Boy, do I have a lot of ramen to eat before I catch up…i-ramen has info, quick facts, pictures, and videos on almost 4000 instant ramen in Japan. Unfortunately, it’s entirely in Japanese, but here’s a tip: click on the 2nd tab (next to “home”) on the top, then scroll down and click on the picture of each ramen to see the videos.
“Three Daly City men have been accused of stealing nearly $1.8 million worth of ramen noodles, rubber tires, barbecue grills and other consumer goods…” Yes, you read that right; part of their haul was a 53 foot trailer of ramen!
Anyone who’s ever been to Japan, or anyone’s who’s been following this blog knows that ramen is more than the 100-packs-for-10-cents food most people think of. Even so, the connection between instant ramen and starving college students is probably permanently seared into everybody’s minds. With the country in/about to enter a recession, and with everything from gas to –ahem– ramen going up in price, people are understandably concerned about saving money and being frugal. As the American economy slowly sinks, I have no doubt you’ll starting seeing more and more references to people “eating ramen to save money” in the news. Ah…if only my car ran on cheap ramen!
With that crafty segue, I’d like to introduce writer extraordinaire Xin Lu at Wisebread.com, a web site devoted to “living large on a small budget.” Xin Lu was kind enough to interview me and call me a “folk hero to ramen lovers everywhere”?! Blush…maybe, maybe not. But if you do want tips on how to manage your personal finances and save money, check them out!
(Disclosure: I’m very sleepy, so if this review comes across as a bit loopy…well…you’ve been warned.)
The-wife-is-away-so-I’m-eating-ramen-all-week week continues with this special ramen. It’s got “PH adjustment” and “antioxidant”! Really! Scroll down and look at the label for yourself! Oh, It looks like the tonkotsu ramen I had a few days ago also had antioxidant (yes, it’s also singular). Who says instant ramen isn’t healthy?
I don’t know why you readers voted for us to show nutritional info on the ramen we review. I think I was happier not knowing what I was eating.
I was excited when I opened this bowl ramen…it came with four packets of accoutrements! Somehow, my expectations go up with every packet I see in my instant ramen. Oh, and ginger gets its own packet…yay…(I don’t like ginger, which always makes my wife roll her eyes and ask “are you really Asian?”). On the plus side, the soup powder has a very strong pork smell that reminds me of Chinese “pork sung,” which, according to wikipedia, is also known as “pork floss.” That sure sounds appetizing.
The noodles were decent, with a nice hard texture, and had a hint of instant-noodleness to them. The toppings gave the ramen good flavor, and the tonkotsu soup was rich and well-balanced. Being negi ramen, there were lots and lots of green onions, which suits me just fine. The strange thing was, while the soup had good flavor, you could barely smell it, which was especially surprising after the strong smell of the soup powder.
Overall, this was a slightly above average ramen. If you like green onions, it’s hard to go wrong with negi ramen. Marutai’s negi ramen gets a 7.
If you have an iPhone (lucky!) and you have firmware version 1.1.3 or up (lucky!), you can now add the ramen blog to your home screen (lucky!) for quick & easy one-touch access to your favorite source for all things ramen (lucky lucky!).
Agh!! Get it off of me! Getitoffofme! — oh, sorry… Ahem…this is the kind of instant noodles that gives people nightmares. In the interest of saying something useful besides just warning people from this travesty, I find it interesting that, even though technically ramen “started” from China, then evolved into the Japanese version we’re all familiar with today, I’ve yet to find any Chinese instant ramen that tastes nearly as good as the Japanese version. Sure, there are plenty of great Chinese noodle dishes, and plenty of really good instant Chinese noodles, but forget trying to find a good Chinese version of the Japanese version of Chinese noodles. If any of that didn’t make sense, blame this ramen.
The crowning achievement of this bowl ramen is the noodles, which are slightly thin, very reminiscent of Chinese instant noodles, and thoroughly mediocre. The toppings include corn, tiny pieces of sour, soggy bamboo, seaweed, and some unidentifiable mystery veggie bits.
The soup seasoning contains salt, MSG, and soy sauce powder, and the garnish includes sugar and caramel. Yes, the label says the garnish contains sugar and caramel. And for what it’s worth, the soup stock is chicken, not pork. So what does this concoction taste like? Have you ever had vinegar ramen? Really? Ok, no, there’s no such thing. I just made it up. But even if there were such a thing as vinegar ramen, I’m pretty sure the soup would taste better than this vile sour and vinegary witch’s brew. King Car gets a 3. The only reason it doesn’t get a 1 is because I think I could imagine eating this again if I was literally starving to death. Well…maybe…
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I’m glad to hear their Noodles were only slightly overcooked when you...
