Food: Instant Ramen

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Instant Ramen
Thursday, August 11, 2005

Instant ramen means different things to different people. For some, the term immediately conjures up images of lean financial times. Instant ramen packages can often be had for less than $1.00, so they are a regular fall-back meal for people on extremely tight budgets. I remember that I ate a lot of instant ramen in the first year after I moved out of my parents' home and into my own apartment. Other people, however, would have no such associations. For example, in Japan, instant ramen is simply another easy lunch choice. It is viewed in much the same way that Americans view fast food burgers: not the healthiest food we can eat, but chosen more for convenience than for any budgetary concerns.

I personally like instant ramen. At first, I did view it as a frugal food - probably because that's how I was introduced to it. But that all changed after I lived in Japan. I grew to like instant ramen for several different reasons. First, is the sheer variety of flavors that are available. If you go into a typical Japanese grocery store, you will find an entire aisle filled with instant ramen packages. They come in all different sizes, from small containers that are good for a snack, to large servings that are enough for a meal. The flavors range from seafood to chicken soup to Italian pizza and a whole lot more.

One great thing about instant ramen is that some of the brands (such as Cup Noodle) allow you to make the ramen right in the container. Usually, you have to boil water, put the ramen in a separate bowl, and then pour the hot water over it. If you buy ramen in the paper or foam containers, you can just pour the water right into the container. This makes it easy for you to eat ramen at work or school.

You can also get other types of instant noodles in convenient packages. For example, you can buy instant yaki soba, which is a popular fried noodle dish. As with the Cup Noodle brand, you can make the yaki soba right there in the package. Since you don't eat this type of noodle in a bowl of soup, the package actually comes with holes in it so you can drain the water out before you eat it. And, just like with instant ramen, yaki soba packages also come with tiny packets of sauce, vegetables, and other toppings for you to put on prior to eating.

As I mentioned earlier, however, these instant noodles aren't all that great for you, nutritionally speaking. Since the noodles are often deep-fried prior to packaging, I doubt that they are meant to be eaten every single day. Usually, foods that come pre-packaged, or that are sold in "instant" varieties have been subject to heavy processing or contain lots of preservatives. So I recommend having instant ramen just once in a while when you are pressed for time, want to save a bit of money, or simply crave the taste.

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