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Statistics |
| Unique Visitors: 0 |
| Total Unique Visitors: 0 |
| Visitors Out: 1019 |
| Total Visitors Out: 1019 |
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| “mankind is noodlekind” |
| 2008-08-26 00:16:08 |
Looking for a quick ramen bedtime story to celebrate the birthday of instant ramen? NPR’s (National Public Radio) All Things Considered has a special commentary on the 50th anniversary of instant ramen by Andy Raskin, author of the forthcoming book THE RAMEN KING AND I (How the Inventor of Instant Noodles Fixed My Love Life).
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| low sodium ramen |
| 2008-08-25 23:48:34 |
We recently received this email asking for ramen help.
Meredith wrote:
I hope you can help! My friend has a 16-year-old son who has been diagnosed
with heart failure, he is waiting for a transplant and they expect it will go well. Part of his treatment is that he has to be on a low-sodium diet for the rest of his life. This kid LOVES ramen, he was eating 4 or 5 cups a day at first because the hospital doctors said his sodium was very low. Now it’s normal, and he has to cut back almost entirely. They were willing to give him 1 a week but he’s trying to bargain for more often! I figured I’d help by researching low-sodium ramen. Surely such a thing exists, and I figured you guys would know about it! Is it out there anywhere in the world? I can use Craigslist to recruit somebody to send it to me, wherever it could be found!
Well, Meredith, our hearts go out to your friend and her son! To start with, I was about to post a link to this article, so you’re timin...
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| instant ramen birthday links |
| 2008-08-25 20:11:24 |
Mental Floss has some ramen trivia. How much do you know?
Craving ramen in the Bay area? Check out Melanie Wong’s prolific posts on the Bay Area ramen scene
I’m just a sucker for a cute ramen girl.
Speaking of Ramen Girl, meet the “Ramen Boy“.
And to finish off this batch of links…are you ready for the “perfect ramen”? Rameniac gives Ramen Jiro in Tokyo a perfect score! Ramen Tokyo also has an in depth guide.
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Tags: bay area ramen, ramen tidbits, Tokyo ramen
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| happy 50th birthday, chicken ramen! |
| 2008-08-25 19:47:12 |
Chikin Ramen (and yes, that is the correct “Japanese” spelling) went on sale today, 50 years ago, in 1958. Chikin Ramen was the brainchild of Momofuku Ando, inventor of instant ramen and founder of Nissin Foods (maker of Cup Noodles). A moment of inspiration struck when Ando-san watched people lining up to buy black-market ramen during food shortages after World War II and he set out to create a food that would be easily accessible to everyone. After months of development, he sucessfully created and marketed Chikin Ramen, the world’s first “instant ramen.” Momofuku Ando, who passed away at the ripe old age of 96 last year in January, believed that “Peace will come to the world when the people have enough to eat.” Mr. Ando claimed to have eaten Chikin Ramen almost every day.
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Tags: nissin, ramen news
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| ramen rating: marutai goma shoyu stick ramen |
| 2008-08-13 00:16:18 |
A few months ago, I tried and reviewed Marutai’s shoyu tonkotsu stick ramen. The next day, I tried this goma shoyu version. No, you didn’t wander into a time warp. This is simply laziness at work. On to the review!
Like the shoyu tonkotsu version, this stick ramen comes with a packet of soup base and a packet of seasoning and green onion bits. Again, the instructions call for 2-1/2 minutes cooking time. I thought I could outsmart the instructions by cooking the noodles for just 2 minutes, but I wasn’t very successful: these stick noodles were also soggy and not nearly al-dente enough.
The soup also wasn’t impressive. Unlike the shoyu tonotsu, which had a distinct sesame smell to the soup, the goma shoyu (that’s sesame shoyu) does not have a noticeable sesame smell. And while I pointed out that the shoyu tonkotsu version tasted like Chinese sesame noodles, the goma shoyu (again, that’s sesame shoyu) soup had a generic quality that basically reminded...
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| recession and instant ramen - a poll |
| 2008-08-11 00:50:28 |
While economists still debate about whether or not we’re in a recession, the White House claims that we’ve avoided a recession (yay! if it’s coming from the White House, it must be true!). Regardless of who you believe, things are tough all over and most, if not all of you have probably had to make some sacrifices. How are you getting by? Take the poll and tell us what you think in the comments below.
