As much as I try to eat a well-rounded diet that includes lots of vegetables and healthy grain, there are a few items that I know are bad for me but that I periodically crave anyway. Since this doesn't happen too often, I usually give in...
In today's case, here is an illustration of one of the items for which I regularly fall off my no-chemicals diet - I LOVE INSTANT RAMEN!!!! Shameful I know...I love fresh ramen much more obviously (especially tenshinmen) but I do have a soft spot for the kind of ramen that you buy in the supermarket in little blocks with a spice packet included that you know contains nothing good for you.
Maybe my love of the dried stuff comes from my childhood. We lived in Kyoto when I was in second grade and our school's students were chosen to be the guinea pigs for Sapporo Ichiban prior to it's foray into the US market. We were all served ramen at lunch one day and then interviewed as to our thoughts on the dish so that the lab could further adapt it for an international audience's taste.
Maybe I just love it because it is such a great vehicle for transforming leftovers into something slightly different then when you ate the item the first time around.
Here is my recipe (of sorts)
Cook the ramen according to the instructions on the wrapper but add some soy sauce and oyster sauce, or a bit of miso to the water. 1 minute before the ramen is done, crack an egg into the broth and cover with noodles. At the end of the minute, turn off the heat and leave the ramen to cool for 2 minutes for a perfectly cooked egg. During that time assemble your leftovers. In today's case it was 1/2 a rib eye steak, thinly sliced, and some kimchi but I usually have a few spoonfuls/spoonsful of various veggies or main course dishes that can easily be incorporated floating around the fridge, as well as some sort of animal protein. This is also a good resting ground for odds and ends of frozen vegetable packages that seem to accumulate in the freezer; enough for 1/2 a portion but not enough for a family meal.
Must be eaten alone at the kitchen table for it to taste truly delicious.