Blind Comparison of Ajinomoto and Hi-Me in Fried Rice, Ramen Soup, and Stir-Fried Pork and Vegetables

Ryuji recalls that a previous video also tested the difference between Hi-Me and Ajinomoto, and found that Hi-Me was considerably stronger; using the same amount as Ajinomoto made the umami excessive and the food didn't taste good. So this time, too, the amounts were adjusted for the comparison. The best ratio Ryuji worked out is "2 parts Ajinomoto to 1 part Hi-Me," and Ryuji's firm belief is that umami seasonings change the taste dramatically depending on the amount. According to Shiozawa, Hi-Me is officially said to have about 2.5 times the umami of Ajinomoto, but since the dishes Ryuji made last time tasted good, Shiozawa agreed to proceed with that ratio.

The containers were matched as well. Ryuji harbors a "suspicion" that the Hi-Me bottle has small holes and doesn't actually dispense very much. Shiozawa reportedly explains that they're the same. On top of that, many viewers have complained that Hi-Me bottles aren't stocked in supermarkets, so this time Hi-Me was transferred into an Ajinomoto bottle and the amounts were matched by shaking the same way. To avoid mixing them up, thick eyebrows were drawn on the bottle containing Hi-Me, meaning "strong umami." Regarding bottle distribution, Shiozawa said it has gradually increased but they think it's still not enough, and that they'll work hard to get stores to carry it.

Shiozawa set one condition for the fried rice: adding onion. Ryuji replied, "It's already complete," but Shiozawa explained it this way. Hi-Me has the property of bringing out and enhancing the flavors of ingredients such as vegetables, meat, and rice. Adding onion should result in a delicious fried rice with its sweetness added. They said they had actually made it in-house to confirm. Ryuji accepted, noting that onions are in the same family as green onions, and that they themselves sometimes use onion when they're short on long green onion.

Shiozawa also explained that Hi-Me's umami lasts a long time, with umami building up layer upon layer after you put it in your mouth. The more ingredients there are, the more complexity is added to the flavor, so stir-fried vegetables are exactly the right kind of dish for it. When told that the aroma and flavor of ginger are also enhanced by Hi-Me, Ryuji was half-doubtful: "Seriously?"

Ultimate Fried Rice is the recipe from the most-viewed video on Ryuji's channel. The ingredients are packaged rice, eggs, pork belly, ginger, long green onion, and onion. The long green onion is specified at 2.5 cm, but when Ryuji saw the amount a staff member had cut, they pointed out, "This is 5 cm," and had it redone. The reason: since Ryuji usually says harsh things about all sorts of people, viewers are harsh on Ryuji too, so the measurements must be followed properly. The onion was set at 25 g.

The eggs are beaten beforehand. Holding the chopsticks horizontally and mixing as if cutting the whites is said to be faster. Ryuji added that nowadays they'd probably write to crack them directly into the frying pan to avoid extra dishes. Two packs of rice are heated for about 3 minutes 40 seconds. Two new frying pans were prepared to keep the heat conditions the same.

One and a half tablespoons of oil are used. Pork fried rice is no good without enough oil, according to Ryuji. The pork is sprinkled with a pinch of salt and fried until crispy to render the pork fat (lard). Next, the ginger and onion go in. Shiozawa specified that the onion be stir-fried early to bring out its sweetness. Egg is added, then rice, and the key point is to toss the pan while the egg is still half-cooked. The seasoning is half a teaspoon of salt each, 8 shakes of Ajinomoto, and 4 shakes of Hi-Me. Black pepper goes in at "three times more than you think." Finally, one tablespoon of sake is added to make the fried rice moist yet fluffy and separate. Some people may be concerned about the shared ladle, but Ryuji said it's not a problem since almost no umami transfers.

