Ramen Noodles

[Brodirt]

Hey...just this evening I had fair success with my first shot at Udon. I did chicken tempura on the side and made the Udon in a dashi base with shiitake mushrooms, broccoli, carrot, baby corn and lotus. I topped it off with an egg, just like the above.

As an aside...the best use of additional cracked egg I ever had was on a pizza I had last summer in Italy. It was a mixed meat pie and just before it finished the cook pulled it from the oven, cracked the egg in the center, and put it back in for few seconds. Just enough to cook the white and set the yolk. When served the yolk was still soft and running. Yummy.

 

[thunderball]

That looks delicious!

Wonder what kind of meat that is. Is that noori at the back of the bowl?

Chinatown in Boston has a bunch of wonderful noodle soup restaurants. Usually Vietnamese I thought. I haven't been there in about 10 years. For all I know they reverted it back to the Combat Zone!

The meat is pork from the south of Japan (Kyuushu). Very soft, just melts in your mouth. And yep, that's nori stuck in there too (and a boiled egg!).

 

[BigFish]

I never had Ramen noodles. Not even when I was in college.

 

[Dubbya]

I love Ramen. We had several different ways to prepare them in our freshman dorms.


Ah Burritos.

 

[OldSaw]

The meat is pork from the south of Japan (Kyuushu). Very soft, just melts in your mouth. And yep, that's nori stuck in there too (and a boiled egg!).

For those of us stuck in the Midwest, the packaged ones are about the best we can muster. I did however, get the ones that weren't printed in English as the primary language. I think they were better than the Maruchan Ramen noodles.

 

[OldSaw]

I also found this link to the Official Ramen Homepage. That bacon ramen recipe should go in the bacon thread.

 

[Dubbya]

Are you guys talking about that instant crap stuff? That ain't ramen....

This is ramen:

MMMMMMMMM

Nori, pork, and an egg with noodles.

I bet there's even real butter and fresh stock in the soup.

Edit: I just saw that you're in Osaka. That's kind of cheating. The closest that I can get is the little noodle house near the asian market here. It's pretty good but, much like all ethnic cuisine, it's never as good as a first generation, new to the country(better yet, go to their country to eat) cook will make.

 

[thunderball]

Edit: I just saw that you're in Osaka. That's kind of cheating.

True, being in Japan does afford one certain ramen-ical advantages. You also mentioned the stock: this type of ramen is called 'tonkotsu' which basically means 'pig cartilage/bones' and it's made by boiling huge pots of pork bones for hours on end....mmmmmmm, pork bones...

 

[Lynchmeister]

For those of us stuck in the Midwest, the packaged ones are about the best we can muster. I did however, get the ones that weren't printed in English as the primary language. I think they were better than the Maruchan Ramen noodles.

Agreed, for the most part that us Midwesterners miss out on a lot of the cool stuff.

I just realized, though, that I've been sitting on an untapped resource. Yes, I live in Wisconsin, but I'm so close to Minnesota that you'd never know it. News, TV ads, etc. are all Minnesota oriented--anyway, I digress. My point is that Minneapolis/St. Paul and the surrounding suburbs have a large Hmong population and there are restaurants all over the place. In fact, several of my coworkers are Hmong coming from Vietnamese, Laotian, and Chinese backgrounds. I'm thinking they know where the good stuff is at.

 

[knlgskr]

Never needed them, know how to cook. Whole grain pastas, breads, brown rice for my taste are better and I ate/eat them; ditto for college. Ate/eat out very seldom; take pride in being able to cook/bake about anything we want to eat. Most pre-packaged/prepared seems not to be worth the money, time, effort.

 

[urr-lord]

my wife likes them a good bit.to me they are okay,i usually end up adding ground meat,dried onion,crushed red pepper etc.

 

[TstebinsB]

Never needed them, know how to cook. Whole grain pastas, breads, brown rice for my taste are better and I ate/eat them; ditto for college. Ate/eat out very seldom; take pride in being able to cook/bake about anything we want to eat. Most pre-packaged/prepared seems not to be worth the money, time, effort.

+1

Nothing beats the ability to cook and/or bake.

 

[OldSaw]

Agreed, for the most part that us Midwesterners miss out on a lot of the cool stuff.

