A Noodle Festival Called NOODS NOODS NOODS Has All The Crazy Asian Food You Could Ever Want
Noodle lovers are gonna have a field day at this upcoming California noodle-inspired festival appropriately called NOODS NOODS NOODS Presented by Cup Noodles.
Hosted by Foodbeast, a rag-tag bunch of ramen lovers and cheese pull addicts, the celebration will feature noodle dishes and Asian fusion menu items from dozens of local restaurants and venues.
Check out every single noodle item featured in the menu. If you’re in the Orange County area on Jan. 14, and consider yourself an noodle-afficiando, grab your tickets here. You can either get a marketplace ticket and buy-as-you-go, or go all out with the VIP option and pack your sweet pink mouth with so much food, you’ll be the envy of every Jerry and Jane at the event.
Before you start drooling over the glorious food pics we procured to tease what’s to come, here’s the line up of vendors at the Marketplace and VIP to help you decide which tickets to buy:
Remember, Marketplace Tickets get you in the door but you’ll have to buy as you go. VIP tickets are held in two sessions: 1PM and 5PM. At the VIP sessions you can eat and drink to your heart’s content.
Anchor Hitch
Anchor Hitch took their signature Uni Pasta, rolled it up into a ball, and deep fried it. The decadent spheres of flavor are topped with masago, shredded nori, and more chunks of fresh sea urchin.
Cauldron Ice Cream
When you’re ready to take a break from all the savory items Noods has to offer, Cauldron Ice Cream is serving a Churro puffle with Nutella ice cream. Take your photos fast though, a dessert this fine deserves to be eaten ASAP.
Mad Dumplings
The Mad Dumplings food truck will feature a variation of the iconic shrimp Cup Noodles. It features fresh carrots, green onions & shrimp stuffed inside a crispy homemade dumpling skin. The dumplings are served in a bed of cheesy Gouda Rabokki.
Naugles (Taco Bun)
Ever fancy a taco served in a hamburger bun? Naugles Tacos & Burgers’ Taco Bun is literally the contents of a taco thrown on a burger bun. While the concept is simple enough, the flavors themselves speak volumes.
Have some hot sauce ready.
Neptune’s Raw Oyster and Seafood Bar
A dish that incorporates seafood in almost every aspect, Neptune’s Crab Pasta features a black squid ink pasta that’s tossed in a creamy uni sauce and topped with crab meat and baby tomatoes.
Pour Vida Latin Flavor
What do you get when you combine the classic Mexican tripe soup menudo with Japanese udon noodles? Probably the coolest food fusion name of all time: Men-UDON. The dish features tripe in a savory broth, hominy, udon noodles, and fish cakes.
Sgt. Pepperonis Pizza
Sgt. Pepperoni takes the classic Italian noodle dish and turns it into savory hand-held nachos you can grub one at your convenience: Lasagna Nachos. I’m sure Garfield the cat would have no reason to hate Mondays if he had a plate of these bad boys.
Sit Low Pho
Our homie Hop from Sit Low Pho threw the content of his hearty bowls of pho into a burrito in what we love to call: The Phorrito. It features rice noodles, oxtail, herbs, and is served as a dip with pho broth.
Pho-get about that New Year’s diet.
Two Birds Restaurant
The name says it all: Jidori Fried Chicken Ramen Burrito.
Created by upcoming spot Two Birds in Irvine, the dish is the brainchild of none other than Slapfish mastermind Andrew Gruel.
The burrito features ramen cooked in a smokey pork broth with a hint of dashi that’s paired with a creamy cabbage. Once the burrito is assembled, it’s topped with the crispy fried chicken and Two Birds’ signature Tiger Sauce.
Bruxie
While Bruxie’s beastly creation of a Korean BBQ-flavored fried chicken and waffles topped with a kimchi noodle slaw is a thing of beauty. Those looking for a little heat in their food will be pleasantly surprised with the kick this sandwich brings.
Chelo Creamery
Another sweet option in a day jam-packed with savory dishes, the Dragonfruit rolled ice cream will be one of the most photogenic dishes at Noods. The dessert from Chelo Creamery is topped with fresh fruit and sweet sauces and are camera-ready for your phones to snap away at.
Dos Chinos
Dos Chinos is one of the OG spots around that combines popular Latin and Asian flavors to create a insanely beautiful dish you’d be proud to share on social media. Their entry into Noods is a Mexican Ramen that boasts noodles, homily, avocados, fresh avocados, roasted pork, and a rich broth topped with a pozole red tare.
The Kroft
It’s East meets West at the Kroft, which is serving a Philly Cheesesteak Bao topped with Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. While absolutely mouthwatering, it’ll be tough to get both components (Hot Cheetos and Cheesesteak) in a single picture. We encourage you, however, to give it your best shot.
Tiki Fish
You’re gonna want to try more than one of these Hawaiian Pineapple Teriyaki Burgers. The sweet and savory slider features a spam spread and habanero aioli, ensuring eat bite delivers a massive amount of flavor in such a tiny package.
