As most of our readers surely know, Cup Noodle is a long-selling instant noodle product made by Nissin Foods.

Although not everyone follows their advice, Nissin recommends waiting three minutes after adding hot water to cook your Cup Noodle.

When they do follow their advice, most people use the timer function on their smartphone or a kitchen timer to measure three minutes.

But what if you don't have a timer at hand?

Cup Noodle's Twitter account posted a surprisingly simple tip:

"'I don't have a timer so I can't count 3 minutes...' In situations like these, just say 'Seafood Noodle' 180 times. It should amount to about 3 minutes."

Since each 'Seafood Noodle' takes about one second, by the time you've said it 180 times, roughly three minutes should have elapsed.

In the video above, the Nissin Foods employee said "Seafood Noodle" 180 times and it was 3 minutes and 1 second.

Of course, it depends on the person saying it. Moreover, due to the additional syllables in the Japanese pronunciation of シーフードヌードル shīfūdo nūdoru, it might take a fraction longer than saying 'seafood noodle' in English, so you may need to play around with the timing until you get it just right...

But if you're going to be spending time doing all that, maybe it's not worth the hassle...

Some people online also had other witty comments such as: "Why don't you just count the seconds?" or "What's that smartphone in your hand for?"

Of course, there's another obvious advantage to saying "Seafood Noodle" 180 times... An advantage to Nissin Foods, that is. Marketing!


By - grape Japan editorial staff.