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.
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| ramen rating: cup noodles premium beef tomato |
| 2008-08-10 23:36:22 |
Cup Noodles’ new distinct black and white package caught my eye on a recent grocery expedition…whoa…Cup Noodles Premium?! Beef Tomato flavor!? Maruchan Tomato Ramen fans just might have a reason to rejoice. I couldn’t wait to try this!
Fancy packaging aside, the “Premium” label apparently refers to the generous amount of toppings in each cup. The beef bits, carrot bits, cabbage bits, green onions, corn, green bean, and of course, tomato bits covered the surface of the noodles. The noodles were also covered with a reddish powder, probably the tomato flavoring.
I boiled some water and poured it in. Three minutes later, a veritable Cup Noodles feast awaited me.
The tomato flavoring, though light, added a nice tanginess to the beefy soup. There was also a hint of parsley in the soup. Otherwise the red-orangish noodles tasted the same as the “non-premium” Cup Noodles noodles. Frankly, besides the tomato and parsley flavors and the abundanc...
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| mean ramen |
| 2008-08-09 00:10:30 |
Click on to see the rest of the pictures in this series…
via What The Asian?
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| lucky 080808 ramen links |
| 2008-08-08 23:59:20 |
Love ramen? Check! Wanna be on TV? Check! Live in NYC? Doh! If you’re a ramen fan in New York, Nippon TV wants to interview you!
Instant ramen prices have already gone up in China and Korea. Japanese companies are getting ready for another round of price increase.
Ever seen flaming ramen? You might have to go to Kyoto.
If you’re a student in the Boulder Valley school district in Colorado, you might want to start BYOR (Bringing Your Own Ramen). They’re removing instant ramen from the school lunch menu.
Did you know you could make “hooch” with an instant ramen cup?
Another ramenya has opened in Vancouver, Canada. Motomachi Shokudo Ramen’s cold shoyu ramen sure looks good!
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Tags: ramen news, ramen tidbits, vancouver ramen
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| links for a lazy sunday |
| 2008-08-03 01:26:36 |
Feeling a bit hungry after that bowl of instant ramen? Maybe it’s because there’s a bit less ramen in that bowl.
Even gourmet chefs like ramen. Here’s a gourmet ramen recipe from 20 year veteran chef chefRob.
If sumo champions recommend a ramenya, it’s gotta be good, right? Sumo great Konishiki and yokozuna (grand champion) Musashimaru both rave about Tenkaippin Ramen in Kapahulu, Hawaii.
Ma Ru Yu’s kurogama (black sesame) ramen: what lurks beneath its murky surface? No less than three brave souls weigh in on this ramen’s darkest (get it? get it?) secrets.
If black sesame ramen isn’t special enough for you, you can make your own buttermilk ramen!
If anyone’s in China for the Olympics next week and finds that special someone, remember to take them out for ice cream, not ramen. Ramen was rated the least popular place to take a date. Least?! Whaa–?!? (Oops, sorry folks, I’ve had this link since March and i...
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| the ramen girl trailer |
| 2008-07-23 22:44:42 |
It’s been over two years since we reported on the Ramen Girl, a movie about an American woman (Brittany Murphy) stranded in Japan, who ends up learning how to make ramen. Even though it’s starting to look like the movie might go straight to dvd, this new trailer doesn’t look half bad, thanks to Toshiyuki Nishida. What do you think?
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.
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| ramen review: ramen in can |
| 2008-07-21 20:14:57 |
Some things are meant to be in a can, while others…maybe not so much. I’ve been looking forward to trying “ramen in a can” since I first heard about it last year, and thanks to fellow ramen blogger Keizo, who was nice enough to share his loot from his trip to Tokyo, I had my chance. (And yes, I should’ve finished writing this review months ago. I suck!)
Now, the ramen in canned ramen isn’t like the noodles you’re familiar with. Canned ramen is actually made of konjac, aka konnyaku, aka “devil’s tongue”. Konjac is a tuber and belongs to the yam family. It’s usually made into a flour or jelly for use in a variety of dishes and has a chewy texture, like a firm jello. The reason the noodles are made of konjac is to prevent them from becoming soggy. Can you imaging eating ramen noodles which have been soaking in soup for days or weeks? Mush city.
