I'm hooked on Top Ramen!

[propita]

Hubby works crappy hours, getting home at 9pm when he's not teaching, 10pm when he is. So we don't have dinner together those nights. We bought some Top Ramen and proceeded to get addicted. It's quick, easy, tastes ok, and filling on the short-term. I never really had a lot before, but now I'm having it 4+ times a week, lunch or dinner.

Anyone else hooked on this stuff?

Btw, I'm almost 48 and Hubby's 52. We're not poor kids who can't afford "real" food.

 

[Mr. B]

I was able to skip the stage that would have me crediting my very survival on ramen noodles, but I do keep top ramen in the house... perfectly decent soup.

 

[ManOnTheWave]

I haven't had the stuff in years. Oh, it can be tasty (mostly due to the salt lick that comes in the little silver envelope), and it is certainly a quick meal. However, now I tend to get frozen ramen from the Japanese store. It's almost as good as the stuff that I used to get at a local ramen house before it closed. Truly delicious.

 

[milo bloom]

I had major dental work earlier this year, so I've been eating a lot of soft foods (and losing 15 lbs!) and Top Ramen is right up there. We also visit an Asian market kinda near us (Mitsuwa in Rolling Meadows, IL) and I'll pick up an assortment of different flavors to try. Last time I found some instant miso soup that I'm loving. It's a packet of dry stuff and a packet of sludge that you combine with hot water and it makes a nice little cup of soup.

We can also afford "real food", but it's just easy and relatively tasty I just keep on eating it.

 

[ToddKent]

It's tasty but be careful with it. It has a TON of sodium in it.

 

[Balrog]

^And it has the nutritional content of sawdust.

 

[Dream]

Yeah, be careful about the soldium levels.

Never drink the soup if you eat the cup versions. Only add a little bit of flavor from the packet if you eat the bag versions.

Try to eat some other foods with your noodles too. I heard that a college kid died after just eating Ramen, which has no nutrition value. Make sure you eat other healthy foods at lunch/dinner when you aren't eating Ramen.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

You know what they call instant ramen in Hungary? "Smack." I brought back a couple packages. Omnomnom.

I'm waiting for the right opportunity to ask my friends if they'd like some Smack.

 

[Vulcan Princess]

I like ramen, too! I don't eat it very often, though. Since I'm a vegetarian, I eat the Oriental flavor. (The Top Ramen brand is vegetarian, but the other brands are beef based.) Tradition makes vegan kosher ramen, and the fake chicken one is pretty good.

For somebody really hooked on ramen, check out this guy's blog! If you want a review on any type, you can probably find it.

 

[iBender]

I like Wagamama. - Because they have that here.

 

[Timby]

I like ramen, too! I don't eat it very often, though.

Far too many people confuse "ramen" with "packaged instant noodles with enough sodium to kill anything that's ever lived." (I'm convinced that's what killed my father-in-law at age 64 last year -- he'd eat two packages of Maruchan Noodles, with a bagel, for lunch every day of the week. And he had heart disease.)

Anyway, a good pork curry ramen is my favorite. Had a good one at Sapporo East in New York City a while back. Try making your own ramen (which is just a term for thin, wheat-based Chinese noodles in broth) -- it really isn't any more difficult than making spaghetti and meatballs, and it can be really good. I can post some recipes.

 

[auntiehill]

I used to live on "Top Ramen" in college (it's cheap as HELL), but yeah, there's enough salt in one of those "flavor packets" to kill a small rodent.

I try to avoid the stuff now, but oddly enough, I was just thinking about it a few minutes ago. I think the combination of salt and starch must be addictive.

 

[Holdfast]

There's something ridiculously more-ish about these kind of dried noodle snacks. Must be the MSG, or the salt, or something. I went through a phase of eating them several times a week when I was a teen.

 

[Timby]

There's something ridiculously more-ish about these kind of dried noodle snacks.

It's supposedly a staple of college food in America (since they're easily microwaveable), but I can truthfully say that I never once had instant noodles until last year, when I was going through a spate of unemployment (and my wife was under-employed), and 19 cents for these things was more affordable than 59 cents for store-brand macaroni and cheese.

 

[Holdfast]

There's something ridiculously more-ish about these kind of dried noodle snacks.

It's supposedly a staple of college food in America (since they're easily microwaveable), but I can truthfully say that I never once had instant noodles until last year, when I was going through a spate of unemployment...

See, there's a silver lining to everything, even unemployment. You now know the magic of the instant noodle.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

There's something ridiculously more-ish about these kind of dried noodle snacks.

It's supposedly a staple of college food in America (since they're easily microwaveable), but I can truthfully say that I never once had instant noodles until last year, when I was going through a spate of unemployment...

See, there's a silver lining to everything, even unemployment. You now know the magic of the instant noodle.

I've never been a fan of the instant noodle solution (yes, I had a deprived upbringing ) although they do make good instant pun solutions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_25WBMi3CTM

 

[Timby]

There's something ridiculously more-ish about these kind of dried noodle snacks.

It's supposedly a staple of college food in America (since they're easily microwaveable), but I can truthfully say that I never once had instant noodles until last year, when I was going through a spate of unemployment...

See, there's a silver lining to everything, even unemployment. You now know the magic of the instant noodle.

I wouldn't call it "magic" so much as I would "the food that makes you cry, silently, to yourself and swear you're going to find a job as soon as fucking possible so you never have to eat this nuclear bomb of sodium ever again."

 

[An Officer]

I used to eat a lot of those when I first moved out of home and wasn't into cooking. Shin Ramyun spicy noodles are pretty unbeatable. I still keep a few in the cupboard for "emergency" use. Tough finding them in Chinatown though, Japanese students seem to buy them by the couple of dozen a time!

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I have never eaten Ramen noodles. I think I'm glad.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

I think I have eaten Ramen once and I found it pretty disgusting. Not even so much the taste, it was just something about noodles in liquid that freaked me out. Maybe because I have eaten so much spaghetti in my life I couldn't handle a different sensation in eating them. I do like cup o noodles though so go figure.