Found this image of a (quite shady) ラーメン大学、which means Ramen University. I’d be kind of scared to go in there though, do you think it is legit? ^^

Goes nice with my blog’s theme and all, Instant Ramen!

Speaking of which, my Japanese teacher told me that all chefs in Japan need a license in order to become cooks, just wondering if this applies to small ramen shops too. If so, where do they study? Here I guess!

Thanks to Neta

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Can you see anything weird on the picture above? Well, most of us would be caught in the trap I guess — there are ice cubes inside that ramen! Actually, it’s 冷やしラーメン (hiyashi ramen), served chilling cold and literally on the rocks.

Cold ramen originates from the Yamagata prefecture. On summer, ramen stores have a hard time selling hot ramen to customers, and you’re better off eating ice cream like our modern samurai. Well then, someone thought it would be a great idea to serve cold ramen, and the rest is history ^^

It may feel a little beyond your imagination to eat cold noodles, but they taste quite good. In my case, it was a (very) hot summer day and my host family had sōmen (素麺)  — another type of noodles served cold — for lunch. I was initially a little hesitant to eat noodles with ice on them, but my family insisted that I would feel refreshed. Not only was it true, but the noodles tasted great, and I became an instant cold noodle lover.

Would you give cold ramen a try?

Photo by: Higetiger.

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Last time I wrote about the most common way of making instant ramen: boiling water, pouring it, done. However, you may have noticed that cooking your ramen this way will leave them a little uncooked and without much flavor. Actually, I almost never cook ramen this way, but instead use my special instant ramen noodles microwave formula ^^; I even took pictures of my ramen!

By the way, the ramen above is the cheapest brand that I could find, since it’s not too spicy and perfect for the newbie. Last time I tried those noodles they didn’t taste bad at all, and for a meager US 50 cents / ¥50  equivalent nothing bad can happen I suppose. Here’s another brand that I had that’s more spicy and costs a bit more:

Oh, and in case you didn’t know, Instant Ramen is a multi-billion dollar industry. Anyway, let’s get started! You’ll need:

• Instant Ramen ^^
• Microwave oven
• Microwave-safe container (compatible with XP or Mac), preferrably with a lid

Step One: Open the Ramen!

Step one is pretty straightforward, open the ramen and add the spices. Remember that some brands (specially Korean ones) contain too much spice and I would recommend adding half the package if you’ve never tried a particular brand before.

Don’t add too much water, just enough to cover about half of the noodles. The noodles will loosen up after the first microwaving, so there’s no need to cover them completely.

Step Two: Microwave!

The key to good microwave ramen depends on how much water you add and how much you microwave it. First, microwave the ramen for about two minutes on high:

熱いから気をつけて！(Be careful! Hot! ^^)

Now take them out.  The ramen should be loose by now, with a little brown cooked aspect, but not too much. Grab your chopsticks (you do have one set don’t you?) and stir the noodles.

Now microwave the noodles for two more minutes. Preferably use a partial lid, but be advised that it will spill all over your microwave. Quickly clean the mess since it will stick to the surface real fast ^^

The ramen is now much more cooked and light-brown. Again, stir the noodles. Give them a try, and you’ll see that the noodles have absorbed lots of water and flavor. If you like them this way go ahead and eat them, but I personally prefer them even more cooked. They taste great so I recommend two more minutes on the microwave.

The instant ramen should be deliciously cooked by now. Stir them once more and you’ll see that much of the water has been absorbed, and the noodles are thouroughly cooked. It’s hot so give it a while before eating.

Step Three: Itadakimasu!

いただきま～す！ (Photo: Mun Keat Looi)

Let’s dig in! Don’t forget that Ramen tastes better with chopsticks, and as I said before, better practice and master them in the privacy of your home and then brag about your technique to your friends ^^ not my case since I’ve been eating with chopsticks since I was born though. Anyway, my serving was not too great but still enjoyed it (for 50 cents that is). My final technique is using the wok, which really is another dimension of instant ramen, I’ll try doing that soon enough, so don’t forget to subscribe to Instant Ramen via RSS or email ^^!

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There are a few ways to prepare or cook instant ramen. As a Seasoned Gourmet Instant Ramen Chef ™ (SGIRC), my favorite way is firing up the Wok in high temperature, adding water in small amounts and letting the Ramen absorb as much flavor and water as possible. However, when it’s late at night and you don’t feel like cooking, I present you the ultimate way to prepare instant ramen the lazy way.

