I echo @tomatotomato. I wish I had a friend like you. The list your request inspired is, as Denise says, useful, and the ultimate choice your friends made brought to the foreground a place that had dropped off my radar. @passing_thru had mentioned it as he passed through but after that, it had slipped my mind.
The Pikaichi website has instructions on how to cook their takeout noodles. Did your friends have to do a little cooking, after all, or was everything fully cooked?
I’m a big fan of hi-lo as well. Potato chips and caviar come to mind.
