By contributor Claire Zakiewicz – a healthy eating enthusiast and keen marathon runner.
Itsu is a British, Asian-inspired chain whose ethos is quick food that is delicious and good for you. Their salads and soups are full of colourful fresh vegetables and I often fancy lunching at their outlets when I am out and about. They have become so popular that they seem to be everywhere across central London and have just opened a store in downtown New York. Last year they launched into retail under the name Itsu Grocery and I was curious to find out how these products fare in comparison, especially as they are pitched at and sold in health food shops.
The website claims their 3 minute pot is the ‘instant’ version of Potsu: my favourite of their nutritious hot-pots. Now, I don’t usually agree with processed, junky fills such as pot noodles. However, I have to admit to having an eye for hot snacks to keep me going through a long project at my studio. For this reason instant pots that claim to be healthy are an exceptional processed food on my radar.
The vegetarian option is the Thai spicy flavour with fresh udon noodles, dried Italian vegetables (tomato, courgette and spinach) and no MSG. Sounds good on paper. In reality however, the vegetable portion is meagre and they suggest adding fresh vegetables. I had two samples so I ate one as it comes and the other with added kale, bean shoots, garlic and spring onions. The additions were a vast improvement, but to be honest it would have been just as easy, better tasting and probably healthier to have added these vegetables to an instant broth such as miso soup. This also would have avoided the dubious added ingredients such as the long list of E numbers and sugar.
The shrink-wrapped noodles were filling and fresh compared to dried noodles, but I didn’t like the flavour of the broth. It was vinegary, sour, tangy and bitter. None of these qualities are deterring as such but it was a strange synthetic taste I can’t quite put my finger on that was off putting.
As well as the unpleasant pungency it also made me feel a bit weird afterwards. The kind of feeling you get when you’ve eaten too much junk food. So I looked up the list of ingredients and E numbers. Although the additives are mainly natural acidity regulators I still can’t help being suspicious of its goodness. It just doesn’t taste good.
Itsu usually has my stamp of approval so it is a shame that their Thai Spicy 3 minute Noodle Pots are neither delicious nor particularly healthy.
Itsu noodle pots are £12 for a pack of 6 from their online itsu.com. They are also available in Sainsbury’s.
Thanks to Itsu for providing the samples.
(image from itsu)
