Momofuku Ando invented instant ramen (2016) | Hacker News Reader

Momofuku Ando invented instant ramen (2016)

vox.com

99 pointsthunderbong85 comments

Open articleView on HN

Time to share my ultimate home instant noodle "recipe"

- 1 pack spicy noodle (whatever brand you like)

- 1 can mushroom soup

- 2x eggs

- Meats (I've used bacon, hotdogs, smokies, pork slices, whatever is available)

- 1 slice sandwich "cheese style product"

- Frozen veggies

Use 1 can of mushroom soup and 1 can of water. Mix it and get it to boil, then put the noodles in. Let the noodles soften for a while. Add your flavorings and meats and the cheese slice when the noodles are soft enough. Then put 1 egg in and stir it right away so it blends with the soup and thickens it. Once it goes back to a boil add the other egg, but immediately turn the heat down and let the egg just cook in the broth. It takes some experimentation but I can get it to where the yolk can still maintain its shape but is still runny.

When you're ready take the pot off the stove and set it to cool somewhere. Add the frozen veggies at this time and gently stir them in. The heat from the noodles helps cook them and the veggies helps cool the noodles so you can eat it faster.

This is a heavy bowl but sometimes I crave it and it really hits the spot.

Cheese???

Korea at least adds cheese to lots of stuff and it seems to work.

Kraft singles in instant ramen is a great thing in Korea!

Budae Jjigae specifically is similar to his recipe, and also has an interesting history.

I grew up (as a white American kid in Virginia) often adding a slice of American cheese to instant ramen, and I can confirm that it’s delicious.

Parmesan cheese works too.

A slice of american cheese in instant ramen gives it some body and adds a bit of extra fattiness that's often missing. At least in flavorful, spicy ramen it really doesn't add much cheese flavor. Try it out.

What is "american cheese"? Do you mean plastic?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cheese

you're behind schedule on your food hipsterism. american cheese has passed through the unironically bad phase, the ironically bad phase, and ironically good phase, and is now back to unironically good.

I am not food hipster, I am french. ;-)

that makes you the ultimate food hipster

It's so sad to me that American cheese is only associated with the shitty kraft singles. White American cheese is such a good melted or sandwich cheese.

It's processed (not aged), high fat, low protein cheese. Invented by James L Kraft (yes, that Kraft) and is the basis of Kraft Mac & Cheese, elsewehere called Kraft dinner. It melts perfectly and is shelf-stable. Fun fact: for a time it was called Government cheese. USDA used to buy surplus milk in glut years to stabilize prices, mass produce this cheese product, and give it out as part of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program/'food stamps'). The phrase 'government cheese' became a pseudonym for welfare and uttered by ('compassionate') conservative types to belittle the food insecure, so they rebranded it and voila! Now it's 'merican!

I bet it works wonderfully. American cheese is essentially salty cheddar that melts real nice. That's why it's the best cheese for a hamburger.

It is nothing like cheddar, certainly not a 'salty cheddar', it's most obvious deviation perhaps is the mildness/lack of saltiness.

Maybe what's called 'cheddar' in the US is different too though, I don't know? It's not PDO (and the US doesn't respect them anyway I think?) but I'm comparing to British if not Cheddarian cheddar.

In this usage, salt is anything but lacking. Americans do know what cheddar actually is and indeed make a shitload of it in a wide range of qualities. Tillamook out of Oregon and Cabot out of Vermont are commonly available and pretty good.

I looked up Tillamook, first reaction was that it doesn't even look like cheddar - but then I noticed the 'Maker's Reserve White Cheddar'. Why is artificially coloured the default?! 'white cheddar' makes it sound weird/fake/some strange variant, when all it is is that they haven't added colouring to ingredients list.

The non-'white' ones look like red leicester, which is a bit like a mild not very salty cheddar, and that colour.

Cheddar cheese is indeed white, unless annatto (a tree nut) and sometimes paprika are added for flavor. Tillamook makes both.

Yeah cheesey ramen is the best

Usually people use one of processed cheese, a very very mild mozzarella or a cream cheese

So it's mostly just a source of fattiness and creaminess to add that velvety texture to the sauce

I've seen people just add butter to ramen as well for the same effect.

Except it's not instant anymore *shrug_emoji*

Ha I think the instant bit for many of the Asian diaspora I grew up amongst is that you don't need to make your own noodles or soup broth. (and it's all there in one package)

It can be fun to do the whole shebang but it's usually a whole day affair. Growing up my dad's secret mix of ketchup with chilli sauce was often the meal I was most excited about for the weekend

> you don't need to make your own noodles

Shower thought: spaghetti is like ramen, but straight.

A notable difference between spaghetti and ramen is the addition of an alkali to ramen which has a profound effect on the texture. Ramen fit into the group of Alkaline Noodles[0].