I just realized, though, that I've been sitting on an untapped resource. Yes, I live in Wisconsin, but I'm so close to Minnesota that you'd never know it. News, TV ads, etc. are all Minnesota oriented--anyway, I digress. My point is that Minneapolis/St. Paul and the surrounding suburbs have a large Hmong population and there are restaurants all over the place. In fact, several of my coworkers are Hmong coming from Vietnamese, Laotian, and Chinese backgrounds. I'm thinking they know where the good stuff is at.

Just take a drive down University between St. Paul and the U of M Twin Cities. Talk about a diverse mix. So let me know if you find a good place and I will take my wife and step daughter there for lunch, they both love these things.

 

[CriticalMass]

You also mentioned the stock: this type of ramen is called 'tonkotsu' which basically means 'pig cartilage/bones' and it's made by boiling huge pots of pork bones for hours on end....mmmmmmm, pork bones...

Stock from actual animal bones and not from a cube, packet, or jar??? Who'd have thunk it? Can't possibly taste better.

I made some homemade ramen after seeing this video on a simplified, non-instant version. It's by Mark Bittman who is on TV and the NY Times website. Just had to pick up some chinese egg noodles at the asian market. Never occurred to me to put the whole egg in without scrambling and frying it first.

 

[Walter Sobchak]

I don't eat them anymore, alas.

My best friend in college was from Korea. He showed me things I could do with a basic package of Ramen noodles that could blow my mind. Usually it involved using very little to none of the flavor packet that comes in the package.

Two of my economical favorites:

You can toss out the sodium packet and make a tasty egg-drop noodle soup with an egg (obviously), a dab of miso, and a handful of spices or squirt of sriracha...toss in a couple of mushrooms and some kimchee on the side if you're feeling rich.

You can use a few splashes of the hot water, a small portion of the flavor pack, some chili-sesame oil, an egg, and some fresh peapods to make a fantastic stir-fried ramen. I found this comes out better if you make two packages at the same time. Otherwise it's easy to overdo the egg and peapods and be left with too few noodles in the dish.

There were other, much more elaborate ventures that often included pork, squid, black beans, kohlrabi, kimchee etc. But they were mostly out of my price range at the time.

 

[OldSaw]

I don't eat them anymore, alas.

My best friend in college was from Korea. He showed me things I could do with a basic package of Ramen noodles that could blow my mind. Usually it involved using very little to none of the flavor packet that comes in the package.

Two of my economical favorites:

You can toss out the sodium packet and make a tasty egg-drop noodle soup with an egg (obviously), a dab of miso, and a handful of spices or squirt of sriracha...toss in a couple of mushrooms and some kimchee on the side if you're feeling rich.

You can use a few splashes of the hot water, a small portion of the flavor pack, some chili-sesame oil, an egg, and some fresh peapods to make a fantastic stir-fried ramen. I found this comes out better if you make two packages at the same time. Otherwise it's easy to overdo the egg and peapods and be left with too few noodles in the dish.

There were other, much more elaborate ventures that often included pork, squid, black beans, kohlrabi, kimchee etc. But they were mostly out of my price range at the time.

Thanks for the tips. I just made some with sesame oil and the egg drop method. It was not a bad lunch.

 

[thunder54]

Funny hearing how everyone ate these in college. I actually went to culinary school and became a chef so I never had to worry about eating in school. I was working for a hotel chain when I decided to make a lifestyle change. Went on a mission with my church for 2 years and would eat ramen almost everyday. Of course I could doctor these up with the best bad things. All my companions loved having me around. The best was the Spam, egg, velveeta cheese, and ramen concoction I would make at least once a week. Reading all this made me go down and make some ramen and I put brisket and velveeta with some BBQ sauce. My wife just loves when I get creative.

 

[pal]

Funny hearing how everyone ate these in college. I actually went to culinary school and became a chef so I never had to worry about eating in school. I was working for a hotel chain when I decided to make a lifestyle change. Went on a mission with my church for 2 years and would eat ramen almost everyday. Of course I could doctor these up with the best bad things. All my companions loved having me around. The best was the Spam, egg, velveeta cheese, and ramen concoction I would make at least once a week. Reading all this made me go down and make some ramen and I put brisket and velveeta with some BBQ sauce. My wife just loves when I get creative.

Good Idea!

 

[Hemlock]

Not sure what to select. I ate them a lot in college. I actually used to enjoy them, but can't seem to eat them any more. Every once in a while I see them on sale and buy some, but after eating one package the rest just stay in the cupboard for ages.

 

[Blackstangal]

Not in college,But I think they are tasty!!