the ramen blog & other goodies!

A few weeks ago I promised to review Nissin’s new health-conscious instant ramen. According to Nissin:

…eating healthier doesn’t have to feel like a punishment. Choice Ramen is 80% fat free with 25% less sodium than typical instant ramen. How’d we do it? The secret rests in a special air-drying process. It yields a healthier noodle with the delicious taste and texture you’re looking for.

Read the rest of this entry →

We’ve finally gotten around to upgrading the bowels of the ramenramenramen web site, and so far everything seems to be in working order. You, our loyal reader, should really notice no difference. But if something *is* broken and interfering with your reading enjoyment, please let us know. Simply leave a comment below or send us a message by clicking on the “contact” link above in the navigation menu.

In case you missed the previous ramen festival in February, Mitsuwa japanese supermarket is having a Hokkaido Fair, featuring two of the previously featured ramenyas and apparently introducing highly rated Santouka Ramen to the San Jose Store.

Shoyu ramen specialist Asameshi Maeda Honpo will be at the Costa Mesa store from Thursday thru Sunday (9/11 to 9/14) and the New Jersey store next week from Thursday thru Sunday (9/18 to 9/21).

Sumire Ramen will be offering their Miso ramen and Miso Butter Corn ramen at the Torrance store Thursday thru Sunday (9/11 to 9/14), and the Chicago store next Thursday thru Sunday (9/18 to 9/21).

And last, but certainly not least, shio ramen fans can try Santouka ramen at the San Jose store next Thursday thru Sunday (9/18 to 9/21).

Remember to go early, as they tend to sell out of ramen early!

Looking for a quick ramen bedtime story to celebrate the birthday of instant ramen? NPR’s (National Public Radio) All Things Considered has a special commentary on the 50th anniversary of instant ramen by Andy Raskin, author of the forthcoming book THE RAMEN KING AND I (How the Inventor of Instant Noodles Fixed My Love Life).

We recently received this email asking for ramen help.

Meredith wrote:

I hope you can help! My friend has a 16-year-old son who has been diagnosed
with heart failure, he is waiting for a transplant and they expect it will go well. Part of his treatment is that he has to be on a low-sodium diet for the rest of his life. This kid LOVES ramen, he was eating 4 or 5 cups a day at first because the hospital doctors said his sodium was very low. Now it’s normal, and he has to cut back almost entirely. They were willing to give him 1 a week but he’s trying to bargain for more often! I figured I’d help by researching low-sodium ramen. Surely such a thing exists, and I figured you guys would know about it! Is it out there anywhere in the world? I can use Craigslist to recruit somebody to send it to me, wherever it could be found!

Well, Meredith, our hearts go out to your friend and her son! To start with, I was about to post a link to this article, so you’re timing is perfect. The article has tips on how to reduce the sodium in instant ramen. The tip about not using the entire seasoning packet is a quick and easy way to reduce the amount of salt in instant ramen. I’m not sure that “washing” the brick ramen will help much, but “washing” Cup Noodles should help immensely, since the seasoning is already mixed in with the noodles.

I’ve also looked through my pantry, and did some research, and you’re in luck. Nissin has a new Choice Ramen that’s low in fat and sodium. I bought a few packs recently that I haven’t gotten around to review yet, but according to the info on the back, one brick is 2 servings, and each serving has 400mg of sodium (that’s for the beef flavor. The chicken flavor has 480mg). That might still be high for your young friend, but if you cut back on the seasoning packet, that’ll reduce the salt content even more. I bought mine at a local Albertson’s so I imagine they should be pretty easy to find. For something more exotic, it looks likeKorean ramen makers are also getting into the low sodium act.

So now I want to open this up to all our readers. Can anyone else help Meredith out? Are there other low-sodium instant ramen out there? Please post a comment below and help out a worthy ramen fan!

(Also, for anyone who’s concerned about wax in instant ramen (gee, like sodium isn’t bad enough)…don’t worry. It’s a false alarm!)

Mental Floss has some ramen trivia. How much do you know?

Craving ramen in the Bay area? Check out Melanie Wong’s prolific posts on the Bay Area ramen scene

I’m just a sucker for a cute ramen girl.

Speaking of Ramen Girl, meet the “Ramen Boy“.

And to finish off this batch of links…are you ready for the “perfect ramen”? Rameniac gives Ramen Jiro in Tokyo a perfect score! Ramen Tokyo also has an in depth guide.