Mess Hall Canteen
You might remember salivating a while back over Mess Hall Canteen’s insane soft-shelled crab mac n’ cheese tater tots. Well, you ain’t seen anything yet.
Mess Hall Canteen’s new Drunken Sailor Ramen features ramen noodles covered in a copious amount of creamy cheese “broth” and served with bacon, lobster, and snow crab. The hearty dish is then topped with masago aioli and shredded nori to bring the ramen noodle concept together.
Norigami Tacos
Norigami’s Ramen Taco will boast ramen noodles, Japanese style slow-braised pork, egg, corn, and green onion. The innovative item will be served on a crispy seaweed shell so that patrons can enjoy their taco and they explore Noods.
Samurai Burrito
Wanna crush a massive amount of sushi on the fly? Samurai Burrito will throw all your favorite sushi components into a hand-held burrito. We recommend sharing this bad boy with a friend if you want some room to try other dishes, or go back and get another one—who are we to judge?
Seoul Street
Need a savory walk-around snack? The Korean Bulgogi fries from Seoul Street is the perfect choice if you’re feeling peckish want to grab something to share with your buds. The dish features sweet bulgogi meat topped with corn, pico de gallo, and cheese crumbles.
Shrimp Daddy
Popular Smorgasburg newcomer Shrimp Daddy will be serving their signature Pineapple Shrimp bowls at the event. They’ll also be introducing a new macaroni salad shrimp cocktail made exclusively for the event.
Sunset Catering
Fancy some fancy Mac n’ Cheese? Sunset Catering will be offering a rich Sriracha Creamy Lobster Mac N’ Cheese that combines seafood with the velveteen texture one can only get from a perfect bowl of macaroni and cheese.
The Dirty Cookie
The Dirty Cookie will be offering a quartet of Asian-inspired cookie shots. The options include Thai Tea, Black Sesame, Matcha, and Ube. Extra points to anyone that collects them all.
The Low Key Poke Joint
The Low Key Poke Joint, in Garden Grove, CA, created a Hot Cheetos Poke Burrito t0 incorporate the fiery corned puffed snack into their menu in an innovative way.
Utilizing a build-your-own-poke concept, the restaurant gives you a large variety of ways to craft a poke/sushi “burrito” or bowl. One of the more popular, social media-friendly options includes a Hot Cheetos wrap for sushi burritos. The burrito features a fish protein of your choice, crab meat, masago, onions, and tons of other sides and toppings.
Green2Go
Because you can’t just be eating pork belly and cheesy noodles for the entire day, Green2Go offers two of the healthier alternatives at NOODS.
You can get a pan-seared Alaskan salmon, organic veggie stir fry rice noodles with a house-made teriyaki sauce and sesame ginger dressing. If you’re looking for something a little meatier, try the grass-fed tri-tip with organic veggie stirfry, rice stick noodles, with teriyaki sauce and sesame ginger dressing.
Puzzle
The concept of Nashville Hot Chicken has been pretty popping this year. Puzzles is offering a Korean-style Nashville Hot Chicken Bao at Noods that we couldn’t be happier to sink our teeth into. The dish features hot chicken served on a steamed bun and topped with shredded cabbage.
Looks like they’ll be going head-to-head with the Kroft to see who has the best bao.
Photo: Kevin Lee
Euro Caffe
This Mini Matcha Crepe Cake from Euro Caffe features layers upon layers of the savory match-flavored pancake. Euro Caffe will also be serving Matcha Espressos to pair their stunning dessert with.
Elbows
Elbows’ Korean BBQ Mac N Cheese will proudly live up to all cheese pulls guests will expect from the creamy dish.
We Have Noodles
We Have Noodles will be offering and elevated take on classic Vietnamese Pho with smoked beef belly, rice noodles, bone broth, beef tendon chicharron, pho herbs, and beef fat shallot confit. Prepare to pack your mouths with tons of pho-lavor.
Hatch
This behemoth of a Ramen Burger features fried chicken katsu topped with seasoned ramen noodles between two burger buns. It’s actually so big, we had a bit of a difficult time getting the entire thing into frame. You can see it for yourself if you come to Noods, though.
Goa Taco
Pad Thai fans will get a kick out of this Prawn and Chicken Pad Thai Paratha Taco from Goa Taco. The Noods exclusive item is not only a mouthful to say, but a mouthful to embrace in the best way possible. It’s vibrant colors and fresh ingredients make it either a great starter dish, or finisher dish food an Asian food festival.
Hamasaku
Got that craving for poke, but you can’t really commit to all the carbs that come from a burrito? Hamasaku is serving up a fresh Salmon Poke Noodle Salad made with fresh salmon, avocado, cucumber, green onion, cashew, and a Japanese pesto sauce.
Photo: @StirandStyle, @Pham_bot, and event vendors.
