Best Ramen

[Pomai]

Re: Best Ramen

Packaged fresh ramen over dry is usually my ramen of choice in the supermarket, but I decided to try this dry type that's been available at Marukai and Daiei (DQ) for quite a while now..


Myojo Chukazanmai Japanese Noodles with Soup Base, Soy Sauce Flavor - $1.59 (membership sale price).

The usual flavors were available, including Soy Sauce (my choice), Tonkotsu and Miso.

The single-serving contents include...


Dry wheat-based ramen noodles, dry seasoning base (left) and liquid soup base.

To result in a bowl of Shoyu Ramen...



The broth has good depth, but the dry seasoning has way too much MSG in it. The liquid soup base has soy sauce, sesame and other oils, which I think is the saving grace here. Thankfully the Sesame Oil wasn't overpowering, but just suttle enough to savor.

Ramen is never complete with just broth and noodles, therefore I jazzed it up with my mandatory sliced Chashu (Japanese "roast" pork), Menma Ajitsuke (shoyu/sugar marinated bamboo shoots) and green onion. The sum of its parts another saving grace.

As a whole, this bowl of Ramen was pretty darned good. Shoot, almost worthy of being served in a shop. Tone down on the MSG by scaling back on that dry packet and the broth will be just right.

I'm looking for Scallop extract/powder (included in the soup base above), which from what I've been told is a "secret ingredient" to great Ramen broth. Does anyone know where and how it's sold? Japanese name? I tried Google but nothin' specific showed up.

[D'Alani]

Re: Best Ramen

I'm looking for Scallop extract/powder (included in the soup base above), which from what I've been told is a "secret ingredient" to great Ramen broth. Does anyone know where and how it's sold? Japanese name? I tried Google but nothin' specific showed up.

Try "Googling" powdered scallop extract, or go to www.nikkenfoods.com/seafood.htm

[Pomai]

Re: Best Ramen

News of the day is that Momofuku Ando, inventor of the Instant Ramen Noodle and founder of Nissin Foods, has died at 96 of a heart attack.

Inventor of Instant Noodles Dies at 96

I'll have a Cup Noodle for lunch today in honor of him.

[pzarquon]

Re: Best Ramen

A friend e-mailed me the write-up in today's New York Times:

Mr. Noodle

Momofuku Ando, who died in Ikeda, near Osaka, at 96, was looking for cheap, decent food for the working class when he invented ramen noodles all by himself in 1958. His product — fried, dried and sold in little plastic-wrapped bricks or foam cups — turned the company he founded, Nissin Foods, into a global giant. According to the company’s Web site, instant ramen satisfies more than 100 million people a day. Aggregate servings of the company’s signature brand, Cup Noodles, reached 25 billion worldwide in 2006.

Arigato gozaimasu, Ando-san!

[cynsaligia]

Re: Best Ramen

I like going to Taishoken, that place is really good.

http://onokinegrindz.typepad.com/ono...taishoken.html

they do tsukemen and ramen, and their gyoza are really good.

i (cyn) prefer taishoken, closely followed by kyoto ramen in mccully shopping center. eric prefers the same, but in the opposite order. i think i like that the soup at taishoken seems somehow thicker and heartier. eric likes the more subtle flavors of kyoto ramen.

for saimin, i will always always always have a soft spot in my heart and an empty spot in my belly for the simplicity of palace saimin on king street in kalihi. when ono for saimin, eric will drag me to shiro's in waimalu, but it's not as if i protest.

as for the instant stuff--the old school, cheap, wanna eat something super fast and i doan care what it is will reach for the top ramen. granted, after i eat it, i am immediately filled with regret and have the need to flood myself with water in response to all the sodium and msg. then i swear never to eat top ramen again...but then i'll find myself buying a pack or two six months later when i see it on sale at foodland.

but, there's this stuff in a bowl from japan that i get maybe once a year from daiei (well, it was daiei then). the packaging was a reddish orange and black, i think.

[Miulang]

Re: Best Ramen

An ode to ramen and its inventor, the recently departed Mr. Ando (includes a recipe and a sneak preview of a new movie starring Brittany Murphy called "The Ramen Girl" ).

Miulang

[kdramafan]

Re: Best Ramen

I prefer Korean Ramen (Shin Ramen) the hot & spicy and the kimchee flavor.