Review: Skinny Noodles Shirataki Angel Hair

So I've ventured into Skinny Noodles territory before and I let's just say that I found several things about the experience to be very interesting.  I'll never forget the smell of them after I took them out of the packaging and while I eventually made the smell go away with some intense rinsing, it's something that will stick with me forever.  That said, Skinny Noodles actually responded to my post via Twitter and gave me a tip on how to more quickly rid myself of that smell:  rinse the noodles in vinegar.  With that tip in my back of tricks, I was ready to embark on another Skinny Noodles adventure and take a look at this package of Skinny Noodles Shirataki Angel Hair.  This one was given to me by my sister via a Groupon purchase (remember, she couldn't get over the smell), so I paid nothing for these.  The package itself is 8.0 ounces and it's apparently calorie free for each serving of 4.0 ounces (or at least less than five calories, per government regulations); the entire package eaten together is ten calories.  It's also gluten free, kosher, soy free, vegan and vegetarian.  There's a whole lot of nothing going on here, if you choose to look at it that way.

I mentioned it last time, but the packaging of these is just bizarre.  It's a bunch of noodles in fluid that just site in suspended animation in an airtight package.  It reminds me of a science experiment where they just have random things sitting in formaldehyde throughout the laboratory.  Not the greatest visualization to think about when you are getting ready to eat, but whatever.  Anyway, I took Skinny Noodles' advice and quickly doused these in vinegar and let them soak for a few seconds and they were indeed correct...the smell dissipated very quickly.  Of course that earthy smell was then replaced with a vinegar smell, so I rinsed the noodles quickly after that. to get rid of that smell.  As for the noodles themselves, they were a bright white color that was almost translucent.  They also bound together quite a bit and I had to do some work to get them separated out of clumps.

I took my first bite and there isn't really a lot to say about these from a flavor perspective because they don't taste like much of anything.  They are very chewy too, which was odd, but fine.  Quite frankly, what these are best as is a base for mixing some other spices/ingredients into the mix.  Basically, this is a blank canvas for you to do as you see fit.  You can make a "pasta" dish without the heavy carbs and calories of real pasta.  For my purposes, I added in some eggs and some spices and made an angel hair version of fried rice, if you choose to look at it that way.

Buy It or Fly By It?  Nothing outstanding about these, but they do the job as a low calorie blank canvas to make yourself a greater meal.  For that reason, I'll give these a BUY IT rating (or at least a receive them as a gift from your sister rating).  I'm glad Skinny Noodles gave me that vinegar tip because it really did make this a lot easier process (and better taste) that the last time.  If you choose to take the plunge, I'd STRONGLY advise you follow that vinegar tip too.

BUY IT!!