This particular canned ramen has a tonkotsu soup base, and while the picture ...
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| ramen rating: ganso nagahamaya tonkotsu |
| 2008-07-20 23:52:47 |
This ramen advertises that it takes only 90 seconds to make! Just imagine…if you eat this ramen every day for a year, you can save…multiply…divide…divide again…a whopping 9 hours a year! (Compared to the typical 180 seconds (3 mins) that other bowl ramen need.)
If that’s not enough to get you excited, what about the four packets of ramen accoutrements included in the bowl: there’s the obligatory soup pack, a packet of dry toppings, sesame seeds, and beni shoga.
Ok, in all seriousness, a 90 second cooking time and 4 packets of accourtrements isn’t exactly newsworthy. But what this instant ramen has going for it is:
1. Its over 50 year-old pedigree. Nagahamaya is a ramenya hailing from…well, Nagahama, a region in Fukuoka, birthplace of hakata ramen. It’s been in existence since 1954, so they must be doing something right.
2. The soup. Wow, the soup! It’s thick! It’s rich! It’s bold! The soup, which is oily i...
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| ramen roundup |
| 2008-07-18 14:29:59 |
Recent ramen reviews and tidbits:
There’ve been a lot of reviews and news about Ippudo in New York City. Walking-ixus goes one step further and gives a behind-the-scenes look.
Join a “local girl” as she goes to Yotteko-Ya Ramen/Kyoto Ramen in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Have you ever wanted to combine ramen and sushi? Now, you can!
AsianWeek goes to Katana-Ya in upscale Nob Hill in San Francisco.
Is Kintaro the best ramen in Vancouver? Read Eat, Snap, Repeat for the details.
Everyone’s so focused on Ippudo in NYC. What about Ramen Setagawa?
Even the Associated Press knows that “Ramen noodles are hotter than ever”. Read what they, and AP darling Rameniac has to say about our favorite food!
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Tags: bay area ramen, hawaii ramen, NY ramen, ramen tidbits, recipes, vancouver ramen
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| ramen rating: q-cup kyushu garlic |
| 2008-07-13 20:41:29 |
The made-in-Taiwan Q-cup ramen is a “Kyushu garlic” flavor (read tonkotsu and garlic) and features pig-faced naruto. I’ve always been a sucker for instant ramen with “piggy naruto”, though I never could figure out the relationship between pigs and naruto, but I digress.
The bowl ramen is barely half the size of most other bowl ramen, and is for anyone looking for a quick, light snack. Toppings are typical: corn, bits of carrots, cabbage, and green onions. And, oh, I think I found one small corn-kernel-sized piece of meat. The meat actually has a distinct pork flavor to it, unlike a lot of the “mystery meat” slices you get with some of the cheaper bowl ramen, and it tasted like an itsy-bitsy piece of salted hard ham.
The noodles were typical instant ramen noodles, not the thinner noodles you’d expect with “Kyushu” ramen. They were a bit bland, and even though I accidently cooked them a bit longer than you’re supposed ...
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| happy 4th of july |
| 2008-07-04 17:30:19 |
From all of us at ramen ramen ramen, have a safe and sane 4th of July!
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| ramen rating: honda ya |
| 2008-06-28 01:28:10 |
Years of disappointing experiences have taught me that I shouldn’t order ramen from restaurants that aren’t ramenyas. Too many places have ramen on their menu only as an afterthought, and ramen aficionados like me end up being bitterly disappointed by the ramen I ordered and my eating companions point and laugh at me and make me the butt of their jokes for the rest of the evening and refuse to share their food and–ahem…sorry…got a bit carried away there. Where was I? Oh yes…you would think I would’ve learned better. But thanks to some friendly recommendations, not only did I order ramen from a restaurant that specialized in other foods, I decided to go to Honda Ya for the sole purpose of trying their ramen.
Even though Honda Ya has a beguiling “Honda Ramen” sign outside (in Japanese), it’s actually an izakaya, a casual Japanese restaurant meant for drinking, socializing, and snacking. Izakayas are similar to Spanish tapas ba...
