, thin and meager. I'm amazed by how many noodles there are. They might lack texture but there are so many here it doesn't really matter. This is an item you eat because you are hungry and have 10 minutes for lunch, not something you reach for because it's the best thing you could have for lunch. It serves its purpose well.