When you’re making instant ramen which to you prefer? The packet which you cook on the stove or the styrofoam bowl which is more portable? Personally, I’ve always preferred the ramen packet as I’ve been eating it that way for over 20 years.
Loading ...Hans at the RamenRater let me know that tomorrow is Momofuku Ando Day, at least at a hospital in Dallas, Texas. Momofuku Ando, for those who don’t know, is the inventor of instant ramen, and obviously a genius. Since Wikipedia is down today, you won’t be able to read much about it there, so I’ll just link to Hans’ article.
Today I was looking through a Wikipedia entry all about the creator of instant noodles, Momofuku Ando. Much to my surprise, I noticed that there is a day commemorating him called Momofuku Ando Day! What’s strange about this is that it was founded by some healthcare workers – at a Dallas, Texas hospital!
What’s not so strange about this is why a day exists to honor the man.
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The government insisted that the companies that made noodles were too small to supply everyone.Ando decided that he would try to fill the demand. He is quoted as saying, “Peace will come to the world when the people have enough to eat.”
After a lot of hard work, 1958 proved a good year with the first instant noodles to be invented. Simply called Chikin ramen, they were a little pricy when they came out. After a bit of time, they came down in price. Now they’re considered to be one of the cheapest foods you can get.
I don’t ever watch Jimmy Fallon’s show, although he is hilarious. Over the holidays, a relative asked if I had seen the ramen chef, David Chang, on his show, and I was surprised to hear that I missed it. Anyway, for anyone else who missed it, here it is.
Also, here’s a bit about David Chang from another bio article on him:
But to those who worship the steamed pork buns at his Momofuku Noodle Bar or the rotisserie duck at Momofuku Ssam Bar, or compete in the fiendish online lottery for one of 12 seats at the high-end Momofuku Ko, Chang’s a culinary deity: At 34, he has already won a slew of awards and two Michelin stars, been called a cultural demigod and been compared to the top chefs of the world.
This one sounds really good. I love the flavor of eggs and ramen and often make ramen egg drop soup. The format is different from normal, but well written so I didn’t want to mess with it.
Boil 2 packets of Ramen (your favorite flavor) in a larger amount of water than you;d use for soup, more like making pasta. Use the flavor packets in the water if you’d like, or save for a later step. If you save the packets, make sure you salt the water.
Have a nonstick skillet on hand large enough to hold both packets of cooked Ramen.
While the water is boiling, beat 2 eggs in a small bowl and take 3 or 4 teaspoons of the cooking water and slowly beat them into the eggs.
In another bowl or glass mix together some spices you like. I usually go Italian and use salt, pepper, parsely, basil, oregano, and garlic powder. If you like Indian feel free to use curry powder. Mediteranian use corriender, and turmeic. You could also use one or two of the flavor packets if you’d like.
Once the Ramen are cooked (usually about a 3 minute boil) drain well.
Coat the bottom of the skillet in a thin layer of olive oil and bring to a med/med high heat. Toss the cooked ramen in the oil to coat, and then stir in the spice mixture from the step above.
Once the spices are incorporated into the noodles slowly pour the egg mixture into the noodles mixing and tossing constantly. The eggs will coat the noodles and make a sort of thick sauce as they heat. The starchy water stirred into the eggs will keep them from cooking in too much of a scrambled egg mass.
Serve in a past a bowl and eat, or garnish with scallion, parmesian, baon, whatever you’d like.
The Skagit Valley Herald has written up a great article on the Ramen Rater, Hans Lienesch. If you haven’t seen Hans’ site, you should definitely check it out. I cannot write reviews very well, and Hans has over 600 reviews so he has the experience.
This article did leave me with one question, how come nobody ever sent me socks?
NPR has a story about the dangers of instant ramen, which can cause serious burns and ER visits.
These soups are dangerous because of the way the cups are designed. The cups are tall, lightweight, and have an unstable base that makes them tip over easily. At Garner’s unit, the most common cases are small children, often toddlers, accidentally tipping the cup over on to themselves.
