Growing up in Canada, I loved buying the Ichiban brand ramen, chicken flavour, and ate it with broth and a dash of sriracha hot sauce. I always thought of Ramen as a delicious meal that was usually a dollar or two, and also could be eaten within about 5 minutes of making it! I knew there were other instant ramen brands but always went to Ichiban because that was my favourite.
It wasn’t until I was about 20 that I started to experiment with ramen. I had a Chinese room mate when I lived in Las Vegas, and she told me that in China people put veggies, eggs and meat in their ramen to make it more delicious. I don’t know why, but for some reason my mind was blown! I wasn’t making a lot of money being in school at the time, so I bought ALOT of ramen. The idea of adding stuff to it and changing it up seemed so fascinating to me. I even started to add chicken nuggets to ramen. While the water was boiling I would just add frozen chicken nuggets that I bought from Albertson’s, at about $6 per 20 piece bag. Like I said, I did not have a lot of money and was interested in upping my budget ramen game. Not for everyone, but it was an added flavour that was tasty to me!
Fast forward to age 22 when I lived in Vancouver and was studying at UBC. I couldn’t believe that there were ramen restaurants! I only thought of ramen as a sort of instant/affordable home made meal. I had no idea that ramen could be experienced in so many different ways, with different broths, veggies meats and toppings. I remember going to Jinya, a ramen restaurant, and being blown away by the experience. The flavour of the broth, the texture of the ingredients, and the hand held garlic presser that was used to press your own fresh garlic in to the bowl… WOW.
When I moved to Kelowna, at age 25, I noticed that there was only one ramen restaurant. Then a couple years later, another ramen restaurant opened up.
My boyfriend likes to eat Buldak brand ramen, which can be bought at Walmart, Safeway and Save On Foods in B.C., and introduced me to a type of ramen that is eaten without broth. WITHOUT BROTH?! I thought… how could that be… ramen must have broth. However on the instructions, Buldak instructs the home cook to create the ramen with a small amount of water thus the final dish is eaten without broth! And then he even added cream cheese and bread crumbs to his ramen!
This world of ramen sparked my interest and I had to find out more. I started Youtubing ramen reviews and found that there are plenty of ways that people eat their ramen. One Youtuber added a slice of processed cheese and hot dogs to their ramen.
Okay enough about me, now let’s go in to the ramen noodle and what makes a ramen noodle.
The Ramen noodle is first and foremost a wheat based noodle. Legend has it that the noodle originated in China and made its way to Japan in 1859. The ramen noodles were traditionally called shina soba which means China noodle. Fun fact: ramen noodles were sold on the black market during World War Two! It was actually outlawed!
The instant ramen noodle was invented in 1958 by a man named Momofuku Ando, in Japan. Because of his invention, instant ramen is consumed all over the world and is a favourite of many.
Now that we know about about where it’s from, let’s get in to the science.
The ramen noodle traditionally is not only made of wheat, but is also made with alkaline mineral water. The alkaline mineral water affects the way gluten behaves in the noodle dough, making the noodle more springy and chewy, less likely to dissolve in hot broth, and also gives the noodles their yellowy hue.
Momofuku Ando saw ramen as the perfect staple food for Japanese people. He wanted to invent a ramen noodle that could be stored for months and cooked and served instantly. More importantly, he wanted to create an affordable dish to help end hunger. After months of experimenting he landed upon flash frying them. This was the perfect recipe that made the noodles cook “instantly” in a pot of hot broth. He sold them in packages with a chicken seasoning and named them Chikin Noodle. By frying the noodles he got rid of the moisture within the noodle, making them soak up moisture quickly when thrown in hot water. The instant noodle packages became a staple blue-collar dish in Japan. Then in 1971, he invented cup noodle which surpassed Chikin Ramen noodle sales in Japan. There is so much information about him on the internet that I started to believe that he is a legend… I might do a post on him.
Okay, so what about noodles today?
From scratch, ramen noodles are commonly made with wheat flour, water, kansui (alkaline salt) and salt. Chefs get very experimental all over the internet with the amount of each ingredient and get nitty gritty about it. Typically, the dough is flattened to a certain thickness, then cut in to its signature curly shape and then boiled or steamed. The ramen noodle is ready to go at this point and can be eaten right away. Some chefs insist that certain noodles be served with certain broths. If the noodle were to be turned in to instant noodles, however, it would then be fried and cooled to go in to packaging.
To step inside a ramen noodle factory, check out this youtube video!
So there you have it! After spending hours on the internet and learning copious amount of information about ramen, I pulled out information that was specific to the noodle making. I even found out there is Ramen museum in Japan! Omg I must go!
If you want to try making your own ramen noodle at home, which I highly recommend using a noodle slicer to do, here is a recipe:
https://www.seriouseats.com/easy-ramen-noodles
Note that you actually have to bake the baking soda in this recipe. There is a link in the website to get to it but in case you can’t find it click here.
References:
13 February 2022 at 3:08 pm
Hi Ami,
It was so cool to read your post and learn some more about the history of the ramen noodle. I always wondered how it was possible that they cooked so quickly (as that is usually the primary reason I choose to make ramen-to save time)! You have clearly put in a lot of work and research into this, it is so awesome that you are engaging so deeply with your inquiry! I really like the concept of adding things to ramen. Not only does it add flavors and creativity to the dish, but it also adds nutrition! I usually go the easy route and add a lot of green peas to my ichiban-haha. I wonder if you have any interest in trying to make the ramen noodles? It would be neat to hear your relfections on the making-process now that you have done some research. So cool about the museum too… maybe you could do a trip!
I am looking forward to where your research takes you next. Great job!
Jamie