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JongnoGuru
Joined: 25 May 2004
Location: peeing on your doorstep
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 Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2004 11:50 am Post subject: |
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| Gord wrote: |
| I never heard of it being called "ramen" until a week ago, and I thought the person had originally made a typing mistake. |
Really? ��Top Ramen�� – the best-selling Japanese brand – has been lining the shelves of supermarkets (and the stomachs of poor or Asian exchange students) in the West for decades now. As early as the 1970s in the U.S., according to American friends.
| chronicpride wrote: |
| We all eat it. When we are broke or even when we have money. �� I love it dry. I love it wet. I'll eat it on a plane, I'll eat it on a train. |
I get a ��ramyon attack�� myself once in a while, but seriously man, that��s just sad�� 
| chronicpride wrote: |
| Try it dry and eat it out of the bag. It makes for a great, spicy snack. |
 ..... Okay, my turn to display vast ignorance on the culinary delights of instant noodles. You honestly eat it dry?? I��m sure it can be done, but�� I saw reports on survivors of that recent North Korean train explosion. They��d received ramyon donated by the South, but they lacked water or the means of boiling water, and thus had to eat it ��as is��. TV news even ran footage of scruffy-faced peasant children munching on it straight out of the sack. I guarantee you, the unanimous reaction of the Koreans around me was one big collective ��GASP!��
So, first question: Assuming that you don��t have to, why are you eating it raw? Well, I suppose you��ll say it just tastes good that way, but still�� Personally, I think I��d have to be close to starving before the idea would even occur to me. And remember, I quite like some of the brands, too.
As Koreans themselves will tell you, ramyon (even when cooked as instructed!) is the low man on the junk-food totem pole. Sure, millions of them eat it regularly, but I doubt there��s a single one who honestly believes there��s any real nutritional value that isn��t canceled out by the unhealthy ingredients (esp. low-grade oils used in making the noodles). It��s basically just substance and taste, which can be okay as far as snacks go (meaning the less the better), the net effect probably being neutral to slightly bad for the body. Certainly not so bad that I��d ever stop eating ramyon all together.
I don��t want to come off as preachy. (How could I even dare? I��d be the biggest hypocrite going. I��ve had more ramyon than any man has ever seen!) But what concerns me is what harm you could be doing to yourself by eating it uncooked�� So, what happens exactly? The noodles & vegetable & meat bits – do they just kinda rehydrate and reconstitute in your stomach after a while?  And how about the spicy-hot spice packet? Do you just tilt your head back, open wide and ��bombs away!��? I��m curious! 
The Guru
Last edited by JongnoGuru on Sun Jul 04, 2004 6:05 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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wylde
Joined: 14 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2004 12:49 pm Post subject: |
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| eamo wrote: |
| I thought the English word was 'Noodles'. No one in the UK or Ireland call it 'Ramen'. |
include australia in that list also... |
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The Man known as The Man
Joined: 29 Mar 2003
Location: 3 cheers for Ted Haggard oh yeah!
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| Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2004 2:24 pm Post subject: |
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| eamo wrote: |
That's the one for me!!! |
That's the winner, but given that I eat toast and peanut butter for breakfast most mornings, and pasta, I stay away from ramen on the whole, because I don't want to be part of the waddling fatass mafia |
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Tiberious aka Sparkles
Joined: 23 Jan 2003
Location: I'm one cool cat!
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| Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2004 5:46 pm Post subject: |
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Korea sucks for ramen. There's just not the variety that they have in Japan.
Curry cheese ramen. That, my friends, is the absolute shiznit.
Sparkles*_* |
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dogbert
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Location: Killbox 90210
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| Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2004 5:51 pm Post subject: |
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| JongnoGuru wrote: |
| Gord wrote: |
| I never heard of it being called "ramen" until a week ago, and I thought the person had originally made a typing mistake. |
Really? ��Top Ramen�� – the best-selling Japanese brand – has been lining the shelves of supermarkets (and the stomachs of poor or Asian exchange students) in the West for decades now. As early as the 1970s in the U.S., according to American friends. |
That's right. This was heavily advertised on U.S. television in the 1970s and can still be bought for around a dime in some places. |
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Pyongshin Sangja
Joined: 20 Apr 2003
Location: I love baby!
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| Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2004 10:43 pm Post subject: |
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| In Vancouver we call it Ichiban, after the Sapporo Ichiban brand name. It's just packaged as "Instant Noodles" if you buy the generic stuff. |
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ladyandthetramp
Joined: 21 Nov 2003
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| Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 3:44 am Post subject: |
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My vote goes to this one as well. Of course, as a vegetarian it's one of the only ones I can actually eat, so my choices are limited.
