Why the Best Instant Noodles Are ‘Squiggly’

Though A-Sha officially sells them as “knife-cut” noodles, it wasn’t until consumers started calling the noodles “squiggly” — a word that doesn’t appear on the product itself — that they really took off for the company, explains CEO Young Chang, who notes that they’re also known as Guanmiao noodles. “Somewhere along the line, somebody came to me and was like, ‘Hey, I want that squiggly noodle,’” Chang says.

If “knife-cut” is ambiguous, “squiggly” is specific. “Everyone understands what ‘squiggly’ means,” Chang says. Plus, he adds, it’s kind of cute: Even a two-year-old would get it. “We just jumped all over it and started saying squiggly all the time,” he says.

As this specific noodle shape gains traction in the United States, it’s not just A-Sha saying “squiggly” all the time. At Trader Joe’s, the “squiggly knife cut-style” noodles have been popular ever since they launched in 2023 and found viral success on TikTok. (They even spurred a resale market.) Fly By Jing bills its new noodles of the same shape, launched in October, as “bouncy, squiggly, and perfectly saucy.” On Google, search interest for the term “squiggly noodles” has gone from nearly negligible to on-the-rise beginning in 2022 to an all-time high last month. (“Squiggly” isn’t limited to Asian noodles, of course: Dan Pashman’s viral cascatelli, released in 2021, has also been described the same way.)

Though packaged noodles have long been synonymous with Justin Timberlake-esque curls of instant ramen, over the past few years, the dried noodle industry in the U.S. has been broadening in favor of what the writer Cathy Erway has described as “a refreshingly refined — but no less convenient — experience.” The “squiggly” noodle is perhaps the clearest symbol of this recent instant noodle evolution.

Even if not the specific squiggly, knife-cut shape, other recent noodle launches — like the ones from Omsom and Momofuku, the latter of which is made in collaboration with A-Sha — have leaned in favor of wider, flatter noodles. According to Chang, A-Sha has differentiated itself in the noodle market largely by offering a variety of widths and cuts, whereas other brands are known for just one.

There are some functional reasons behind the rise of the wide, squiggly noodle. When envisioning Fly By Jing’s version, founder Jing Gao knew that the noodles had to be a knife-cut style popular in Sichuan. And since they’re meant to show off the brand’s flagship sauces, the noodles couldn’t leave a puddle of sauce behind in the bowl. “This shape in particular is very hard to find in America, and I find it holds the perfect amount of chile crisp,” Gao says.

Instant ramen noodles, as invented by Momofuku Ando in 1958, are cut, steamed, and dehydrated by frying. By comparison, A-Sha and Fly By Jing’s noodles are air- and sun-dried, respectively. Because heat doesn’t touch A-Sha’s noodles until the consumer drops them in a pot of water, they retain a lot of their bounce and chew, Chang explains. This results in a texture that’s more like fresh noodles from a restaurant than instant ramen. Plus, lower in oil, these noodles are more appealing to health-conscious consumers, Chang says.

As packaged noodles have become more premium, so have their prices. A package of Maruchan still rings in at around 50 cents, but a single serving of the Fly By Jing noodles is nearly $6 and one of A-Sha’s is about $3.75. When it came to finding a producer in Sichuan, the biggest challenge was “finding scale to get to a price that Americans are used to paying for at home noodles,” Gao says. The company is now working with its partners to figure out how to keep its quality while getting to a lower price point, she adds. Trader Joe’s, though more affordable, is still about double the price of Top Ramen.

These noodles are generally imported. Fly By Jing’s are made directly in Sichuan, while A-Sha’s noodles are all made in Taiwan, as they have been since 1977. In 2015, Chang and his business partner Henry Liao took over the company, which was facing financial challenges, and set the goal of making A-Sha a global brand and promoting Taiwanese culture around the world. Part of this, Chang says, included upgrading the company’s production to meet the food safety requirements of stores like Costco and Target.

Despite speculation that the Trader Joe’s squiggly noodles are made by A-Sha, Chang wasn’t able to speak to that point directly. But while some small brands have a contentious relationship with the grocery chain’s approach to dupes, Chang sees the chain’s rebranding in a more positive light. It can be challenging for an unfamiliar brand to convince shoppers to try a new food, he explains, but Trader Joe’s already has a captive audience. “When they’re promoting something like the squiggly noodle, it really, really lifts the entire industry,” he says.

Whether it’s kimbap, ube, or chakri, it says something when a food makes it onto the shelves of Trader Joe’s, with its beloved but also infamous private-label versions: It’s a sign that the food entered the cultural landscape enough to warrant a generic take. It’s been translated, not just in terms of audience but also sometimes literally, like the adoption of the “squiggly knife cut-style” name.

There’s history that gets lost when cultural foods take on new names largely for the sake of new audiences. Chang likens the trajectory of the noodles to what happens more broadly within immigrant communities: The second and third generations might lose some aspects of their culture, like language, as part of assimilating to a new environment. “It’s kind of like survival,” Chang says, noting that calling the noodles “squiggly” helps the product and the company succeed by meeting customers where they are and catering to what they want.

To Chang, Trader Joe’s adoption of the “squiggly” noodle was a “brilliant” marketing choice. Ten years ago, he never would have predicted that the knife-cut noodles would be the one to break through. But, he says, “Of all the names that we’ve tried on that product, that’s the one that hits.”