On 11/12/2010 9:55 AM, James Silverton wrote:
> dsi1 wrote on Fri, 12 Nov 2010 08:16:57 -1000:
>
>> On 11/12/2010 5:53 AM, James Silverton wrote:
>>>
>>> This is not being asked in any spirit of sarcasm, but just
>>> what makes a bowl of Ramen great? As far as I can tell, it's a rather
>>> simple bowl of noodles in a reasonably good tasting sauce or soup.
>>> Commercial dried Ramen, as sold in
>>> supermarkets, is remarkably high in sodium and fat and is not
>>> something I am attracted to. Is making Ramen one of
>>> those Japanese things where a seven-year apprenticeship is
>>> necessary for mastery, like that alleged for Miso production?
>>> I'd like to know how to make Ramen but details are
>>> surprisingly hard to find on the net.
>
>> The dried instant ramen is a different product than the real
>> ramen. That stuff is fried to make a noodle that can be stored
>> on the shelves. Proper ramen is made from fresh noodles which,
>> I suppose, can be refrigerated for a short while. I can't say how
>> difficult it is to make a great bowl of ramen because I
>> mostly buy the stuff in restaurants. I'm pretty sure that you can't
>> make a great bowl unless you have a source of fresh
>> noodles.
>
>>> Another question, thinking about Hawaii, what makes Ramen
>>> different from Saimin? When I was last in Hawaii, you could
>>> get Saimin at MacDonald's. The stuff did not reach the level of
>>> interest of Hamura's on Kauai but wasn't bad for a quick
>>> lunch.
>>>
>> The saimin noodle is thicker than a ramen noodle. My guess is that
>> saimin is not served anywhere but Hawaii. I grew up eating saimin, not
>> ramen.
> Thanks for all the information!

I forgot to add that saimin has a funky curly look to it and is white to
light beige in color. Ramen has a destinct yellow cast to it and is
straight. My guess is that ramen is based on Chinese style noodles and
has eggs in it. I can't say why saimin appears to have no similarity to
Chinese or Japanese noodles or why it's all curly. It's an major dish in
these islands and yet it seems saimin shops have gone the way of
drive-in theaters. Years ago, there were many shops selling saimin and
nobody heard of ramen. Mostly the saimin I get these days in restaurants
are just so-so and a small part of the menu.

>
> It may well be that ramen nooles as served in ramen shops are not fried
> and I will have to look out to see if anyone opens a Ramen place around
> DC. Certainly, I have just spent an interesting, if frustrating, time
> inspecting the numerous packages of ramen both plain and flavored in my
> favorite Kam Sam supermarket. All the servings of ramen indicate about
> 25% of the recommended daily fat intake and are way above my personal
> limits of about 1/10 of that. The sodium levels are similar.

You are right about this. The instant ramen soup base pack is high in
salt. My guess is that the noodles have the fat because they're deep
fried and have a high amount of surface area. If I cook the instant
stuff, I cook it al dente and rinse the noodles in cold water which may
reduce the fat content a little. Typically I won't use the soup base
packet and instead will make the broth part using bonito flavored power
which is high in salt (and MSG) but at least tastes better than that
salty stuff that comes with the ramen. I won't use the water used to
boil the noodles for the soup because that water gets all cloudy and icky.

Strangely enough, a bowl of instant ramen will look more like a bowl of
saimin than ramen due to it's curliness and thickness.

>
> The same problems occur for all packages of Japanese curry and I will
> not be experimenting with them for Katsu curry either.
>
> By the way, I just had a most enjoyable low-fat lunch having Pho Ga
> (Chicken) at a Pho restaurant. They use two thicknesses of (I think)
> rice noodles and serve large quantities of bean sprouts, basil, sliced
> jalapeno peppers and lime as well as sliced whitemeat chicken in the
> soup. That's going to remain my standard noodle lunch, I guess.
>

The VN Pho is appealing for today's health conscientious noodle eaters -
that's my guess anyway. That stuff does have a look of freshness that
ramen noodles will lack.