the ramen blog & other goodies!

Ramen lover superlocal sent me this picture of a square cooker apparently designed specifically for instant ramen! What a great idea!

Yoshinoya is acquiring Ichiban Honbu, an Osaka-based ramen chain with 189 stores. Ichiban Honbu is known for their 180-yen (about a buck-fifty!!) “Bikkuri Ramen,” or “surprise ramen.” Hmm…could this mean you’ll soon be able to go to Yoshinoya for a beef bowl *and* and bowl of ramen? Sigh…I can dream, can’t I?

via JCN Network

How would you like a free “instant emergency ramen kit”? The catch? You have to live in Japan.

The Japan Convenience Foods Industry Association is offering these cool kits to 5 lucky winners. The emergency kit consists of instant noodles, water, a portable cooker, utensils, and even a wet towel! What a great idea!

It makes perfect sense: “Considering its convenience and long shelf life, instant ramen can be a perfect stock food for disaster prevention,” according to the association. Sure beats the heck out of some canned foods. And even if you don’t live in Japan, why not roll your own. All you need are a few simple items:
– Five servings of instant ramen noodles
– Three 500-milliliter bottles of mineral water
– A stainless cup
– Solid fuel
– A barbeque lighter
– A pair of chopsticks
– A wet towel

As I was typing this though, I accidently typed “emergency instant ramen kit” instant of “instant emergency ramen kit,” which made me see the idea in a whole new light…this would be a nice “emergency kit” to carry around with you at all times, in case that ramen craving hits you when you least expect it!

via tokyomango

Couldn’t find a darn thing about this contest, but what a cool idea! (And did anyone notice who took the pic? Any Star Trek TNG fans out there?)

This somewhat ordinary looking package hides a somewhat not-so-ordinary nama ramen. The first surprise of this ramen is the lack of individual plastic bags around the noodles. This is certainly the freshest-looking package of ramen I’ve ever seen.

I could almost picture the noodles being made from scratch, packaged, and delivered straight to the store.

After pouring the soup mix into a bowl, I noticed a strong and familiar scent. I inhaled the aroma to get a feel for the flavor and smelled nothing but…sesame oil? I smelled again…yes, slightly burnt sesame oil. Interesting. The soup was a mild and clear with just a hint of msg. It wasn’t very oily, and it also didn’t have a very strong pork flavor. If I didn’t read the package, I’d think the soup was sesame oil based, though the soup base ingredients on the back of the package read simply: soy sauce, vegetable oil, salt, sugar, amino acid & spices. Hmm…no sesame oil, no pork/pork fat/pork bone/pork flavoring/pork anything. I still enjoyed the soup, it just wasn’t really tonkotsu-y.

Onwards to the noodles! The noodles were indeed fresh tasting, and had a slight floury taste. They held the soup flavoring well, and were also pretty fragrant. Unfortunately, they were also very hard, and slightly raw-tasting. The cooking instructions were a bit unusual: instead of the typical “cook for x mins,” it gave a range of 1-1/2 minutes to 2 minutes “depending on your desired firmness.” Don’t believe it. I like my ramen al dente and 1-1/2 minutes made the noodles just barely edible. They were still a bit too hard even at 2 minutes. Your mileage may vary of course, but I recommend starting at 2 mins and working your way up.

Overall, this was just a decent ramen. The noodles looked better than they tasted, and the soup, though good, was slightly unusual with the heavy sesame oil fragrance. This gets a 7 out of 10.

Oh! One last thing. The Miyako nama ramen comes with a packet of desiccant…I think…(they call it an “oxygen absorber”…sounds dangerous). Kids, make sure you don’t accidently mix that into your ramen!

Recently, it seems like a new ramen house opens in New York City every freaking day! Time Out NY calls it a Ramen War. “Ramen war”?! I’d settle for a ramen…um…”disagreement”. I’m not bitter, just jealous…

Ramen, for breakfast? Why the hell not!

In other ramen news:

Grilled ramen, and other crazy ramen recipes! Looks good…getting hungry…

Ramen erasers! Enough said!

I tend to eat my nama ramen plain, to get a true taste of the noodles and soup (that, and I’m lazy). Hawaiian food blogger Pomai takes nama ramen to a whole new level. Follow along, as he turns nama ramen into real ramen, complete with homemade chashu!

There’s a new craze in Japan: all you can carry/fit-in-one-bag foods for one low price. Check out this video of people trying to get their money’s worth at a store featuring all-you-can-stack instant ramen!