NOTE: I’m writing an article on everything you need to know about Instant Ramen on Squidoo! (Feedback here or there is appreciated!)

“Ingredients” Checklist

First thing to do is go to the nearest convinience store and buy Ramen. I personally prefer Asian over Western Ramen, so just buying anything with Chinese, Japanese, or Korean letters will do. Don’t forget that Korean ramen can get a little spicy. Speaking of which, Shin Ramyun (辛拉麵) is one of my favorite brands, definitely recommended for its spicy flavor. You’ll need a pot and a stove too, to boil water, and a heat-resistant cup if the ramen doesn’t come in one. Oh, and don’t forget your chopsticks!

If you’re looking for good ramen, buy Shin Ramyun, the one with the big 辛! (Photo: James Kim)

Step One: Preparing the Ramen

First step is to boil water. You only need about one cup, but you can use the rest of the water to make some green tea. Now open up the Ramen, it usually contains one to three small packets for seasoning. Add the spices, oil, but be careful about the spicy one. If it’s your first time with a particular brand I would suggest adding half of it, since making it too spicy will definitely ruin your serving if it’s too much for you.

Step Two: Pour the water

Okay, step two is very simple. When the water boils, pour about one cup of water or until the ramen is completely covered, and maybe a bit more. Close the lid or cover the bowl with a towel. The plastic/styrofoam cups are resistant to heat so don’t worry about it. Now if you wait 5 to 10 minutes…

Step Three: Open, WAIT, itadakimasu!

Open the cup et voila, the ramen is ready to eat! Be careful though, the ramen is still very hot, and the soup will most likely burn your tongue, so either (im)patiently wait for it to chill a bit, or slurp the noodles and pray that you won’t get burned. You know what they say, play with ramen and you’ll get burned.

DON’T: Drink Coke with your ramen! (Photo: Jess Lander)

I’m not a particular fan of slurping noodles or anything, though I’m used to people doing it in front of my face. Anyway, if you have never done it before, the picture above depicts well what you ought to do, maybe a little more energetic and noisy. The only thing that I wouldn’t do is drinking Coke with your ramen, it makes the spicy feeling a lot worse, trust me. Other than that (and the CASH ONLY sign) the picture is lovely. Don’t forget to use chopsticks so that you can practice in the privacy of your home and don’t get laughed at the next time you go to a Japanese restaurant.

Hope you liked the lazy man’s guide to preparing ramen. Actually cooking the ramen makes it taste a lot better and I’ll be writing an article about how to do so soon. If you liked this article, don’t forget to subscribe to our content, it’s free!

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Say you’re hungry , it’s late at night and you don’t feel like cooking anything. If you walk to the closest convenience store, you’ll probably find some instant ramen. Ranging from $0.1 to $5, depending on where you are, you’ll find that ramen is cheap, very easy to prepare, and fills your stomach just nice.

Have you ever stopped to think of ramen as a growing and prosperous industry? Well, what you ate last night contributes to one of the 85 billion servings of instant noodles consumed every year (yes, you read it right). That’s about 13 servings a year for every human being living on Earth. But of course, not everyone eats the same amount of ramen, right?

Instant Ramen Demand (by country)

Fortunately, information about ramen production is available, and I came up with this little chart:

Source: International Ramen Manufacturers Association

As expected, China consumes about 50% of all the ramen in the world. I expected Japan to be on the second place, but Indonesia (with somewhat less than two times the population of Japan) has a distant second place.

More fun facts

• Instant noodles are very popular with college students.
• More than 75% of all ramen is consumed in Asia alone. India does not contribute greatly to this percentage though, consuming only 1 ramen serving per capita each year.
• Ramen demand in China doubled from the year 2001 to the year 2005.
• South Korea has one of the highest consumption per capita — about 70 servings per year.
• Modern Instant Ramen was invented in Japan by a Taiwanese-born entrepreneur.
• Ramen can be use as an economic indicator (like the Big Mac index) in many countries of Asia.
• Instant Ramen is available almost anywhere in the world!

Bottom line: Although most of us don’t take ramen very seriously, it is a very strong industry even in the East, with the US, Russia, Brazil, and Mexico among the top 15 consumers. So next time you go shopping, don’t forget to take a serving or two home! What’s your take on ramen, do you contribute to this growing industry?

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