“It pulls down on top of them,” Garner says. “The hot liquid then burns their chest, arms, torso, sometimes their privates, occasionally their legs.” He says there’s no other injury that he sees as regularly that can be so directly attributed to a product’s design, and calls these soups “uniquely troublesome.”
Anytime you have a cup of boiling hot water it’s going to be dangerous, so I want to know what kind of moron gives this to a toddler. When I make noodles for my kid, I drain them first and I’d advise you all to do the same.
What else is interesting in this article that it links to a NIH study about this and about how manufacturers can reduce the risk of the cup tipping over by making the base of the container wider. There’s also an interesting chart of what angles different cups tip over, so if you are going to give these to your kid, you may want to look there.
The comments responding to this post are full of hidden jail gems for recipes. The one I just found was for Orange Chicken, similar to this Orange Chicken in jail recipe but not the same. I’m leaving the original formatting since it makes for a better read. Note that this could also be called Grape Chicken, a recipe you won’t find anywhere else.
Submitted by: Chris
Submitted from: LA County Jail, Los Angeles, CA
One of the best things I used to make in prison was orange chicken. You will need pork cracklins, the big ones from the commisary not from the packages, a lot of jelly, onion, jalepeno, and hot sauce. Boil water in a hot pot, if you are in county, use hot sink water. Put all of the pork cracklins in a plastic bag and add water, let sit for several minutes. Once the cracklins are soft drain the water and then put the cracklins in a bowl. Add a lot of grape jelly and mix up. Break a state razor and cut up the onion and jalepeno very finely. Mix everything together. Then cook some instant rice or ramen and put the mix on top. It was one of my favorites you can also add a little bit of chopped up oranges to it.
Tonight I opened the crown jewel of my box o’ ramen from Orderramen.com, NongShim Shin Ramyun Black. NongShim released NonShim Shin Ramyun Black, a gourmet style ramen, to celebrate their 25th anniversary of Shin ramyun and I think that they really hit the mark with it. It has two soup base packets and a pack of dehydrated vegetables and beef. As I cooked it, I could immediately smell the garlic and spice coming from the pan. It cooked for about 5 minutes (4-5 minutes are recommended) until the noodles were soft but still chewy. When it was done, the broth was orange which promised a good spice and not at all thin or watery. The flavor lived up to the aromas. The ramen had a good spice that left a little burn on your tongue. I could also really taste the beef and garlic. Overall the flavor was perfect for a cold fall night. The dehydrated vegetables and beef were good and I’m pretty sure I saw a couple large slices of garlic in there too. The best part is that this ramen really fills you up, I am totally stuffed. I think this is because this ramen pack is larger than your standard size and the noodles are not as thin.
Now this ramen is gourmet, and so it costs a bit more than your average ramen, but in my opinion, it’s worth it. This ramen is the 1%.
I took a few pictures of the bowl, but my camera mangled the colors so I’m not posting them. Here is a pre-cook shot:
Hans over at ramenrater has a great review with better pics here.
One of my biggest complaints about most varieties of shrimp ramen is that it is not flavorful enough. Tom in Houston has a solution that’s so obvious, I have no idea why I never thought of it.
Submitted By: Tom
Submitted From: Houston, TX
Cook a packet of shrimp ramen. During the last 30 seconds or so of cooking, drop in 1 cup of small pre-cooked frozen shrimp. Let the soup warm back up for a couple minutes. Drain and serve.
You can pick-up frozen small pre-cooked and pre-cleaned shrimp in the freezer section at pretty much any store.
Nick at Orderramen.com sent me a big box of ramen! Yesterday I was craving some and I was totally out, so this had great timing. I ended up eating the Sapporo Ichiban Shrimp flavor ramen. It was pretty good, but the pan I used was too small and so it didn’t cook right, a rookie mistake. I’d also say that the flavor was very mild, so perhaps this would be better as drained noodles rather than a soup. Over the next few weeks I’ll post some reviews of some of the other ramen that Orderramen.com sells, including a secret one that sounds amazing…