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| current ramen trends |
| 2008-06-22 19:32:19 |
Food manufacturer Kinrei teamed up with Japan’s Sunday Mainichi Weekly magazine to research and produce Hakodate Flavor Salt Ramen, a packaged cold ramen reflective of ramen in the Hakodate region in Hokkaido. The Hakodate ramen uses local ingredients such as water from Hokkaido and salt from nearby Okhotsk Sea. The magazine wrote about the entire process in this week’s issue.
Another food manufacturer, Nangatanien, is taking a different approach by targeting cold sensitive women with their line of Cold Proof cup noodles. The main “cold-proofing” ingredient? Ginger. Available in Hot and Sour Ginger, Sesame Ginger, Ginger Coconut Curry, and Ginger Pork flavors, all under 125 calories for the weight-conscious.
Finally, Tomato Ramen fans can rejoice (at least if you’re in Japan). Visitors to Ichikai, a small town in the Ichigi Prefecture known for producing lush, succulent Tomatos, can take home packages of tomato ramen, udon, and yaki soba, developed by t...
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| ramen rating: maruyu |
| 2008-06-11 00:52:14 |
Located across from a power station and nestled in a tiny plaza with really only a Donut Star and a bunch of small businesses as neighbors, Ma Ru Yu is in the running for worst location for a new ramenya.
The restaurant is homey, with simple decorations and cutesy hand-made signs on the walls to announce special items not on the menu. There’s a great hole-in-the-wall vibe, yet the place is very clean. The two waitresses there were both very friendly and efficient. The menu touts that there are ingredients flown in fresh from Japan and that they don’t use MSG. Hmm…I actually like MSG…I ended up ordering a shoyu ramen and an order of gyoza and hoped for the best. The food took a while even though the place wasn’t very crowded.
I was underwhelmed by the way the ramen looked: really curly noodles that reminded me of instant ramen, half a marinated egg, some green onions, chashu, and a submerged piece of naruto. My obligatory first sip of soup changed my fir...
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| hanjuku egg recipe |
| 2008-05-31 21:36:11 |
By popular request (yeah, here at ramen hq, we consider one request to be popular), we decided to delve into the world of real cooking and experimented with making hanjuku eggs. After some research, trial and error, and mixing and matching of different recipes, we believe we’re off to a good start.
To prepare the marinade, mix 1 cup of water with 1/3 cup of shoyu (3 parts water to 1 part shoyu). Bring the mixture to a boil in a pot or just zap it in the microwave. Once it starts to boil, mix in 4 teaspoons of brown sugar until it completely dissolves. Set it aside and be sure to allow some time to let it cool off.
One of the keys to a good hanjuku egg is to properly soft-boil the egg. First, bring 4 cups of water to a boil, then add 1 cup of cold water to cool the boiling water (keep the fire going though). This step is essential for preventing cracked eggs (believe us!). Gently put the eggs in the pot and boil for 7 to 7-1/2 minutes. Be sure to slowly stir the eggs ocassionall...
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| world’s smallest ramen bowl |
| 2008-05-29 16:02:02 |
So we all know what a big bowl of ramen looks like. What about a microscopic bowl? An engineering professor and his students at the University of Tokyo have created the world’s smallest bowl of ramen, complete with (unedible) “noodles” that are only 1/12,5000th of an inch long and 1/1.25 millionth of an inch thick. Compare that with a human hair, which is on average, only 4/1000th of an inch thick.
The ramen bowl was created “for fun” using carbon nanotubes, which are microscopic tube shaped pieces of carbon. No word on what kind of soup base was used, and unfortunately, it doesn’t come with any toppings or chashu. As soon as we come across a nice microscopic plate of gyoza to go along with the ramen, you’ll be the first to know!
Thanks to tamade38 for the heads up!
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| ramen rating: marutai stick ramen |
| 2008-05-28 22:52:29 |
There are numerous kinds of instant ramen, from the ubiquitous brick ramen, to cup and bowl ramen. A less common type of instant ramen is “stick ramen.” Unlike the other kinds of instant ramen, stick ramen noodles are packaged straight, like a package of spaghetti. As with other kinds of instant ramen, stick ramen comes with packs of soup base and seasoning.
