Ramen lovers, unite!

[Isis Sister Of Osiris]

Admit it, sometimes it's ramen you're craving...

My favorite flavor is oriental, when I can find it. Otherwise I usually don't use the seasoning packet unless I'm having ramen-as-soup, because of the salt content (curse you, family history of high blood pressure!). I save most of those for cooking my rice.

Also, in my house "leftovers" means less than a serving of whatever was cooked, so ramen helps to pad those up a bit.

I add any of the following to my ramen noodles, singly or in assorted combinations:

leftover shredded chicken
leftover meatloaf
leftover pasta with sauce
canned tuna or salmon
those teeny-weeny salad shrimp you find in the frozen section
soy sauce
an egg (scrambled, fried, hard boiled, whatever)
two or three spoonfuls of salsa
shredded cheese (Parmesan or any other kind on hand)
cream cheese
a handful of shredded salad from a bag
frozen vegetables
pickle relish
mayonnaise
salad dressing of almost any kind
two or three packets of Taco Bell Verde or Fire Roasted Border Sauce
sliced olives
jalapeño slices or slivers
olive oil
garlic powder
chunky peanut butter
cinnamon sugar
plain yogurt


What do you throw into your ramen, and what's your favorite flavor?  

[GeekWhistle]

My ramen usually doesn't have a flavor packet. I go down to the asian store, buy the appropriate noodles and cook it up on the stove throwing in pieces of random stuff in the house that there isn't enough of to eat on it's own - like left over corn and cabbage. Also left over asian food in general. Like when we make orange chicken there's always some left over so break it up and throw that in there.

Though I do like like cheese yakisoba (yakisoba is kinda like ramen but with flat noodles and it comes packaged with real vegetables and meet instead of veggie meat flavoring). Cheese yakisoba is like the japanese way of doing easy mac. It's amazing.

But usually I just eat stovetop ramen with other stuff in it. 3nodding

By the way ramen tastes real good when you cook it up in soy sauce. Cook the noodles in the soy, dump out any excess soy and then add the other stuff. Otherwise it tastes funny.  

[Isis Sister Of Osiris]

NaniNani073

My ramen usually doesn't have a flavor packet. I go down to the asian store, buy the appropriate noodles and cook it up on the stove throwing in pieces of random stuff in the house that there isn't enough of to eat on it's own - like left over corn and cabbage. Also left over asian food in general. Like when we make orange chicken there's always some left over so break it up and throw that in there.

You're lucky to have an Asian store near you. If my neighborhood was any whiter I'd be living at the freakin' Noth Pole or something... BORING!  

[Masquerade Sweets]

Oh yeah! emotion_brofist

I like the oriental and chicken flavors. Sometimes I put corn in my ramen, and other times I put in ham and/or chicken and eggs.

 

[GeekWhistle]

Gigi Deveraux

NaniNani073

My ramen usually doesn't have a flavor packet. I go down to the asian store, buy the appropriate noodles and cook it up on the stove throwing in pieces of random stuff in the house that there isn't enough of to eat on it's own - like left over corn and cabbage. Also left over asian food in general. Like when we make orange chicken there's always some left over so break it up and throw that in there.

You're lucky to have an Asian store near you. If my neighborhood was any whiter I'd be living at the freakin' Noth Pole or something... BORING!

You don't have an Asian store? Not even one?! I have three Asian stores fairly close to me. There's a small grocery store, a combination gift shop / grocery store, and like an Asian supermarket. The small grocery store's the one I go to the most because the lady there is soo nice once you get to know her. Her brother's a nice guy too, but he hardly speaks English - think "Wait let me get Misan" is about all the English he knows.

I couldn't imagine living somewhere without that kind of thing. I live in a pretty diverse town. There's a hispanic grocery store I like to go to that has the best salsa I've ever eaten. They make it fresh. That whole area is like a little pocket of spanish-speaking peoples, so I go down there to hang out and shop. They like me down there. There's a bunch of other culture groups around here. I can't imagine living somewhere that wasn't so diverse.

But anyways, to get back on topic. That tip for cooking ramen in soy sauce works for prepackaged ramen too. Just cook the noddles in the soy and then stir in the powder before you dump the excess sauce. Tastes pretty good and you can shove basically anything else in it after that. 3nodding  

[Faebella]

When my husband and I had our first house, money was tight.
So for 2 years, Ramen is something we ate a lot of. So I don't eat a whole
lot of it these days.

But when I do, I LOVE the chicken flavored ones.
Or I skip the flavor packet and add butter and garlic salt.

I haven't tried cooking rice with the flavor packet, I might do that
tomorrow actually! My mema (gramma) adds the flavor packets
to her chicken stock when doing chicken soup.  

[TH3_G1ITCH_]

This topic is making me very, VERY hungry.

= w =

Sorry, i've nothing else to contribute. ;^o^

 

[Isis Sister Of Osiris]

NaniNani073

You don't have an Asian store? Not even one?! I have three Asian stores fairly close to me. There's a small grocery store, a combination gift shop / grocery store, and like an Asian supermarket. The small grocery store's the one I go to the most because the lady there is soo nice once you get to know her. Her brother's a nice guy too, but he hardly speaks English - think "Wait let me get Misan" is about all the English he knows.

