If you're familiar with instant noodles in Japan, then you are probably familiar with some of the extreme ways companies promote them, and especially the strange and adventurous flavors that those companies release to stand out as the seasons change. Leading the seasonal-eccentric flavor charge is Myojo Food's "Ippei-chan night stall yakisoba"(一平ちゃん 夜店の焼そば) series, which has featured "Fried Chicken Mayonnaise", "Pizza Mayonaisse", and "Cod Roe" flavors in the past, and even a chocolate sauce variation for Valentine's Day. Now they're ramping up for the holidays with perhaps their most daring flavor yet: Strawberry Shortcake Yakisoba.

Strawberry Shortcake is a Japanese Christmas favorite, and these new Ippe-chan yakisoba noodles come with a sauce customized to replicate the holiday treat. While the sauces remains based in the standard yakisoba beef extract sauce, it will also make use of mango chutney, fruit paste, and additional vanilla flavoring. The furikake topping packet that comes with instant yakisoba will also be customized to fit the dessert flavor, using powdered strawberries, yogurt cubes, and colored sugar. Myojo Foods promises the crispy texture of yakisoba, finished with the sweet scent and finish of a strawberry shortcake. Bound to peak the foodie curiosity of some and utterly revolt others, at just 180 yen a pack, it's not an expensive risk when it is officially released on December 5th.


By - grape Japan editorial staff.