This stick ramen has a shoyu tonkotsu base and the seasoning packet comes with a handful of sesame seeds and dried green onions. The soup has a heavy sesame smell, and is lightly flavored. There barely a shoyu flavor and not much tonkotsu. The flavors are entirely overwhelmed by sesame.
The instructions call for cooking the noodles for 2-1/2 mins, which is much too long. The soggy noodles are too slippery and not absorbent enough. Instead of working together, there’s too much of a contrast between the taste of the noodles and the soup.
Even though this tonkotsu-shoyu stick ramen ends up tasting like Chinese sesam...
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| ramen rating: hakata ramen tonkotsu |
| 2008-05-26 21:42:25 |
With packaging reminiscent of something out of a science fiction setting, this is one of the neatest forms of ramen packaging I’ve come across. Goramen’s Keizo was nice enough to share his spoils from the Yokohama Ramen Museum, and I expected quite a treat.
I spent some time opening the ramen cube and taking pictures. Hidden within two almost-secret compartments were two bags of noodles, myriad packs of toppings, and the biggest packet of soup base I’ve ever seen.
The tonkotsu soup base covered the bottom of my bowl, and had a light, fragrant pork smell. I cooked the first batch of noodles (the second batch is for kaedama, a second serving of noodles meant to be added to your leftover soup). The first sip of soup was satisfyingly hot. I had expected the soup to be much more flavorful because of the large dollop of soup base, but it was surprisingly light. It was oily and thick, but didn’t have a very strong tonkotsu flavor. It was good, but seemed a bit more...
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| ramen rating: kujiraken shinasoba ramen |
| 2008-05-17 23:59:36 |
Have any of you ever woken up in the morning and thought: hmm…it’s going to be 99 degrees today…what a great day for a nice steaming hot bowl of ramen! Since Mitsuwa Supermarket decided to hold their Gourmet Food Fair on the hottest weekend of the month, I found myself in the awkward position of doing just that and convincing my wife that I wasn’t already suffering from heat stroke! The wife and I went early to beat the heat, only to find an already packed parking lot and an already packed food court. We eagerly ordered the Kujiraken Shinasoba ramen (there’s only one choice) and circled the busy food court a few times before we were able to find some seats.
The piping hot ramen was ready about 5 minutes later. Yes, this was probably the hottest bowl of ramen I’ve ever had. If there was ever a time I wanted a more lukewarm bowl, today would’ve been it.
I sipped the shoyu based soup and found it to be surprisingly strong and potent. Kujiraken i...
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| mitsuwa umaimono gourmet fair |
| 2008-05-11 20:44:35 |
Hot on the trails of their last ramen festival, Japanese supermarket chain Mitsuwa Marketplace is holding a Umaimono Gourmet Food Fair (roughly translated as “yummy stuff” food fair), complete with two very different types of ramen along with other “gourmet foods.”
For the ramen lovers, you get your choice of “scary” (scary?!) shark fin ramen from Tokyo’s Chibakiya, present at the ramen festival, and shina soba from Kanagawa’s Kujiraken Honten (”Love for the noodles, and soul for the soup.”)
For everyone else, there’s beef tongue from Sendai, takoyaki from Osaka, and various sweet potato snacks.
Chibakiya: available 5/15 (Thu) - 5/18 (Sun) at the Torrance, CA Mitsuwa, and 5/22 (Thu) - 5/25 (Sun) at the New Jersey Mitsuwa
Kujiraken: available 5/15 (Thu) - 5/18 (Sun) at the Costa Mesa, CA Mitsuwa, and 5/22 (Thu) - 5/25 (Sun) at the San Jose, CA Mitsuwa
Via goramen.com
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| brick ramen nutrition |
| 2008-04-27 19:00:32 |
Those of you that visit our humble site regularly know that I don’t particularly care about the nutritional value of the food I slurp down my gullet. But lately, after starting to post the nutritional information of the instant ramen we review, I’ve started paying just a bit more attention to what’s on the label. While nobody will likely argue that instant ramen, especially instant brick ramen, is especially nutritious, I’m not sure how many people have noticed that the “Nutrition Facts” on these things is…well…I don’t want to make any unfound accusations, but has anyone in the history of instant ramen ever eaten only one-third of a pack of ramen and considered that “one serving”?