I couldn't imagine living somewhere without that kind of thing. I live in a pretty diverse town. There's a hispanic grocery store I like to go to that has the best salsa I've ever eaten. They make it fresh. That whole area is like a little pocket of spanish-speaking peoples, so I go down there to hang out and shop. They like me down there. There's a bunch of other culture groups around here. I can't imagine living somewhere that wasn't so diverse.

But anyways, to get back on topic. That tip for cooking ramen in soy sauce works for prepackaged ramen too. Just cook the noddles in the soy and then stir in the powder before you dump the excess sauce. Tastes pretty good and you can shove basically anything else in it after that. 3nodding

That's the kicker! We're Hispanic but my parents are snobs so we live in a "good" neighborhood - which means no stores within walking distance. I don't have my own car so I have to go to the dollar store whenever I can get a ride.

Yes, back on topic... for those that use dried ramen: do you soak your noodles as the whole brick, do you separate it into halves, or do you break them before soaking?  

[Isis Sister Of Osiris]

Faebella

When my husband and I had our first house, money was tight.
So for 2 years, Ramen is something we ate a lot of. So I don't eat a whole
lot of it these days.

But when I do, I LOVE the chicken flavored ones.
Or I skip the flavor packet and add butter and garlic salt.

I haven't tried cooking rice with the flavor packet, I might do that
tomorrow actually! My mema (gramma) adds the flavor packets
to her chicken stock when doing chicken soup.

I do the same when making soup. For the rice, I use one packet to flavor one and a half or two cups of uncooked rice.

The beef packets are also good for seasoning about a pound of ground beef instead of plain salt.  

[Faebella]

Gigi Deveraux

Yes, back on topic... for those that use dried ramen: do you soak your noodles as the whole brick, do you separate it into halves, or do you break them before soaking?

Depends on what I'm soaking in. If in a pot, leave it whole. In a bowl, I break it.  

[GeekWhistle]

Gigi Deveraux

That's the kicker! We're Hispanic but my parents are snobs so we live in a "good" neighborhood - which means no stores within walking distance. I don't have my own car so I have to go to the dollar store whenever I can get a ride.

Yes, back on topic... for those that use dried ramen: do you soak your noodles as the whole brick, do you separate it into halves, or do you break them before soaking?

Oh...wow. We live in a neighborhood where people are either military or foreign, so there's just a lot of different cultural stuff around here. My mom gets a little nervous when I hang out down on the Hispanic side, but I like the people down there, and I've never had any problems. I think my mom just feels uncomfortable about it because her Spanish is terrible and she doesn't understand a lot of what's going on around her. The funny thing is the majority of those people speak English, they just pretend like they don't when people exuding the snotty white-people vibe are about. Of course I'm trying to learn more Spanish, so they don't speak English to me either. Haha.

Anyways, as to your ramen question - When I occasionally use the packaged ramen, I usually soak the brick in a really deep bowl, and then dump out all the extra water. Cause you know - it's ramen, not ramen soup. 3nodding Of course if I happen to be making packaged ramen on a day that I'm really upset about something, I toss the brick in a bowl and attack it with a fork till it's all broken up in tiny pieces. XD  

[Isis Sister Of Osiris]

NaniNani073

Anyways, as to your ramen question - When I occasionally use the packaged ramen, I usually soak the brick in a really deep bowl, and then dump out all the extra water. Cause you know - it's ramen, not ramen soup. 3nodding Of course if I happen to be making packaged ramen on a day that I'm really upset about something, I toss the brick in a bowl and attack it with a fork till it's all broken up in tiny pieces. XD

When i'm mixing it with chunkier stuff I break it up in the packet, then soak and drain it before adding my stuff and eating with a spoon. When the additions are smooth/sauces, I soak the whole brick or separate it into two "leaves" to soak, and use chopsticks.... because, you know, they're fun.  

[GeekWhistle]

Gigi Deveraux

NaniNani073

Anyways, as to your ramen question - When I occasionally use the packaged ramen, I usually soak the brick in a really deep bowl, and then dump out all the extra water. Cause you know - it's ramen, not ramen soup. 3nodding Of course if I happen to be making packaged ramen on a day that I'm really upset about something, I toss the brick in a bowl and attack it with a fork till it's all broken up in tiny pieces. XD

When i'm mixing it with chunkier stuff I break it up in the packet, then soak and drain it before adding my stuff and eating with a spoon. When the additions are smooth/sauces, I soak the whole brick or separate it into two "leaves" to soak, and use chopsticks.... because, you know, they're fun.

Ive never actually eaten ramen with a fork. Ive just attacked it with one when I'm angry, but I've always eaten mine with chopsticks because I was raised not to eat asain food with a fork. And I've the prettiest set of porcelin chopsticks.  

[Isis Sister Of Osiris]

I don't like forks for eating Asian food either, but when I bust the noodles up it's for eating with a spoon.

Oooh, porcelain chopsticks... *envy* I just bought a new set of bamboo ones because someone *GLARES at STOOPID cousin* used the last pair as dowels to fix a chair. -_-  

[The_9th_Doctors_Rose]

No Asian stores to speak of near me either... there is a Hispanic store or two in the next town over bout 45 minutes away... it sucks srsly....


I've never actually tried my Ramen with anything other than the flavoring...I should though it all sounds good...

All my chopsticks have disappeared gonk

Edit: Oh my Goddess.... I just made the ramen with butter and garlic salt you suggested but I added shrimp and used garlic powder instead (sauteed the shrimp in the butter and garlic powder then poured it over the ramen)....I'm in LOVE. emotion_awesome