Ryuji predicted that the one they found tastier was Hi-Me. But the correct answer was the opposite: the one Ryuji picked as tastier was Ajinomoto. Ryuji was surprised: "So my recipe tastes better with Ajinomoto?" This was because in a simple fried rice Ryuji had tested before, the version made with Hi-Me tasted better.

Shiozawa explained that Ajinomoto's characteristic is that the umami hits the instant you eat it, and that perhaps it produces a flavor that makes you feel a punchy "this is delicious fried rice." Ryuji also recalled that the one they picked was the one where the umami hit sharply on the first bite. On the other hand, Ryuji said the Hi-Me one did have a sense of lasting umami. As for the difference from last time, Ryuji pointed out that this Ultimate Fried Rice has more ingredients. Shiozawa speculated that Ajinomoto's instant umami may have combined well with the complex flavors of the other ingredients. Ryuji summed it up: "I got it wrong, but I learned that Ajinomoto is the tastier one."

For the test by the two staff members, the first shoot failed to record, so the footage was reshot (take 2). According to Ryuji, in the first round both gave the same answer, and in the unrecorded first round everyone had picked Ajinomoto. In take 2, Takao answered that A was tastier and correctly identified B as Hi-Me. The other staff member chose B as tastier. Takao got everything right in take 2 as well.

Ryuji added, just to be safe, that the fried rice had cooled a bit by take 2. The staff member who had originally said Ajinomoto was tastier also gave a different answer the second time. In Ryuji's view, how umami is perceived changes depending on whether the food is hot or cold. Furthermore, to be honest, there isn't that pronounced a difference between the two, and it comes down to preference. With that said, Ryuji concluded for the fried rice that "Ajinomoto is maybe slightly tastier."

Next is a ramen soup made with wakame and long green onion. According to Ryuji, with Ajinomoto, soy sauce, and sesame oil, you can make ramen soup in no time. 55 g of long green onion is weighed out for each, and 2 g of dried wakame, 500 cc of water, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 4 shakes of pepper, 1 and a half tablespoons of sake, and 1 teaspoon of sesame oil for aroma are added. Ajinomoto is 10 shakes, Hi-Me 5 shakes. Ryuji says 10 shakes is an amount that doesn't push the umami that hard, but it still properly becomes a soup. With soy sauce alone, there's no umami, so it doesn't become a soup. Right after it comes to a boil, the green onion is still pungent, so it's kept boiling a little longer to make the long green onion sweet.

Ryuji answered that A was tastier and that A was Hi-Me, and got it right. This time, the difference was quite large, Ryuji said. This soup contains no ingredients that serve as a source of umami. The wakame might release a little glutamic acid, but there's no meat. That's why A was the one with an overwhelmingly deep flavor. B is also tasty but lacks a bit of depth, and whether for ramen or Chinese soup, A is absolutely tastier, Ryuji assessed.

Shiozawa explained the result as follows. In addition to glutamic acid, Hi-Me contains the nucleotides inosinic acid and guanylic acid. Inosinic acid and the like are umami compounds obtained mainly from animals. Adding these to this soup, which contains no animal-based ingredients, may be why it tasted deep. Ryuji responded that the fried rice had meat and other ingredients and was hard to tell, but this time it was quite clear.

In the staff test, two people chose B, the Ajinomoto, as tastier. Both said it was "difficult" and that "honestly I wasn't very confident." As for why they correctly identified Hi-Me, one person said they used the keyword "complex" that Shiozawa had mentioned as a clue and chose the one that felt more complex, and another said the umami lingered and felt drawn out.

On the two choosing B as tastier, Ryuji read it as both of them tending to value the initial impact. It was the same with the fried rice, so Ryuji viewed them as consistent. On the other hand, there was also an opinion from someone who is usually on Team Ajinomoto but found Hi-Me tastier this time. The reason was that soup is a dish where you sense the aftertaste, so the long-lingering umami seemed more delicious.

