Anime Pop Culture & RamenRamen has a complimentary influence with the pop anime culture in character, favorite food, eating contest, product, etc. Its more recent fame is championed by the popular Naruto and InuYasha anime on American TV.
Noodles in ChinaNoodles are now presumed to be about 4000 years ago in China, with the recent discovery of a 4,000-year-old bowl of left-over noodles.
There are so many ways of making & serving noodles in China. Found in a variety of shapes & textures, there are rice noodles, (favoured in the south of China) egg noodle, shrimp noodle, wheat noodles (favoured in the north of China), threadlike rice stick noodle and transparent “Cellophane” noodles. And they can be found in Congees and Soups fried with pieces of meats and vegetables, plain as an accompaniment, even cold, nestled under some grated carrot & spicy meat sauce.
In rural areas of northwestern China, a millet noodles with a harder texture than wheat noodles is still eaten and are commonly called “iron-wire” noodles.
The ancient art of hand pulled noodles or “lai mein” is still practiced today by some. In 12 pulls an expert can yield 2048 even “dragon beards” as fine as angel hair noodles. Originally, “dragon beards” noodles were just called “beards,” but they caught the fancy of an emperor and the dragon was the symbol of all emperors.
Noodles of all varieties share a common symbolism - the longer the noodle you eat, the longer you should live!
String Theory and the art of noodlingThis webdiary is nothing short of remarkable in its knowledge about noodles. One of the best articles that I have read.
But you definitely have to skim quickly pass the initial rambling to about midway into this articles before he really talk about noodles and I think you’ll be suprised like I was about what he had put together!
Giant Instant NoodlesIndofood made a Guinness World Record in the category of “The Largest Packet of Instant Noodles†on February 3, 2005. Click on the link to see a photo of it with two rather diminutive chefs beside it.
The giant packet of “Indomie†instant noodles measures 3.4m x 2.355m x 0.47m, with a net weight of 664.938 kg, which is about 8,000 times the weight of a regular pack of instant noodles.
Wanko-men Doggie RamenThere isn’t much in the way of products and services people can’t buy for their pets these days…a company recently introduced a special variety of ramen noodles for dogs.
Its product, named “Wanko-men,” is a clever play on words, borrowing its name from the famous “wanko-soba” buckwheat noodles in Iwate Prefecture. “Wan-wan” is Japanese onomatopoeia for “bow-wow.”
“Well, dogs have a desire to eat the same foods as their masters,” explains Hirofumi Ito, president of Ramen Santoka. “But the noodles we eat are too salty for dogs. We figured if we reduced the salt, it would be safer and healthier for dogs to eat.
A cup is a cup, right?Well, it seems that a cup in instant noodle package’s cooking directions is often about six ounces, not eight. So 2 1/2 cups is more like 2 cups!
Fueled By Ramen RecordsFueled by Ramen Records is an independent record label started by two people, a drummer for Less Than Jake and a college freshman, and so their first offices combined a dorm room and an apartment.
Website motto: “No Food. No Sleep. Just Records.”
“N-Word”Until recently, the FDA required a noodle to contains flour, water and eggs to be rightly called a noodle.
Since most Asian noodles aren’t made with eggs, this left them with alternatives like “imitation noodles,” Asian noodle producers - from the birthplace of the noodle no less - could not use the n-word. The government finally relented, and we can now see “Asian noodles” on packages.
Original Source: The Cook’s Thesarus - Asian Noodles
Real Ramen“Real” ramen is a greasy, slurpy, splashy noodles and well-seasoned broth concortion found in crowded eateries all over Japan, and if you’re lucky - a good Japanese-style eateries near you!
Ramen is not exactly a health food, but it had inspired a whole nation to embrace it as a new national dish. Of course, not having these exquisite tasty cuisines, we settle for instant ramen.
In the U.S. market, most of the “real” tastes are left out in instant ramen due to consumer concerns with labelings. Anything authentic tasting are served in resturants only, like other fine rich foods. Read the rest of this page »
Wikipedia - Ramen 101Wikipedia’s Ramen has a great introduction to ramen, including types, history and other trivia.
Instant Rice NoodlesRice noodles are a wonderful air-dried gluten-free product with less than 1% fats. Being translucent, the flat varieties are known as “cellophane” noodles. It’s already precooked, but it’s so hard that it’s not good to eat without soaking in water first. It gets lusciously soft when wet and stays very well even in hot water.
The noodles have to be thin to help it soak up water very quickly, usaully in 1-2 minute in hot water. Sometime the noodles stick together and this is a problem because thick clumps do not soften easily. I have noticed this problem occasionally with rice noodles. When adding hot water to rice noodles, stir it to prevent sticking. It’s also a problem to heat in the microwave, unless it’s soaked well first.
Rice noodles are very popular in Vietnamese “Pho” noodle soups which have been a phenomenal success as so many “Pho” noodle shops are springing up everywhere.
