do you eat instant noodles?

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boomchakabowwow

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i dont. maybe 4x a year. i find them too extreme. extreme salt, extreme spicy. a package never fills me up, and it cant be good for me at all, so i avoid them.

my wife on the other hand, LOVES THEM. my pantry looks like the closet of a college dorm room. She does add fresh veg, and usually an egg..but i still dont really like them.

it has to be a billion dollar industry. there are thousands of varieties.

you all?
 
If you mean instant ramen noodles, I make them frequently. I throw out the "flavor" packet and add brown sugar to the water. Then chop vegetables - cabbage, carrots, jalapeno, garlic and whatever else we have fresh on hand. Add a diced protein - usually chicken or pork and I have a nutricious lunch.
 
I have one every year or two, if I have a craving. Last was 4 months ago, when I read about the Korean version, and wanted to see what it was like.

People told me in Hong Kong that many of the young people there prefer instant noodles over the incredible chewy Cantonese noodles that are served in a lot of places. I am still flabbergasted. Some days, I'd about kill to be able to just walk down the street and into Mak An Kee, thinking "shrimp wonton, or tendon today?" the way that Hong Kong'ers can.
 
Lots of brands to try that aren't the typical nissin or maruchan that is commonly found in american supermarkets. Those suck, both broth and noodles.

I'm starting to see Nongshim (Korean) brand at Safeway though as well as A-sha (taiwan). A-sha (which makes the Momofuku instant noodles too BTW) use air-dried noodles vs the standard deep-fried. People tend to mention nongshim Shin ramyun or Shin Black, but I don't like them, and not worth the price premium. Nissin Raoh line isn't bad. Unfortunately there are too many Asian brands and versions to go through.

If I could only pick one, I would go with Nongshim Neoguri seafood udon. Been eating that since a kid
 
Jongga is another Korean brand.
Jongga Kimchi ramen is good--and comes with a pouch of actual kimchi.
Use all the kimchi, half the flavor powder, add sesame oil and Worcestershire. Good stuff.

There's all types of good instant ramen available these days.
 
Instant noodles are a guilty pleasure of mine. It's a tasty quick meal/snack for when I'm feeling lazy, late night munching/sobbering up, morning hangover etc.
Love all the one cup Japanese varieties. Also love the buldak carbonara and love making jjapaguri where you mix both neoguri and jjapegetti packs together.
Usually add whatever easy ingredients I have on hand: eggs, negi, spinach, mushrooms, corn, shrimp, steak, sausage, asparagus, etc. If I have something like leftover tempura, Curry or oxtail soup I might throw it in. Depending on the variety and mood, I might use limes, cilantro, fish sauce, chili oil, shichimi, natto, truffle oil, salsa, cheese, kōrēgusu. Love adding seafood to it, mentaiko, various fish roe's. If I have lobster or scallops lying around its going in.
 
Slightly off topic but I love spagettios too. Eating that with mozzarella sticks, fresh craked black pepper, and lots of parm. Drizzle of truffle oil if I have it.

Also, the instant japanese pasta sauces. I'm backwards with that one, I make fresh pasta for it lolol.
 

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I can eat them but I never particularly cared for them. Never found the them all that interesting. Maybe they'd be more interesting if they offered more nutritionally? I don't know why we haven't seen a more succesful noodles+ that has more stuff like dried veg and meat to it outside the outdoor industry.
 
Generally a fan of shin black, 2-3 soft boiled eggs on top, whatever left protein that may be in the fridge, scallions, fried shallots or onions and homemade garlic crisp.

I don’t buy them much because spending 2-3 bucks on an instant food item feels wrong to me, but I won’t turn my nose up at dressing them up for a fast and tasty lunch. The eggs turn it into something that’s actually filling.
 
https://www.ft.com/content/fa3d201e-0e0b-461b-a623-c75c7312becd

…
Where the red flags start waving, though, is among consumers in richer countries where — in a term chillingly used by Japan’s instant noodle makers — households have been pulled into a global cycle of “food product down-trading”. By the end of 2022, both the US and UK consumption of instant noodles had risen 14 per cent over five years. Japan, having entered an era of inflation after decades of deflation, now eats more of them than it did in 2018, even though its population is smaller. The empowerment of instant noodles as the favourite currency in US jails points (albeit in extreme terms) to the increasing gaps that the food is called upon to fill. In his 2022 book Orange Collar Labor, the academic Michael Gibson-Light uses the testimonies of inmates and staff to describe a prison system that, in part because of financial incentives for private operators to cut costs, no longer provides enough food to sustain an adult. The instant noodles, in this environment, become critical units of survival. Much like cash, says Gibson-Light, a single noodle packet can store value for some time, act as a standardised unit of account and be easily exchanged for services and goods between buyers and sellers.
…

Oodles of noodles: how a global favourite became an economic red flag​

Cheap and calorie-filled, the rapid foodstuff tells us about the state of the world

LEO LEWIS
 
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So if the sodium bothers you. you can substitute the powder with some miso and milk with green onions and egg and its pretty good.
 
Michi said:
I’ve eaten these a few times. Hot to the point of being painful. I don’t think this is interesting or enjoyable food. It probably exists mainly for the “see if you dare” effect.
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My man it's like 8k Scoville. I struggle with hot foods in my old age (shut up @daveb), but like, are you sure you're cooking them right? This is a jalapeno hot at worst.

That said, these are ****ing amazing too (and more flavor / less spice):

1710476070954.png
 
On one of my deployments, we had to live off the local cuisine (some times you bring cooks, sometimes you just eat what's there). Not that the local food was bad, but the only thing we could find that we also ate at home was instant noodles. For seven months that was the closest to "home" I ever felt. Instant noodles are now the most feel good snack there is for me. I probably have a pack a week now.
 
Michi said:
I’ve eaten these a few times. Hot to the point of being painful. I don’t think this is interesting or enjoyable food. It probably exists mainly for the “see if you dare” effect.
Click to expand...
I only use half a packet and it was pretty nice, South Korean instants tends to has more springiness to them which I like
 
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