Ramen

[pcolbeck]

Pcolbeck junior is on a Japanese kick at the moment. Heavily into manga etc. He keeps banging on about ramen. Does anyone know of a decent instant ramen like dish you can buy ? He tried pot noodles this week and liked that. Once the extension is finished and the kitchen back together we will have a go at making a proper ramen but for the next month mainly we will be living off food that is as instant as possible.

[Regulator]

Blue Dragon do a passable dried ramen.  Often found in major supermarkets.  Otherwise, most Chinese supermarkets will tend to have ramen in stock.

The Japan Centre also does stuff mail order.

[Julian]

Get him to make sushi.  It's really easy - get the nori sheets, pop them on a board (you don't need a rolling mat), spread them thinly but evenly with cooked rice, leaving an inch at the top free.  Then put thinly sliced carrot / cucumber / pepper / omelette (I do veggie ones but you could use fish) in a strip, and roll like a swiss roll.  Wet your fingers and wet the un-riced inch to seal them, wrap the rolls in clingfilm and refrigerate.  After a couple of hours, take them out, de-clingfilm and slice. 

They make good packed lunch food. 

Also, most supermarkets will do instant miso soup and glass noodles.

[geraldc]

Nissin Demae Ramen are good, as are vacuum packed udon noodles.

[pcolbeck]

Get him to make sushi.  It's really easy - get the nori sheets, pop them on a board (you don't need a rolling mat), spread them thinly but evenly with cooked rice, leaving an inch at the top free.  Then put thinly sliced carrot / cucumber / pepper / omelette (I do veggie ones but you could use fish) in a strip, and roll like a swiss roll.  Wet your fingers and wet the un-riced inch to seal them, wrap the rolls in clingfilm and refrigerate.  After a couple of hours, take them out, de-clingfilm and slice.  

They make good packed lunch food.  

Also, most supermarkets will do instant miso soup and glass noodles.

Good idea. Unfortunately as of the end of this week we probably wont have a kitchen for a month. We've sold the cooker and it's just been cleaned so until I install a new kitchen and cooker we will have no where for prep. We eat tea last night off a builders fold out platform

[andygates]

Vacpac udon are great in j-soups.  They slurp up flavour.

Ramen, as far as I can tell, are intended to be junk.

[Jakob]

Sorry, there are no decent instant ramen.

Ramen is not junk. It's a bit like saying spaghetti is junk, because you only had the ready made versions.
If made right, with fresh ramen noodles and and a proper soupstock, it is an absolutely amazing dish and it's reasonably healthy too and usually plenty of vegetarian options too.
 Unfortunately, it's near impossible to get it in the UK. The only specialized ramen place I know, is Ryu on Brewer Street (in London), although I do believe a new ramen place open last year (but don't know name & place).
 Luckily, it's quite popular here in Vancouver, with several Japanese run ramen places. Favourite place is organic ramen, which is absolutely amazing and reasonably cheap too! (lunch for less than $10).

[andygates]

I'm just a vile insty-noodle chav.