the ramen blog & other goodies!

I apologize to everyone for having to endure the picture of Bill Gates on the home page for so long, and I guess I deserve this comment…or maybe not. Ahem…

For those of you who celebrate it, Happy Chinese New Year, the year of the rat!

Ok, maybe not. I have no idea. If you’re using Internet Explorer and wondering why there’s a big empty gap where the right sidebar should be, it’s because IE doesn’t like our new web site. To see the right sidebar, you’ll need to scroll alllllll the way down near the bottom of the page. Yes, after months of development and testing, we didn’t ever bother to test the new site in IE. Sorry about that, and we appreciate your patience as we sort out this mess.

Here’s what the web site should look like:

For more information on instant ramen than you can shake a chopstick at, check out the official web site of the Japan Convenience Foods Industry Association.

Some tidbits from the site: did you know…

The worldwide consumption of instant ramen is 91.6 billion meals annually (and that excludes Japan!)

There are almost 1000 brands of instant ramen in Japan alone.

via ampotan

Have you read our review of Cup Noodles Souper Meal Beef Minestrone? If you have, there’s not much more to add. Like the Beef Flavor Minestrone version of the Souper Meal, this shrimp (with tomato and garlic flavor) is basically an over-sized Cup Noodles. The big difference between this flavor and the beef flavor is that the soup on the shrimp flavor tastes more like a mild chicken soup than beef stock. There’s the requisite peas, corn, little carrot pieces, and I think I counted 2 miniature shrimp. There’s not much to make this particular flavor stand out from the other Cup Noodles varieties, and there’s disappointingly little shrimp, tomato, nor garlic flavor.

It’s Cup Noodles. It’s not bad. It’s not great. It gets a 6.

Everyone eats ramen differently. Some people dig right in, mix in all the toppings, and slurp till there’s no tomorrow. Some people eat slowly, delicately sampling each ingredient, one by one (seriously, I know people like this!). According to the classic ramen movie Tampopo, there is a proper way to eat ramem, but I have to admit, I don’t quite follow all the “proper” steps prescribed by the movie.
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Despite the fact that it’s not actually on Sawtelle Blvd, Ramenya is a mainstay of the ramenya-filled area of West L.A. known as “Little Osaka”. The numerous ramenya in the area actually made for a tough decision on which one to review next, but the fact that a ramenya was called “Ramenya” tipped the scale in its favor…that, and the fact that this is probably the most times I’ll ever use the word “ramenya” in one paragraph. Known for generous portions, long lines, and a friendly staff, Ramenya seemed like the perfect place to go for lunch on a cold (yes, mid-60′s is cold for Southern California) winter day.
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