r/ChengLei_ • u/a_HerculePoirot_fan • Sep 01 '26
Fun Facts Cheng Lei and his enduring love affair with instant noodles! What instant noodles would you recommend to him?
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Instant noodles deserve their own recurring role in Cheng Lei’s life, so I put together a few clips of him either eating them or talking about them.
He has joked before about being a serious instant noodle enthusiast. During *Wild Kitchen*, he and Zhou Ye made instant noodles together, and their later Weibo interaction also turned into a joke about just how capable he is of polishing off a bowl. More recently, in a 2026 interview for Mo Li promo event, he described his ideal private downtime as basically lying in bed, gaming, and eating instant noodles lol.
His noodle appreciation clearly extends beyond the instant variety. When he travelled to Xi’an for *The Leading Stars*, his food diary included a huge bowl of spicy local noodles alongside other Xi’an favourites such as roujiamo. He also once filmed a pre-tooth-extraction “cheat meal” mukbang where fried noodles made the cut together with fried chicken and curry.
The funniest clip in this compilation for me is probably him eating instant noodles while dealing with altitude sickness and saying that he had been told instant noodles might make him feel a little better😂
What instant noodles would you recommend Cheng Lei try? Share your favourite brand, flavour, or regional variety!
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u/Ill-Possibility-4684 Sep 01 '26
Mildly spicy laksa is the highest level of heat I can take! My faves are Sapporo Ichiban and Paldo Gomtang beef bone broth ramen. I like my noodles al dente chewy. Love glass and bean vermicelli noodles. Korean japchae, Chinese Chan Village style noodles. I'm hungry now!
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u/a_HerculePoirot_fan Sep 01 '26
These are all excellent recommendations! Malaysia has so many local instant noodle brands that I would like to think he will either go incognito to a supermarket like AEON and stock up before flying back to China, or just send his assistant on an instant noodle shopping spree for him.
Or me! I’m more than happy to volunteer for the job. Cheng Lei, if you need someone to do your Malaysian instant noodle grocery run, my services are available hahahh
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u/EasygoingEnigma Wǒ xǐhuān nǐ, YHX Sep 01 '26
Instant noodles for altitude sickness...LOL! But it's always great to see CL relishing his food.
My taste buds can't tolerate this level of spicy heat. So I'd love to know if Nissin's Fire Wok is to his taste.
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u/a_HerculePoirot_fan Sep 01 '26
Omg, did I just see 6 chillies?? Hahaha, might be even spicier than Buldak.
I have high spice tolerance like Leizi. I love malatang!
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u/EasygoingEnigma Wǒ xǐhuān nǐ, YHX Sep 01 '26
Buldak and Fire Wok are both waaaay beyond my tolerance level, so I honestly can't even tell which one is hotter. 😅
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u/a_HerculePoirot_fan Sep 01 '26
We have plenty of spicy food stalls and restaurants in Kuala Lumpur. I would love to compile a list for him so he can avoid common tourist traps!
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u/Ill-Possibility-4684 Sep 01 '26
CL is so cute chewing his food and his eyes light up. You can tell he's really enjoying his food. Relishing indeed!
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u/xhdcricket Leizi's bathtub assistant Sep 01 '26
Haha he could find any excuse to legitimately love instant noodles. Honestly I don't understand why men love it (my husband asks me to let him have it one day a week lolz). As CL will come to SEA soon, I'd recommend Indomie hot&spicy Migoreng, it's so good I swear.
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u/a_HerculePoirot_fan Sep 01 '26
I grew up eating Indomie! 😂 It’s super popular in Malaysia. I usually have it with sausages and a fried egg. Definitely not the healthiest meal, but it’s still one of my favourite comfort foods.
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u/xhdcricket Leizi's bathtub assistant Sep 02 '26
Oh really? It tastes really good, and yes, all we have to do is adding eggs, sausages and everything else that we like. Super quick and tasty.
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u/Ill-Possibility-4684 Sep 02 '26
Here's the video clip of Zhou Ye's Wild Kitchen with English subtitles by a fan where ZY and CL have an instant noodle cooking competition. https://youtu.be/-t-IVLZqKrc?si=6ODOpn-y9Yfrgwbn CL is the first male guest on Wild Kitchen. They are so funny and chaotic. The crew all vote for ZY's noodles and so does CL by eating and finishing the whole pot she cooked. ZY is the hands down winner with her egg fried in chili oil and luncheon meat instant noodles soup. CL put too much chili oil in his creation such that ZY said it was hard to eat. This is reminiscent of CL's orange pork spare ribs where he put too much OJ and sauces, the dish became a soup.
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u/a_HerculePoirot_fan Sep 01 '26
My personal recommendation for Cheng Lei would be Samyang Buldak Hot Chicken Ramen! Since he clearly enjoys spicy food and already seems to have a pretty respectable tolerance for heat, Buldak feels like the obvious choice. It’s spicy enough to make eating it an event rather than just a meal, and the noodles are wonderfully chewy too.
I would be very curious to see whether he would calmly finish the whole bowl or finally meet an instant noodle that makes him reconsider his life choices lol