What is ramen? All Japanese instant noodles are ramen, right? Wrong. Not all Japanese instant noodles are ramen. Apart from instant ramen, there are instant Udon, Beef noodles, etc. Infact, those instant noodles which are ramen are the closest they can get to the original, which can only be appreaciated in specialized shops where they use fresh noodles and cook the soup from scratch. However, the instant version is fairly popular in Malaysia as the original can be rather costly to eat on a regular basis, ranging from RM 12-20, per bowl.

Ramen is a noodle dish that originated from China, where all noodles seem to have come from, and are called “Lo-Mein” in Chinese, which means boiled noodles. The Japanese then modified it and turned it into their own special dish which is popular both in and out of Japan. It’s essentially a particular type of noodle made from cereal flour, about the thickness of spaghetti, served in soups of various flavours and toppings.

I was hooked on this dish after watching the anime series Naruto, in which the main character, Naruto loves to eat ramen. The uniqueness of ramen is the differing soup bases and toppings.

Here are some of the different soup bases:

• Shoyu Ramen: Brown, transparent, soya sauce based.
• Miso Ramen: Brown, non-transparent, miso based.
• Shio Ramen: Transparent, salt based.
• Tonkotsu Ramen: White, milky, pork based.

As for the toppings, the more famous ones are:

• Chashumen: BBQ pork ramen, something like our chinese “char siu bak”
• Tanmen: Vegetable ramen.
• Wonton ramen: Ramen with small Chinese dumplings, similar to our “wantan”

From experience, the ramen I’ve eaten so far are usually served in huge bowls, with a huge ladel known as renge. They usually serve it together with green tea, which is refillable. My friends and I love to spend hours on ends chatting after enjoying the meal and drinking tons of green tea until our bladders are full!

As for instant ramen, I’ve tried many brands, namely Nissin, Otogi, Nong Shim and Samyang and so far, my favourite is the Sutah Ramen by Samyang. I used to eat them as they were, but nowadays, I’ve learnt to add my own garnishing, such as cabbage, carrots and egg. Anyway, below is a picture of my home-made room-made ramen…

Itadakimasu!