AHHHHHhhhhhh..... Ramen.
We've all been there.... so don't wrinkle up your nose. Ramen was there for us in college when we didn't have any money and after college when we didn't have any money or when we just wanted something hot that could be purchased with whatever you find in the cushions of your couch....
Top Ramen.
My exposure to Ramen was different, and I'll share it with you now....
Actually, that sounds pompous... read below how I started eating Ramen, if it's different, great. If you came to love Ramen the same way I did, then my experience was NOT different, and we can chat about it some time... possibly over some Ramen.
Anyway, my Dad had a college suite-mate named Steve Pu. There were three "Steves" in that suite, so they called one another by their last names. My Dad was "Griffith," Steve Pu was "Pu," and whatever that other Steve's last name was... that's what they called him. Alright.
Pu's family was Chinese, and exposed Griffith, I mean DAD, to all sorts of new stuff he had never experienced growing up on a farm in Eastern Missouri. I don't mean just to obscure asian customs... I mean things like BROCCOLI... Huge culture shock, right?
Being in college and broke (the flashpoint for so many of our Ramen adventures), Pu taught my Dad about a type of Ramen-like noodle-soup packet called "Ichiban," which is Japanese for "The Greatest." Seriously... look it up.
Ichiban Noodles were special... I remember when I was little, in North Carolina, eating what Dad called "Ichiban Noodles" whenever Mom was out of town, or we got home late or something... Dad would make the noodles and tell us about his college days.
I loved Ichiban Noodles almost as I loved Pork Chops and Pie, which is REALLY saying something... especially in North Carolina.
We never had more than a couple packets of Ichiban Noodles (or "RAY-MEN" if you're in either of the Carolinas) in the cupboard, and I naturally assumed it was because they were an expensive delicacy only to be eaten on very, very special occasions.
Fast forward to 1996, my first year of college, and the first time I ever shopped for myself.
My freshman roommate, David Saxton, and I had gone to the Sunfresh in Westport (which, by the way, still scares me in broad daylight, so you can imagine how it felt to an 18 year old that's new in the city....) We were pushing our cart around, deciding what we'd get to supplement the horrible cafeteria food.
I decided it was a time for celebration. I was at college, "grown up," and wanted to celebrate my independence by buying myself something really special. (I was buying it with Dad's checkbook, but I still felt pretty independent.)
I knew what I wanted. Ichiban. The Greatest.
I started looking, first by the deli where they keep all of the imported and specialty foods. No luck. Then I looked on the end-caps, where the big displays advertised the most exciting stuff.... Still no luck.... David asked me what I was looking for, and so I told him.
He went "Yeah, Ramen. Right there..." and pointed to the bottom shelf, right next to the floor.
I smirked, looking down just to play along, preparing a soliloquy on how special Ichiban noodles are and how they'd NEVER be on the bottom sssshhhh......
There they were. Top Ramen. Thirteen cents a pack.
My entire childhood was a lie.
The room started to spin... I began coughing wildly... White flashes in front of my eyes.... I held on to my cart, but I was going down..... I collapsed with a sob, and then everything went dark.
David had to lift me into the cart, and I whimpered as he pushed me through the store to his car.
A few days later, when I came out from under my bed, I went back to Sunfresh and bought some Ramen. I made it and thought back all of the memories...
I decided I would love Ramen no matter what. Thirteen cents, three cents, no matter... to me they would always be "Ichiban." The Greatest.
I became a vegetarian in 1999, and so I had to give up the Chicken Flavored Ramen I'd grown up eating.
During his own stint as a vegetarian, my great friend, Bryan Hughes discovered that the "Oriental Flavor" was actually vegetarian.
On the weekend that he passed along this information I ate no less than two dozen packages of "Oriental" Ramen. I was back in.
I'd love to hear Your Top Ramen stories. Feel free to post them in the "comment" section of this blog.
I'm praying that someone else actually has a Ramen story, so I'll feel slightly less psychotic for going on like this....
Anyway, here's my favorite way to have Top Ramen:
Prepare your favorite Ramen Flavor according to the directions on the package.
Strain noodles from the vile "soup."