I’m not sure if all brick ramen use the same way of showing nutritional info, but a cursory glance at all the ramen in ramen HQ’s cupboards showed the same thing: that the instant ramen industry considers one pack of instant ramen ...
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| ramen rating: sapporo ichiban |
| 2008-04-27 18:19:37 |
Quick, describe the taste of chicken to someone who’s never had chicken before…having trouble?
Just as chicken seems to be one of the lowest common denominators in food flavors, so is the “instant ramen-ness” of Sapporo Ichiban’s original flavor. The “original” flavor doesn’t belong to the typical ramen flavor groups: it’s not shoyu, not tonkotsu, not shio, not miso. There is a slight miso-ness to the soup base flavor, but it’s barely discernable underneath the barrage of onion-ness, white pepper-ness, MSG-ness, and the plain original-ness of Sapporo Ichiban’s popular instant ramen. The curly instant brick noodles with a good chewy texture and the non-descript tangy aftertaste rounds out Sapporo Ichiban’s Original flavor experience. Ramen purists will turn up their noses at this instant ramen, but to a whole generation of college students and anyone who’s ever been on a tight food budget, this is a decent, a...
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| ramen news exclusive: new cup noodles flavor |
| 2008-04-01 03:09:36 |
Ramenramenramen has learned that Nissin is introducing a limited edition Cup Noodles to select markets across the U.S. The new flavor, called simply “MSG flavor,” was created in response to the overwhelming popularity of MSG flavoring. “You have no idea how many letters we receive from ramen fans asking for ‘more MSG’,” said a spokesperson for Nissin. “Some of the more (ahem) extreme fans even questioned why we had so many flavors. ‘Don’t even bother diluting the MSG with beef, chicken, shrimp, or any of those other weird flavors. Just give us the good stuff!’ Being the kind of company that listens to our customers, we came up with Cup Noodles MSG flavor!”
Food technicians at Nissin have spent the last several weeks tweaking and perfecting the final product. Recent focus groups have given an unanimous thumbs-up to the new flavor. “I drank 5 gallons of water after I ate just one Cup Noodles MSG flavor!” excla...
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| ramen rating: santouka, take 2 |
| 2008-03-30 17:09:37 |
More than one person has taken me to task for not trying the tokusen toroniku (choice fatty pork) ramen at Santouka. Interestingly, not one of my friends think Santouka is very good. But then again, none of them have tried the toroniku either. So finally, I convinced two other ramen-loving (well, ramen-enjoying anyway) friends to go to Santouka and splurge on a toroniku free-for-all.
Coincidentally, we all decided to order different flavors of ramen. I stuck with the shio ramen, while the rest of my motley crew opted for the shoyu and miso flavors. When we got our ramen, everyone wondered about the separate toppings: unlike the “regular” ramen at Santouka, the toroniku ramen comes with all the toppings on the side. I can understand why the pork is separate (more on this later), but why the other toppings? (And one pet peeve: what is the deal with Santouka and those tiny plastic teaspoons? Are they ashamed of their soup? Do they not want their customers to slurp away ha...
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| ramen preview: daikokuya costa mesa |
| 2008-03-29 19:19:25 |
Rumor had it that Daikokuya was opening in “the OC” in the beginning of March. I happily went there two weeks ago only to find a Daikokuya sign and an empty store. Darn. Finally, after asking around, I found out that the official grand opening was set for “some time in April” (this was from two different Daikokuya employees, but neither could give me a firm date) and that the owner was currently in Japan buying decorations. The good news though? The location is already up and running and open for business!
The ramen shop does look a bit unfinished, with no real signage or posters; there’s only a little hand-written blackboard menu on the counter. The only items on the menu (so far?) are the Daikokuya ramen, a shredded pork bowl (a rice bowl with shredded pork), and the gyoza.
I was handed a restaurant pager (those flat ashtray-sized pagers that fancy restaurants hand out) after I ordered. About 5 minutes later, the fancy-restaurant pager buzzed and flas...
