I never managed to finish this in April, so now it’s May Madness and this time, two delicious flavors battle to decide which would make a great ramen flavor.
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May 062013
Loading ... Loading ...Ramen vs Pho
General
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May 052013
Westword has an interesting article, that while focused on some Denver restaurants, provides a brief explanation of the difference between ramen and pho. I’ve had and love both, but I’ve never seen pho at the store for 20 cents a pack.
Here’s a snippet:
In a bowl of ramen, the long, curly noodles are made from wheat, which has the structure-giving gluten that pho’s rice noodles do not. Ramen stock is darker, richer and cloudy, often made from pork bones cooked at a rolling boil, whereas the base for pho is traditionally made from beef and scented with star anise, cinnamon and charred ginger.
Apr 212013
This is an epic battle that should have been posted yesterday but was not due to a mistake on my part. Who wins?
Ramen Flavor Battle: Round 1: Dorito vs Ranch Total Voters: 159
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Living Only on Ramen
Misc Links, Press
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Apr 182013
By now you may have heard of the UK girl who has eaten nothing but ramen for the past 13 years. She is surprisingly still alive. Anyway, DrGullo.com contacted me to get my thoughts. They didn’t print what all I said about it, so I’ll share the full quote from me below. First the story:
A recent news story came out about an 18-year-old from the U.K. who eats the same thing every day – and nothing else. Georgi Readman is totally hooked on Ramen noodles. The 98-lb. girl has been eating them daily for 13 years and “hate(s) the texture of fruit and vegetables.” Unsurprisingly, doctors have condemned extreme diets like this one, stating that she likely “has the health of an 80-year-old” and may suffer from osteoporosis, kidney damage, hypertension, cognitive impairment, stunted growth, and of course, malnourishment.
The article continues:
Not all diets are as extreme as Readman’s, and most people who eat Ramen now and then wouldn’t dream of living exclusively on it. Matt Fischer, for example, is a Ramen critic and expert who told us, “If that was all you were going to eat, you’d really need to enhance it with extra ingredients.” Matt went on to recommend Ramen stir fries, salads, and even egg drop soup.
Now what I continued to say was “You can also make it bit healthier by using less of the flavor packet which is where all the sodium is. Personally, I could never do it, I like variety too much, even with a versatile ingredient like ramen.” I did not go into the health impacts, and I am not a doctor, but there is not a single thing on earth, besides water, that you should eat that much of.
I’m curious, what’s the longest you guys have gone eating only ramen? For me it’s probably only a day.
April Madness: Ramen New Flavor Battles
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Apr 092013
Yesterday I received two emails from different people with new flavor suggestions. I happen to like both ideas and so to celebrate the end of March Madness here in the US and to celebrate the fact that I’m a month behind in thinking about this, I’m starting a new flavor battle. Each round will feature 2 flavors. The winner will advance. I plan on running this all summer, so send in more ideas if you have them.
Ramen Flavor Battle: Round 1 Total Voters: 164
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Ramen Party
Recipe
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Apr 042013
Ramen Party is a cartoon collection of characters based on the ingredients in a bowl of ramen. This is a small teaser video for a planned series of videos that will introduce young kids to “hip trends”. It’s basically a teaser video for ramen based educational websites and games for kids. The site, indiegogo, is a crowd-funding site, similar to kickstarter, where the creators of the concept accept donations so that they can pursue the concept further. Early funders of this concept get some pretty cool schwag, like trading cards, a tote bag, and even your very own character.
Rather than me rambling on, I highly recommend you just go check it out, the video is cool and so is the concept. A blurb from the site:
Ramen Party is a collection of characters that introduces preschool children (and their parents) to hip trends in culture, music and food.
We’ve created six characters based on ingredients found in traditional Japanese ramen. Each of them have a distinct musical theme that matches their quirky personaliities, and when you mix them together, you create a catchy tune! Let us introduce them to you…
Some of the plush ramen characters
Mar 182013
Congrats to Hans over at TheRamenRater.com on his 1000th review. I couldn’t ever come close to that! BTW – The flavor he reviewed sounds intriguing, but probably best left to college students.
Mar 032013
My mom alerted me to an event at Marshall University, in Huntington, WV, next weekend, a ramen noodle cook-off done in the style of “Chopped”. I know that a majority of the readers here don’t live in Huntington, and like me, some may even be Mountatineer fans, but this is a great idea that I think could be done at other colleges. Here are the details, and if you have a cook-off of your own let me know.
Beta Alpha Psi is an honorary organization for Accounting, Finance and Management Information
System students at Marshall University is hosting a charity event called the Ramen Noodle Cook-Off. This event is to benefit the charity Palms for Life which is an international charity dedicated to eradicating poverty throughout the world. The event be held Saturday, March 9th at the Marco room in the Memorial Student Center at Marshall University, from 11am to 4pm, and coincides with a canned food drive.
Ramen Noodle Cook-Off is a fantastic, fun event where anyone can participate. Teams of two people are asked to participate in a “Chopped”-like event and showcase their skills at preparing Ramen Noodles in unique and creative ways. Last year’s creations involved dishes of tacos, no-bake cookies, stir-fry and alfredo – all including ramen noodles as the star!
I think this is a great idea, we all know that ramen is a versatile ingredient, and one that is commonly found on college campuses. Tying that into a charity event for the food bank is perfect.
So I say good luck to Beta Alpha Psi and if you’re in the area, drop by!
Feb 272013
A fanatic ramen chef, Keizo Shimamoto, who eats 600 bowls a year, has picked his 5 favorite ramen shops in the US. Los Angeles did pretty well and I was surprised not to see SF on the list. Here’s an excerpt, read the full story to see the list:
If you know me, then you know ramen rules my life. So when I was asked to compile a list of my top five ramen shops in the United States, then you know that this was no easy task. In the past six years I’ve probably slurped more bowls of ramen than any other American, including “a dream ramen journey” throughout Japan, spanning 21 cities and 55 bowls in 28 days, but there’s still very much that I need to learn about this freakish noodle dish. I initially moved to Japan to study how to make ramen because there wasn’t much I could consider “quality ramen” stateside — but with the “ramen boom” finally crossing the Pacific, there are several shops that deserve recognition.
What’s better is that you can also watch the full (short) movie called Ramen Dreams, which follows Keizo as he follows his ramen dream to a Tokyo. You can also just watch it below:
Feb 212013
A few months back I posted about the anti-lonliness ramen bowl which has an iPhone holder so you can play a game, make a call, or watch TV while you eat noodles. Hans over at RamenRater got an interview with the designer, Miso Soup Design (great name). It’s worth a read.
EDIT: Link fixed