So more different than just the shape.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alkaline_noodles

You can (sort of) turn thin dried spaghetti into ramen by presoaking it in a strong solution of sodium carbonate.

A long time ago I visited my ex-gf family in Guangdong and they were making "炸酱面" with homemade la-mian. The sauce didn't really have much black bean and it was mostly just minced beef and tomatoes with noodles. I was like, hang on a second...

In general - pimping up ramen like this doesn't take much longer than the time you need to wait for the noodles to cook. I usually start soaking the noodles and then grab another pan to cook the extras. It's one extra pan and very little extra time.

> pimping up ramen

*snort*

But yeah, if you need more than 5 minutes to cook instant anything, then it's no longer instant.

OTOH there are definitely some US/non-US shenanigans based on 110V.

we invented "In a moment Ramen"

Sounds like salt soup! Not surprised it tastes OK.

I find that I crave the salt in certain conditions, like on hot days when I drink more liquids than usual. A cup of Ramen really does the trick then. A matter of taste perhaps but the default recipe on Maruchan pouches is a bit too salty for me, so I have it dilute. This doesn't change the absolute quantity of salt ingested but just tastes better.

> - 1 can mushroom soup

I hope you don't mean a creme soup?

I've moved onto refrigerated udon noodles.

- 1 pack of udon noodles

- a bunch of broccoli rabe or kale sauteed with garlic

- 1 egg

- chili crisp

- sesame oil

Sautee the veg while boiling the water, cook the noodles, drop in a beaten egg and the udon seasoning stuff, stir and add the cooked veg, pour into a big bowl and adorn with sesame oil and chili crisp.

Sodium for days, but delicious.

> Sodium for days

What is the meaning of this statement?

There is salt in every ingredient and step

There’s enough sodium in this one dish to fulfill multiple days worth of the daily recommended value.

"X for days" just means "a lot of X".

Dumping frozen vegetables in hot water will just cool it and leave the vegetables mostly raw. I mean I understand Americans like raw broccoli and stuff but... I don't understand the self deprivation.

And as someone else asked, is that a clear kind of mushroom soup or broth or the creamy kind?

You can make your own broth too; get some regular mushrooms or ideally, dried shitake mushrooms and just boil them for an hour or two. Removing the mushrooms is optional. You can freeze the result if you have extra.

Same for chicken; get cheaper chicken on the bone, cook it in the oven as normal, put the bones in a pot and boil for two hours to make chicken broth. You can add mushrooms to that too, and / or said frozen vegetables to let it cook properly and release the flavours.

Raw broccoli is a method by which we can have an excuse for eating copious quantities of ranch dressing. We don't just eat the broccoli by itself, we dip it in something that has flavor. Same thing with french fries.

It is the creamy kind.

When I make these noodles it's so I have a relatively quick and hearty meal. Prepping things for an extra 1-2 hrs defeats the purpose of it all.

That's probably 250% of the recommended daily intake of sodium in a single bowl. I'm not even sure it would be edible at that level of saltiness.

There was a bit of a fad a year ago with Cooking YouTube and improving instant noodles:

NYT Cooking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pFTJN1tF8A

Binging with Babish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCW1hVAebWU

Bon Appetit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwjT8n3Yw4c

Joshua Weissman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7XDdXdap4w

I'm sure there are a lot more of them. I agree with some of the other commenters that your recipe is probably too salty for most. Also I don't really see the reason for using egg as a thickener besides maybe adding protein? Just soft boil both eggs if you want 2 eggs and do something like add a little starch slurry if you want to thicken up the soup. Also the cheese just feels wrong but to each their own I suppose.

One thing I should have added in my OP was that I only use maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of the flavor packets provided. Still provides plenty of flavor but helps cut down on the salt consumption.

> "Mankind is noodlekind"" What does it mean? Who knows. But it sounds delicious.

Eh, it's a daggy Japanese pun. Noodles in Japan is men (麺), "mankind" romanizes as mankaindo (マンカインド), mash 'em together and you get "menkind" (麺カインド menkaindo), "noodlekind".

It's an Oyaji joke for sure. I had an old Japanese professor in college tell a story about how sick he felt of eating so much Korean food. "Kimuchi ga warui"

Something many people don't know about instant noodles: You don't need to cook them. You can just soak them in cold water until they are done. They just take a little longer (15 minutes). This is great for power outages or for homeless people without ability to cook. It also saves energy.

If you do this with dry pasta and then add it to hot sauce to warm it, it tastes a lot better than boiling. Usually takes about 2 hours but it’s worth it.

In the same vein, this no-boil baked ziti recipe is also great: https://www.seriouseats.com/food-lab-no-boil-baked-ziti-reci...

“But who's to say that these two phases, water absorption and protein denaturing, have to occur at the same time? […] You don't have to complete both processes simultaneously. In fact, if you leave uncooked pasta in lukewarm water for long enough, it'll absorb just as much water as boiled pasta.”

