Instant noodle

This is the ranking of National Trends in Instant Noodle Demands. I could guess China would be No.1 and I thought Thailand or Indonesia would be No.2, and the rank of Japan would be high. BUT! I didn't suppose USA is No.4. Do you eat instant noodles often?? What is your best noodle? In Japan, there is a huge number of instant noodle types, cheap ones, expensive ones, soy sauce base soups, pork bone base soups, etc.

Maybe you know the Nissin Cup Noodle series, but the kinds of soup are so different from Japanese ones. You can check it on wikipedia. My favorite taste is Curry, I want to try the Crab taste of China, and the Tom Yam Goong of Thailand. I am not sure I want to eat the Broccoli of Germany and the Cheddar Cheese of Mexico.

And do you know the Maru-chan brand? I saw many Maruchan products in CA before. In Japan they are well known for their instant  Japanese Soba and Udon series. But I can tell you ramen is much better than that, I recommend real Soba and Udon, not instant ones.

I think the most expensive instant noodle that you can buy anywhere will be Nissin Goota. It's about $3. The most reasonable one would be Nissin Chicken ramen or Nisshin Demae Iccho, they are about $1.

I heard Ippudo, famous for Kyushu type ramen (Pork bone base soup), is getting popular in NY now. Nissin collaborated on such popular ramen shops: Ippudo, Sumire (miso base soup), Santoka (salt base soup) and they had released a special ramen like this.

If you come to Tokyo, you may try this shop 'Akiba-noodle'. They have over 400 kinds of instant noodles and you can pick out, walk and eat what you want. Here is the inside of the shop.

Comments

[Chris Kuan]

Nothing wrong mari... sometimes you type words in English that we can understand the meaning even if you miss some letters. But this time it was too different - I thought other readers cannot guess what you mean with those other words... (^_^);

[mari]

wow thank you for that recipe Heidi. Sorry what is wrong pork bone base soup Chris, I need to explain more? It sounds so different? Yuyi arigato for info of Indonesia, it's intereting you eat it in disaster, we eat rice ball in that case.

[Yuyi]

Mari chan,
Im from Indonesia and its interesting to see that Indonesia is second to China (no surprise there).

But instant noodles is very popular in Indonesia and the most popular way to eat it is by adding an egg. It's also very practicle and in Indonesia is used to help people in disaster area (floods, earthquakes)because you don't need to cook it (its already fried).

Anyway aside from instant noodles, I really like soba and ramen.

[Chris Kuan]

Hello Mari,
Sorry to correct your English but this time it might be too confusing for Western English-speakers... Kyushu ramen has a "pork bone" base soup.

If you go to Yokohama, the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum has a shop where you can try this style. http://www.raumen.co.jp/home/index.html

[Alice from Italy]

In Italy we never eat instant noodles, but some grocery sells those small boxes where i have only to put hot water. So i was courious and i bought some boxes, a kind chinese woman explains me everything and saw noodles are delicious.
The taste isn't pleasant for italians, i don't try it anymore.
Instead i love ramen (and udon).

[abraxis]

Aiyah! Cannot forget that instant noodles and "ramen" are two completely different things!

I try to explain the bliss of ramen shops such as Ippudo or Ichiran (Hakata style) and I get blank looks from people here in the US asking how I can pay so much for noodles that are 3 for a dollar at the grocery store...

Of course there are America-jin that know the difference, but they're a rarity...

[Heidi]

College students in North America LIVE on Ramen! I did when I was in college. You can buy a whole box of instant ramen (usually Maru Chan brand) containing 3-4 dozen individual square packages of ramen for about $10 in most supermarkets. Great cheap food when you're on a budget! You can get an entire pallet of instant ramen (10-12 boxes, 30-50 individual square instant ramen packages) for about $30 at Sam's Club or Costco.

Most folks on this side of the Pacific put stuff like sliced hot dogs, baloney, canned tuna or chicken or any other left-over meat you can find in the fridge in the ramen to extend it.

Here is a fun ramen website you might like. It has ramen recipes (in English) from around the world:

http://www.ramenlicious.com

Mari-san, maybe you know this recipe, but if you don't maybe you would like to try it. It is very American in taste, but you might like it anyway. ^-^;

Crunchy Ramen Salad:

Ingredients

2 packages ramen noodles (Maru-chan), chicken flavor (uncooked)
Cubed chicken breast (cooked)
5-6 sliced green onions (or more to taste)
Chopped cilantro to taste
Slivered almonds
Sesame seeds
1 head of cabbage (Napa or Savoy)
1 stick butter
1 bottle Asian-style salad dressing

Melt butter in a large saucepan. Add crushed ramen noodles, sesame seeds and slivered almonds. Toss with melted butter and sprinkle in the soup seasoning packets. Cook in butter until nuts and noodles get toasty. Toss cabbage, chicken, onions and cilantro with dressing. Add most of the toasty mixture and toss again. Top salad with remaining toasty mixture.

[Jojo]

Mari, my company's office is right next door to the Maruchan factory in Irvine, California! As far as instant noodles are concerned, I really like are "UFO Noodle" and Cup Noodle CURRY flavor (both can be found in many US supermarkets). My favorite is Cup Noodle Seafood, where you add some mayonnaise (like Nakashima Mika mentioned on Hey Hey Hey to Downtown, maybe you can find the clip on youtube). It's very delicious, please try it some time!