Ramen boy was in for another treat from 7-Eleven in Tokyo thanks to his dad’s business trip and carrying back four of these bowls for him. I wish we had more since he’s already eaten two and the other two will no doubt be finished by the end of this week. He could finish them all in one sitting but I told him to ration the last two so that he could savor the noodles. Fat chance that will happen. If you can’t read Japanese it could be a bit daunting when you open the package and see the various packets inside which included a dehydrated slice of chashu. His fate accompli was figuring out the instructions and making his own bowl of ramen. He was impressed with his effort stating that the instant ramen was absolutely delicious. Like the real deal. Uh oh watch out Shoki Ramen. I didn’t get a chance to taste it but by the looks of the broth and the noodles it looked really good. Unfortunately it is not available for purchase in the U.S. and unless we have it regularly shipped to us from Japan or have friends bring it back ramen boy is straight out of luck. Me too since he’s happy to make these noodles on his own without any help from ramen mom.
instant ramen
Hail David Chang Momofuku’s supreme leader for creating this super simple and delicious recipe. I’m still on my Whole30 program and didn’t get to taste this yet (I will though!) but hubby slurped it down as soon as I plated the noodles. Ramen boy missed out he was too slow to get to the kitchen. The recipe comes from the Lucky Peach #1: The Ramen Issue magazine. It is filled with great recipes and stories but if you can’t find it on the newsstands you can find Lucky Peach online as well.
I cut the recipe in half since I only had one package of instant ramen noodles. Easy peasy to just combine the one cup of water, 1.5 T butter, 1/2 t olive oil and fresh black pepper in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil. Give it a quick stir and reduce the heat so that it comes to a simmer. Stir in one cup of grated pecorino romano and quickly add the noodles and continue to stir so that the cheese doesn’t get clumpy. Continue agitating and mixing around until most of the liquid is absorbed. Should take about 3 1/2 to 4 minutes. Plate the noodles, add some more pepper and go to town.
You will definitely be purring as you slurp down these noodles.
Ramen boy was in for a huge treat when my Japanese girlfriend found this instant packaged ramen in a 7-Eleven convenience store during her trip to Tokyo and brought it back for him. She knew ramen boy is a huge fan of Ippudo Ramen. We moved from Tokyo after the big earthquake in 2011 and he was having Ippudo Ramen withdrawal. I warned him that this might not taste the same but to give it a try. The soup base was liquid and all you needed to add was hot water and the noodles were freeze dried. Very easy to make and surprisingly very good too. He raved about it and only wished that she bought more. I will have to look for it the next time I go to Japan.