You can eat them raw too. I used to break them up and put some (not the whole pack) on top of salad, kind of like croutons.

I understand they'd be edible, but surely the point of noodles is to have something...warm?

no. cold noodles with a light sauce are often eaten on hot days all over asia by billions of people.

sounds weird, right? except the western equivalent is a pasta salad which you probably eat all the time.

think harder about food.

(My fault for not specifying instant noodles.)

I understand the concept of cold noodles and all the other varieties of noodles, but to me instant means hot, maybe the branding is just too strong.

(Also I am south asian, pasta salad is rather fancy thing here)

No. The user says he wants his noodles warm. Not an autistic rendition of how another person in another country might eat them at another time.

no. my autism is unstoppable and will not be mediated by the likes of you.

And what if e.g. a war happens, the power goes out, and you have to survive on your stock of instant noodles?

Besides, even North East Asians say they're okay.

https://soranews24.com/2017/08/27/can-you-make-instant-udon-...

Somewhat related: has there been any consideration toward allowing titles to start with “how”?

The current behavior of automatically deleting the word results in some strangely constructed article titles as seen here.

I'm never a fan of automatic text correction. It's going to get it wrong half the time. I understand dang is overworked but this one in particular seems a strange choice.

I did wonder about the title. It can be added back by the OP, but unless you're being careful you probably wouldn't even notice.

It might make sense to flag for the poster that the title was modified, so they can change it back if appropriate.

I don't think it can actually -- I believe if you start your title with "How", HN will automatically delete it; editing it won't stop the deletion, AFAIK.

I have successfully done so in the past, though it might have been with a different autocorrect (not "how").

As some one from the Indian subcontinent, I would juat say "Maggie Maggie Maggie !!"

Just like my German grandmother.

Yes, India is all about Maggi noodles. I will never forget being at the top of the Khardung La pass, at the time believed to be the world’s highest motorable pass at 5396m, and seeing a large information board in honour of Julius Michael Johannes Maggi, a Swiss food scientist who developed instant soups in the late 1800’s. Maggi instant noodles are at every roadside stall in the Indian Himalayas.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/fifty-shades-green...

Meanwhile across the border we are all about Knorr. Not sure why Maggi faltered, we used to have them but they somehow couldn't compete.

If you have children and visit Japan, stop by Yokohama cup noddle museum. The children can "arrange" their own cup noddle, good fun!

Not just the children, my girlfriend and I visited it a month ago and now we proudly display our customized cup noodles :D

i'm very grateful for this guy, but I also probably eat too many instant noodles. is there any research/recommendation on what level of instant noodle consumption starts being unhealthy (ofc everything is a gradient)?

The main problem with instant noodles is not the salt or fat, but the same thing as all other junk food - it takes the place of actual food with actual nutrients.

The healthiest way I've ever found to consume instant noodles is as a meal supplement after exercise. Not every time, but once in a while to replenish salt lost from sweat and as a calorie boost.

Contrary to the sibling comment I think it’s the salt. There was also the guy who ate the ramen in styrofoam bowl for years and had a lump of styrofoam in his stomach.

Personally I just buy dry ramen noodles and make my own sauce or use curry, give a bit more control over salt etc

That's always been my gripe with plastic and styrofoam kitchenware. It will wear, and the worn particles are in your food. No idea how consequential it is, but I don't really want bits of chopping board or plastic bowl in my food.

sounds lowkey, but making the dish with plenty of fresh vegetables as soup moves the needle (noodle, heh) back to the healthy end of the gradient?

I'm sorry for the packaging waste though.

I wouldn’t even start with the noodles as the main culprit but the spice packets that come with them. But even aside from that, if you aren’t adding anything to the soup, like vegetables, it’s sort of like asking “when does surviving off potato/tortilla chips become unhealthy?”

There's a more "dramatic" retelling of the origin story in a video titled Samurai Noodles "The Originator": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNbb9qixsRQ

The best instant noodle brand is Mama. Trust me and try it out.

I am a big fan of Mama (especially the Green tea or Tom Yum) and revisit on occasions. Indomie took over for a while (their Beef Rendang is great) but I've now discovered MyKuali brand "Penang White Curry" which I assure you is head and shoulders above anything else I've tried.

No! Nongshim Shin Ramyun Black or GTFO!

Trouble is, they're so good, its impossible to find them on the shelves any more ..

For vegetarian options their "Soon" ramyun is really good too.

Another good one is Buldak. After cooking, you mix them mostly dry with the sauce though.

IndoMie Mie Goreng are my favourite, highly recommend if you can get hold of them

There's an asterisk there since those are meant to be drained, not soup. But yes, they're amazing. Had a bowl just yesterday with some fried carrots and an egg.

Those were great a few years ago, but the recipe they use for the noodles themselves has changed and they aren't as good.

I recently discovered Menraku, a little more expensive - but truly worth it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com