Please welcome guest poster Hans ‘The Ramen Rater‘ Lienesch, who shares one of my greatest passions; Instant noodles! Hans and I are both fans of Ramen and other varieties of packaged convenience noodles, and he’s agreed to share one of his favorites here. Please give a warm welcome to another noodle fanatic.
Take it away Hans!
Since I was a small child, I have enjoyed instant noodles. I started out with what every other kid in the USA has – Top Ramen. Then, they came out with something called Roasted Ramen, noodles that already had the seasoning within them – no packet!
These were off the market soon though and that’s when everything changed in my instant noodle world. My parents took me south to Seattle and we went to a big Japanese grocery in the heart of the International District. As it turned out, the Roasted Ramen I so enjoyed actually was how they marketed Chikin ramen – Nissin’s first instant noodle in 1958, of which they had a great quantity.
What I noticed (I was about 12 years old) was that there were a ton of different varieties of instant noodles to be had there; with different colored packaging and strange foreign writing I couldn’t begin to understand.
My folks let me sample a few and it was fun – some were almost impossible to cook; what were the instructions saying?
Over 30 years later and having officially sampled over 650 different unique varieties, I have found that there’s one brand that I must say is my favorite. They’re not from Japan, and it’s not soupy.
The brand is Indomie and their product, Mie Keriting Rasa Ayam Panggang (Special Quality Curly Noodles With Grilled Chicken Flavor) is the variety.
So what’s the deal? Why is it so good? Well, It’s got some great noodles, a smorgasbord of seasonings and garnishes within the package and I’ve come up with a lot of different additions one can make to really round things out. Here’s how I make it. What’s more, if you have absolutely no way to pick up this particular brand, any brand will do fine as far as the additions go (just drain off all but a trickle of the broth). [click to continue…]
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