My first three weeks here I ate nothing but this stuff. I lost 7 kilos, and I was already quite thin. Don't follow my lead!
Lately, I've been trying the ���ڸ� (potato noodles), and they're a nice alternative once you get sick of the style of ramen shown above. |
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JongnoGuru
Joined: 25 May 2004
Location: peeing on your doorstep
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| Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 6:37 am Post subject: |
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| ladyandthetramp wrote: |
My vote goes to this one as well. |
Okay, I've danced around this topic long enough. I might've gone along with y'all and cast my vote for Shin Ramyon. That is, had I not come close to OD-ing on the stuff a few years back, when it was the hands-down fave of my then-GF. We chugged many a bowl of the ol' Shin as a late-night snack, especially after... um... well, anyway, it was a late-night snack.
Thing is, I can't look at those taped-together bundles of discounted Shin Ramyon in the stores without thinking of that girl, and as I'm now with another ... Well, I've convinced myself that it's good but overrated, and so what about the heat? You can get other spicy brands, or even better -- buy a jar of real red pepper powder, just toss some on any ramyon. and save your stomach lining from the chemically processed crap in Shin.
My taste tends to run to the hum-drum, "yep, that's ramyon" varieties. So,
The Guru likes:
Samyang, in the bright orange bag
Jin Ramyon, both hot & mild
Snack-Myon, for a cheap, thin-noodle break from the heavier standard portions, ideal when working/studying till 2 a.m.
Ansung T'angmyon, a big favourite. It's the one with the raccoon on it (But it's NOT that fat, blobby, pudgy "Noguri" fat-noodle-butted, blobby, crappy, blecchhh!, nasty "Noguri" blobbulous, rounded, pudgy-assed, fat....)
Nearly all of the varoius kimchee ramyon ones that every company puts out.
The cold ones (bibim-naengmyon, maemul-naengymon, etc.) though, truth be told, if the GF wasn't up for boiling/rinsing/cooling/icing the noodles, I'd probably never eat these. Just too much fuss for a snack in my book.
The Guru ahbors:
-- basically all the seafoody ones (which I secretly crave, oh, maybe 1 bowl out of 20, and then go right back to damning them to hell again)
-- the "new-age" alternative-ingredient ones (potato noodles, rice noodles, etc.). God, these things are so hit-and-miss. It's like they're selling us prototypes from the Product Development Lab before they've worked out all the defects.
First Problem: With regular ramyon, it's "Cook for 3-4 minutes... ah heck, you be the judge." With these alternative-noodle ones, you've got to hover over the damn pot with a stopwatch, ferchrissakes... "Cook for precisely 3 minutes, 23.5 seconds -- not one nanosecond over or under, or your noodles will turn out rubbery or mushy. Ready... Steady... COOK!"
Second Problem: They're marketed as a "healthy alternative" to regular ramyon. "Hellloo? This is junk food. No one's eating it to get healthy." Word to the ramyon makers: Stop playing mad noodle scientist, and stop using customers as your laboratory monkeys. Jeez, just do like every other business in Korea, from food to medicine to financial products to laundry soap: Slap a "well-being" sticker on a package of regular ramyon and be done with it. Guaranteed higher sales WITHOUT all the costly R&D mucking-about.
-- Jjajang Myon. (need I say more?)
-- all the ersatz/funky/fusion flavoured ones. Jjapaghetti? Or the best (worst), Ketchup Ramyon! "Yessiree, moms! The little ones'll be home on time and screaming for seconds when you serve up a piping hot bowl of KETCHUP Ramyon!" Okay, kimchee or beef or seafood... those I can understand... but ketchup? That's just too freaky.
Reminds me of the little bakery in the lunch cafeteria at my old job, which sold sandwiches that consisted of Ham, Tomato, Onions, Lettuce, Sweet gherkins (blechh!), Mayonnaise and Bread. Of course, these were billed on the wrappers & menu board as "LETTUCE Sandwichee!" Mmm -- nummy! Can't get enough of them LETTUCE sandwiches!!! (Who are they aiming these at? Rabbits? It's like calling a hotdog a "Mustard Sandwich")
Thanks to OP for this opporunity to rant.
There.
Rant completed.
The Guru |
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Yangkho
Joined: 22 Sep 2003
Location: Honam
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| Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 7:20 am Post subject: |
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"Ramen" is in all standard/up-to-date American English dictionaries.
Look up ramyeon in a Korean dictionary (http://kr.kordic.yahoo.com/). Yes, it's from Japanese, just like our word.
IMHO, the king of ramen is the "king": wangddukeong! ...but Shin is really good, too. |
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