Route Editor
Route Scout
We figured this would be an ideal time to start a new topic on ramen--argubly one of the world's most minimalist foods. In honor of our new topic, we cooked up some 10 cent ramen for Christmas Eve brunch. While we were gorging ourselves on gourmet ramen, Soul Food of The Trail (or is that Sole Food?) we went off to google.com and typed in "ramen recipe." WOW! The very first ramen recipe that pops up is "combat ramen!" We even found a ramen recipe on some website for "white trash food." Our favorite, so far, is BBQ ramen. Ok, here's how it works:
Cook some ramen without the seasoning packet and drain it and let it cool. Then get a bag of BBQ potato chips. Crunch up the chips real good before you open the bag. Then open the bag, pour in the cooked noodles, the seasoning packet and a can of potted beeef and some cheap hot sauce.
Close the bag, shake well and then tear the bag along the seams for a real platter of gourmet delight. Some guy said he got it form some guy who learned it in prison. Figures. Don't tell Sheriff Joe! Well, here's the ramen database:
google "mattfischer ramen"
And here's a short history of ramen:
(This guy claims to have written the definitive Book of Ramen.)This Chinese-style noodle became such a great favorite in Sapporo, the capital of Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido, that it is now considered to be their regional dish. Ramen is to Sapporo what baked beans are to Boston. In other countries, the word for Ramen may be different, too. For example, they are called “Maggi Mee” in Singapore.
The process for turning the traditional Ramen noodles into the now familiar instant, packaged noodles was pioneered by Momofuku Ando, the founder of Nissin Foods in Japan. In 1970, Nissin Foods introduced “Top Ramen” to the United States and, as the saying goes, the rest is history.
Many other companies introduced Top Ramen clones and even such industry giants such as Lipton and Campbell's began to experiment with Ramen-like products. Fierce competition notwithstanding, Nissin still controls slightly less than half of the U.S. Ramen market and fifteen percent of the world Ramen market of about ten billion dollars annually. At this writing, the average wholesale price for a package of Ramen in the U.S. is only twelve and a half cents.
Because of their enthusiastic acceptance in the market place, it wasn't long before instant Ramen skipped over national boundaries and became an international phenomena. Factories that make Ramen noodles can now be found not only in Japan and the U.S., but in Europe, Korea, China, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Each country's Ramen noodles reflect their own particular flavor preferences. Korean Ramen is highly spiced and often contains packets of black bean sauce. China makes Ramen in Szechuan flavors. Thailand makes very thin, delicate noodles with very hotly spiced packets. Japan prefers the flavor of seafood and mild spices. In the U.S. they are usually available with meat flavors, mushroom flavors or mild spices often referred to as “Oriental flavor”.
Well, we thought we had ramen wired up pretty good. But now, before we pack away some ramen for our next hike, it looks like we're going to have to go back to Ramen U. for some post-graduate work.
Naturally, all of this led us to wonder if any of you HAZ-ites might be able to top combat ramen (it uses bourbon and the beer is optional). Hopefully, this post hasn't given anyone a sever case of indigestion. Please post up your most outrageous ramen recipe or ramen story and, in the meantime, enjoy your Holiday Feasting and give thanks you're not eating ramen for the main course!
Happy Holidays!
John and Susun