Last is the Ultimate Stir-Fried Pork and Vegetables. Even before cooking, Ryuji said, "You know, I don't feel like [a difference] will show up with this one." The ingredients are the same for both plates: 150 g of pork belly, 50 g of green bell pepper cut into 1 cm strips (seeds left in), 80 g of thinly sliced carrot, 5 g each of garlic and ginger, 100 g of bean sprouts, and 120 g of cabbage.

Shiozawa prefaced by saying that ordinary stir-fried vegetables can be made plenty delicious with Ajinomoto. That said, Ultimate Stir-Fried Pork and Vegetables is a dish where the pork is fried first to render a lot of fat, and since dishes that use a lot of oil make it hard to bring out umami, Hi-Me, which can bring out umami even in small amounts, is a very good fit, Shiozawa explained. Ryuji made a point of saying, "Even if Ajinomoto turns out tastier with this, I'm still putting the video out."

One and a half tablespoons of oil. Stir-fried pork and vegetables tastes better with more oil, and the reason restaurant versions taste good is that they use lots of oil, Ryuji says. One burner had stronger heat, so identical equipment was hastily brought in to match the heat. Pork belly tastes good because it releases fat. It's seasoned with seasoned salt and pepper, fried, and removed once crispy. Making it too crispy loses the juicy flavor of the meat. The carrots are stir-fried first in the rendered fat, because carrots are the hardest. Next, the green pepper goes in and is stir-fried for about a minute, then the cabbage is added and coated in the fat. Garlic and ginger burn if added first, so they're added at this point for aroma.

The seasoning is 1/3 teaspoon of salt each, 6 shakes of Ajinomoto, and 3 shakes of Hi-Me. The bean sprouts and meat are added and roughly stir-fried, then 1 teaspoon of soy sauce and black pepper go in. The black pepper should be about three times what's listed, and Ryuji said their old recipes were mostly written that way.

While saying both were very tasty and it depends on preference, Ryuji answered that B was tastier and that B was Hi-Me. This was correct. The difference was bigger than expected, and Ryuji was surprised: "The taste is pretty different."

Shiozawa explained that compared to the fried rice, there are more vegetables and a lot of meat, so their umami was probably enhanced by Hi-Me. When Ryuji asked, "So that's why Chinese restaurants use so much Hi-Me?", Shiozawa said that was exactly right, adding that Hi-Me can deliver umami even in small amounts, so it pairs very well with oil. Ryuji said the Ajinomoto one was tasty too, but after eating the Hi-Me one, it felt a little lacking, and the Hi-Me one tasted like Chinese-restaurant food.

All of the two staff members also chose B as tastier, and all correctly identified B as Hi-Me. Comments included that the umami of the oil came through most in B, and that the overall flavor felt lifted. One person said they chose based on whether it tasted like restaurant food. Ryuji reacted, "Stir-fried vegetables are all about Hi-Me," and "I've got to make a Hi-Me stir-fried vegetable recipe." Ryuji had predicted this would be the hardest of the three dishes to tell apart, but in fact it was the easiest.

To sum up the results, Ryuji's fried rice recipe tasted better with Ajinomoto, while the ramen soup and the stir-fried pork and vegetables clearly tasted better with Hi-Me. Ryuji described this as "a pretty no-holds-barred result." The two staff members didn't miss a single identification of which was Hi-Me, whereas Ryuji got the fried rice wrong.

Ryuji said, "Hi-Me is profound." Especially for stir-fried vegetables, where the taste is completely different, Ryuji said they might use Hi-Me from now on, and added that creating a new stir-fried vegetable masterpiece with Hi-Me might be a good idea. Ryuji urged viewers to try making their Ultimate Stir-Fried Pork and Vegetables with Hi-Me and see how it tastes. Finally, Ryuji reiterated that Ajinomoto made the fried rice, and Hi-Me made the stir-fried pork and vegetables and the Chinese soup, very delicious, and wrapped up with, "There's absolutely nothing staged here."