Top noodles with any or all of the following:
- thinly-sliced cabbage
- grated carrots
- julienne-cut celery or bell pepper
- baked tofu
- dry-roasted peanuts
- bean sprouts
- fresh cilantro
- one clove of minced garlic
- one scallion (sliced on the bias)
- a shot of soy sauce & a squirt of Sriracha (or your favorite hot sauce)
Serve hot and enjoy while thinking back to the times when everything was "Ichiban."
7 comments:
Ahh, Ramen. My personal exposure to Ramen was light as I am slightly (ahem) older and grew up on a Kansas farm. It did not enter our life until my children were small. My neighbor fed it to my oldest daughter, and we were hooked. There is not a meal out there that is more revered by my children. (although Kraft mac and cheese is close) My youngest, who subsisted on a "noodle diet" for the first four years of his eating solid food life (the noodle diet is "all noodles, all the time") still would choose Ramen over grilled salmon, over chicken salad, and even over fresh pasta with homemade sauce. I fought the battle. I pointed out the high calorie count. I lamented the total lack of any nutritional value whatsoever. Even to a teenage girl watching her weight, these arguments held no water. The Ramens always win. They are the ultimate comfort food for my kids. I considered banning them from the house for more wholesome, nutritious foods, but when I stand before the shelf and gaze down (yes, down) at the lower shelf at the array of flavors and I see the price, I always give in. Thirteen cents. What can I say. When I am feeling flush I will spring for the Ichiban as opposed to the Top Ramen. They run around 23cents. My children may be fat, they may lack the basic nutrients to grow brain cells, but they are happy, comforted and a really cheap date.
YEAH!!! I love it!!!
Keep em coming!!!!
Ah yes, Ramen. It was always on hand in "the dungeon of sin" during college...and it always tasted best at 3am.
Dear Zach,
Strangely enough, about the time you were posting this, uhm, post, Marc and I were also enjoying a dinner of Ramen noodles (oriental flavor, of course, what else?). But wait for it, it gets weirder... I had just been talking to my dad that evening about Hurricane Dean, and mentioned you & Miss K in the Caymans, the video, etc. And Dad said, "So your friends were visiting Caymen?" And I said "No, they live there now." And for a moment, albeit brief, I felt fancy. I mean, hell, Marc and I live in Geneva, you guys live in Cayman, der Gants is in Germany, and it all felt so... international. Like we had grown up and done something with ourselves (for once).
But there is something so great and funny that at the end of the day we all go home, where ever that may be, and indulge in a packet of Ramen. Maybe the world isn't so big after all, and the key to peace lies not with war, as Bush would have you believe, and not within ourselves, as the The Dalai Lama would have you believe, but somewhere in the off-the-charts sodium count of a flavor packet.
Or maybe we haven't done anything with our selves after all.
Either way, preach on Griffith, preach on.
-k
To Mark - I agree, and respect the noble discernings of your educated palate.... You are, after all, the very man that introduced me to "trash pizza" in the MU Dorm.....
To KAM - Yes, WE are fancy as a group, but since I, as an individual member of said "fancy group," have no job, no money, and no real idea how or motivation to get either, I feel as though I bring our collective "fancy quotient" down to some extent. Sorry. Let me know if drinking rum in one's bathrobe becomes fancy... I'm getting really good at that.
How dare you talk about Ichiban in public. That was our special story. - Sincerely, Notgia@zachisgia.org.edu
Ech, Ramen. I only say this now, but once upon a time, we were great friends. My freshman year of college at MU, I snuck in a little electric water boiler pot, so I could make all the Ramen in the world. It was so much better than some of the dorm food, and so convenient.
Skip ahead to Soph. year of college. I'm in an apt., and I wish I still had access to the dorm food, as I am a starving and disgustingly poor college student. While my other roommates had cooking talents, and lots of money to buy name brand foods, I had to resort to Ramen almost every night. It was pretty awesome at first, but then I got a part-time job. Packets of uneaten Ramen sat in my cabinet for months, b/c I was then able to buy fancy foods, like spaghetti and macaroni and cheese. I grew awfully sick of Ramen, and still the sight of it makes me slightly nauseous.
My tale is a sad one. Maybe one day Ramen and I will be friends again...one day....
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