This search started with Emmy trying a Korean ramen noodles sent to her by one of her viewers. It's the hottest of them all.
Emmy is so nice. She doesn't pan the product as slimy noodles with a packet of cayenne pepper so the result is one-dimensional and merely hot. Reviewers on Amazon for a similar product by the company are less forgiving. One guy says the level of salt is over double the recommended amount and nearly the maximum for daily consumption.
This product on Amazon has the highest reviews. Never heard of it. Only five reviews but they all swear by it. It's also the most expensive I've seen. I bought it. It's an experiment.
I experimented before with regular American-made ramen. A Maruchan beef flavor.
There's enhancing the packages and then there's replacing everything. Out-noodling the noodles and out-flavoring the flavor packets, and enhancing with real vegetables and real protein. That is, throwing away everything and starting from scratch.
But I'm trying to not be so doggone mental. I mean judge-y. I mean judgmental.
It's a long video. You probably won't be able to stick with the whole thing. I think it's interesting they give the products fair comparisons.
11 comments:
One presumes the Nips don't get high blood pressure.
This comes up in comments over there.
A Japanese traveler said they actually do have high blood pressure and quite a lot of heart disease.
I can increase the flavor intensity easily through a whole array of Asian pantry flavor ingredients. A half teaspoon here, a half teaspoon there, boom, a completely enhanced flavor experience.
Things like grated garlic and ginger
grated bouillon cubes (partial, 1/4 or 1/3 a cupe. Or else stock.
toasted sesame seed oil
soy sauce
sake
fish sauce
sugar
rice vinegar
mirin
dry mushrooms
nori
wakame
kombu
bonito
real fried chicken
real shrimp
real pork
real sausage
real beef
nappa cabbage
kim chi
carrots
Yukon gold potato
onion
fresh mushrooms
green onion
scallion
Am I forgetting anything?
Herbs
cilantro
mint
basil
jalapeno
a whole array of chile powders and chile sauces
egg
fish
bean sprouts
bamboo shoots
water chestnuts
daikon radish
red bell pepper
mango
pineapple
apple
believe it or not, peanut butter
tahini
sesame seeds
Okay, seriously, am I forgetting anything?
duck
octopus
tomato
avocado
Wor Cester Shire Sauce, Sire.
cucumber
celery
cabbage
tuna, why not?
salmon.
crab
fake crab
bacon
See, I don't have to rely on salt.
Too much work
Too much shopping
Too much chopping
Too much arraying
Too much keeping things fresh and up to date
Too much clean up
For what? A burst of flavor?
It's my understanding people who buy and cook ramen are looking for easy--flavor without effort, food without much prep involved.
Add potato if it's too salty.
There was a time that Japan had the highest incidence of hypertension and stroke in the world. I haven't seen any stats lately, but given that they put salt on their salty food which they serve on beds of salt, that is still probably the case.
My BP just went up writing about how much salt they eat.
Visually seeing bags of MSG gives me the creeps, knowing what an ingested sprinkle of it will do to me. Oddly enough, my body started reacting to MSG following a Lower GI series with barium when I was in my 20's. Before that, I was able to eat food enhanced with it with no problems.
As I've said before, creativity with food as a form of expression is one thing. Fun to do if one has the time, money or inclination. It can also serve as a sensory gift others can appreciate. On the other end however, is food fixation, obsession, and addiction. Finding a 1000 ways to fix ramen seems to fall somewhere in the middle while motive is determined.
Am I looking to please and/or entertain myself or others?
Fix something fast?
Add nutrition to a filler or base?
Clean out the reefer?
Use what I have on hand?
I'm ok with all of that as personal determination, what really gets me started are people who perceive themselves as superior, more experienced, and more exposed to greater food delights than those who choose to eat simply or do what works best for them.
I won't go anywhere near ramen these days.
I had some ramen back in the '60s, I think. Was that even a thing then? Maybe it was the '70s. But certainly not since.
There I was thinking you were ahead of the times by twenty years or so, SixtyG and you were actually with the program. After seeing Momofuku, I considered changing my online name! For sure Nomofuku befits my response to ramen and MSG.
In 1958, instant noodles were invented by Momofuku Ando, the Chinese-Japanese founder and chairman of Nissin Foods. Named the greatest Japanese invention of the 20th century in a Japanese poll, instant ramen allowed anyone to make an approximation of this dish simply by adding boiling water.
But it's not approximated by simply adding boiling water.
You have to put the noodles IN the water and boil them just as you do regular noodles.
And then you have to open a package of flavor ingredients.
And sometimes you have to open 2 packages, one for dehydrated vegetables and another for flavor ingredients.
And what do these dehydrated vegetables have over fresh vegetables?
And what does the flavor packages have over the hundreds of other flavor ingredients that you already have?
ANd what do the noodles have over the noodles already in your pantry, or that you can make yourself?
The answer is, nothing and nothing and nothing.
Except a million units of salt.
That's the point that I'm making, Mama, not some other bizarre point you might pull out your butt.
Hardly a bizarre point to pull out of one's butt to note the main draw with Instant Ramen noodles appears to be ease and convenience. No chopping, dicing, can-opening, casting about looking for flavoring agents or rummaging through the veggie drawer. Nope, it's a 3 minute prep time in its most convenient form, with boiling water added directly to the cup.
Yuppers, here it is right off the Instant Noodle website: For more than 45 years, Nissin Cup Noodles® has been warming bellies and putting smiles on faces. The original instant ramen in a cup has reduced the amount of sodium, with no added MSG or artificial flavors. Your favorite quick, easy and portable meal just keeps getting better.
So what do the instant ramen noodles have over the ones you can make yourself? The answer isn't nothing, nothing.
Quick, Easy and Portable are the plusses used to promote the instant noodles and that's what they have over the make it yourself variety, with some of the newer versions now promising no msg and less salt.
Direct from the mouth (or hand?) (or butt???) of Mr Momofuku: "I'm not selling instant noodles. I'm offering customers time"
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