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Greetings and Happy Holidays. Most of you HAZ-ites will be feasting on all manner of holiday foods.
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 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”.

(This guy claims to have written the definitive Book of Ramen.)

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

Ramen with iguana.

Montezumawell, Thanks for posting that website. It's a wealth of good recipes and ideas. Ramen is a decent starting point that can really fly when it's jacked up a couple of notches. As Emeril would say, "BAM"! At home I like to add frozen seafood to it such as shrimp, scallops or seafood mix. Great stuff!

I like Ramen - really I do...but I discovered one thing interesting about it while spending time in Brazil - rats and mice won't eat it. Seriously. The'd down stuff that didn't even resemble food anymore, but the ramen was always left untouched, even in open bags.

Not sure what that says about human cuisine.

Isnt that stuff fried when they manufacture it and isnt it extremely fattning?

I mean I like it too and all, but actually stopped eating it when I noticed the fat content was pretty high. Being all old and everything, I have to be concerned about stuff like that

Cakewalk wrote:Isnt that stuff fried when they manufacture it and isnt it extremely fattning?

I mean I like it too and all, but actually stopped eating it when I noticed the fat content was pretty high. Being all old and everything, I have to be concerned about stuff like that

You can get non fried kind of ramen at Whole Foods ( Tempe and I think there is another Paradise Valley Location). They are pretty good and quite low in fat. Ramen are a good standby especially in situations where you have access to water they can be made into quite tasty stuff ( comapred to dehydrated foods) and are quite cheap too!

desertgirl wrote: You can get non fried kind of ramen at Whole Foods ( Tempe and I think there is another Paradise Valley Location).

Yep, there's a new Whole Foods at the northwest corner of Tatum and Shea.

Cook some ramen

Agreed. However, my apt has now been taken over by "the evil dead" now i'm pretty sure. It's going to take me sometime to clean up after the party this wkend.

RAMEN RULES!

Need we say more?

j

Haha, good point. It rules, and it's pretty cheap!

In response to HikerInGilbert's reply:

I read the first few recipes. They didn't seem bad at all. Sounds better than Spam!!! :pois:

Thanks for sharing.

Sherileeaz

When stationed in Korea I learned some really good ramen recipe's. Over there in the Army when you go out the field, the ladies, and no not that type, the little old cooking ladies brought Ramien and Coke to the frozen Korean tundra. Take a hot bowl of ramen and add any number of military MRE components and BAM got a meal. Or course i am dating myself a little bit since MREs have come a little ways since i was using them.

my favorite was add to one bowl of ramen the following:
1-MRE Pork or Beef Patty (optional but added heartiness)
1-Cheese Packet (still available but with options for cheese choices now)

Kind of makes a hearty mac and cheese soup, adjust water to your own liking and some green chile salsa in a packet...very comforting when cold.

With some of the newer MRE entree's i think the chicken salsa would be a good combination, I know MRE entrees get heavy but one or two entrees mixed into some lightweight bland stuff during the hike is a nice easy treat.

I was looking over past threads getting some ideas for an upcomming trip to Havasu. Seems a lot of the recipes on that page have ingredients not suited for backpacking.

Bryan

Ramen, chunk tuna and Franks louisiana hot sauce ;)

Gag me with a stick!

Guest wrote:Ramen, chunk tuna and Franks louisiana hot sauce ;)

Oooh! That sounds good!

I prefer easy mac, tuna, and Louisiana Hot Sauce (Louisiana brand, not Frank's).

I like my ramen plain, except for maybe some cheese. This thread resurfacing reminds me of montezumawell and some of the other folks I miss around here.

azpride wrote:I prefer easy mac, tuna, and Louisiana Hot Sauce (Louisiana brand, not Frank's).

Yum! That's a winner in my book! Very filling when you're on a long backpacking trip.