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| ramen rating: togoshi ramen |
| 2008-03-23 22:05:46 |
Off the Vegas Strip, away from the 99-cent shrimp cocktails, the iron chef restaurants, the all-you-can-eat buffets, things become a bit quieter and less boisterous. Drive a few miles away, and you’ll come across a quiet strip mall that could just as well be located in Anytown, USA. This is the kind of deserted strip mall that makes you feel like you might get mugged if you’re there after the sun goes down. In this unassuming strip mall, you’ll find an interesting mix of an Ethiopian restaurant, a kosher restaurant, a bagel shop (Harrie’s Baglemania…it’s damn good!), and–a ramenya?! Score!
Togoshi Ramen was surprisingly large, with blank white walls covered with hand-made signs. I was pleased by the down-to-earth, homey atmosphere, the jpop playing in the background, and the fact that the signs were all in Japanese. What worried me a little was the fact that it was around noon, and we were the only people there.
I ordered a shoyu ramen, and...
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| ippudo. ramen king |
| 2008-03-23 20:54:14 |
I don’t normally shill for ramenyas that haven’t opened yet, especially one that I haven’t tried first hand, but in this case, I’ll make an exception.
Shigemi Kawahara, “Ramen King”, will be opening the first American outpost of his famous Ippudo in New York City at the end of the month. Kawahara-san gained fame by taking 1st place in televised ramen battles 3 years in a row, and then won the title of “Ramen King” in a TV competition in 2005. Ippudo was first opened in Hakata in 1985, and has grown to 34 locations throughout Japan.
Big in Japan has a recent review of Ippudo’s hakata ramen in japan while the Feisty Foodie and Eater report on last Tuesday’s sneak preview.
Hakata Ippudo NY
65 Fourth Avenue
New York, NY
212-388-0088
via gridskipper and rameniac
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Tags: hakata, NY ramen, ramen news, tonkotsu
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| ramen rating: kohryu ramen, take 2 |
| 2008-03-23 19:16:48 |
Kohryu Restaurant has gone through not only a change in ownership but a complete remodel since my last review. After their grand re-opening in January, I thought I’d give them another try. We arrived in time for a late lunch, hoping there’d be less people…wait, why are all these people huddled outside (it was really cold that day). We ended up waiting for 45 mins…45 mins!?! (Apparently, my idea of having a nice hot bowl of ramen on a windy cold day wasn’t quite as inspired as I hoped.) My expectations soared as my stomach growled even louder.
When we were finally seated, I was eager to order the special-order paiko ramen. Alas, not only do they not serve paiko ramen any more, but I didn’t even see paiko-don on the menu. Still determined to try something new, I ordered the “new” Koi (”love”) ramen. (Hmm…I dug out an old pre-ownership-change menu from over a year ago and noticed that Koi ramen is still there, under the &...
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| i heart ramen links |
| 2008-03-18 22:36:19 |
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!
Would you buy a “ramen spoon”? What if it was designed by moma?
Since corn prices are sky-high, farmers are coping by giving cows cheaper feed such as instant ramen. Hmm…I’ve got three words…ramen. flavored. steak.
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| how much ramen can you eat? |
| 2008-03-16 18:17:40 |
I can’t believe the size of that bowl. It’s like watching the ramen eat that Japanese girl!
(If you’re reading this through an rss reader, you’ll need to click through to vote on the poll.)
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.
via ramenstudents.com
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| ramen and four dollar gas |
| 2008-03-15 01:59:28 |
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”?...
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| ramen rating: marutai negi ramen |
| 2008-03-15 01:21:48 |
(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 ...
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| get ramen on your iphone! |
| 2008-03-13 01:35:57 |
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!).
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| ramen rating: king car shoyu |
| 2008-03-13 00:23:12 |
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 unident...
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| korea in ramen news |
| 2008-03-12 01:19:47 |
Korea seems to be having a lot of problems with ramen recently. On one hand, Korea Beat is reporting that some Korean schools are banning ramen in the fight against childhood obesity and malnutrition. But then again, the Chosun Ilbo Korean newspaper reported that people are panic-buying ramen in bulk because of rising prices. Just about every food product is suffering from higher prices, and ramen is no exception. Prices for flour and other ingredient have skyrocketed recently.
But still…is it really necessary to stockpile and/or ban instant ramen? What do you think?
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