I don't know what it is, exactly, but communal ramen always tastes better than any other kind of ramen, perhaps better than any other kind of noodle dish.
Maybe it's because ramen was only an occasional food when I was growing up. We'd have to be sick, or having a bad day or something, and my mom would let my dad make ramen for us as a special treat. And my dad is a man who adores ramen, so he'd always go all out. Two packages of normal noodles, one package of rice noodles, three different kinds of seasoning packets, all mixed together and simmering in one big pot. He had some sort of secret sense for cooking it at exactly the right heat level and exactly the length of time for each noodle to be translucent and chewy in the way that Asian noodles should be. (Very "Q"...I don't know the pinyin for it, but it sounds like saying the letter "Q." My mom almost always says it in multiples of three: "Q, Q, Q!") Anyway, it was awesome.
Then I went off to college, spent two years puttering around and being weird and emo and angsty before really finding a solid group of friends. One of my favorite college memories was midnight ramen nights my junior year in the C-house. Someone would be making one package of ramen, and gradually more and more would be added in as people walked by and suddenly felt hungry, too. I remember Adam looking flabbergasted (but amused) when he found himself, Strega Nona-like, cooking two separate pots filled to almost overflowing with ramen. Then Connie was holding a carton of eggs and counting off to make sure everyone would get one, and Sunny was doing her sideways-clicky-crab dance across the kitchen hallway and then pretending it never happened. Once the noodles were done, it was doled out as equally as possible into various bowls, mugs and those ugly plastic dinner plates stolen from the Caf. Someone was always eating straight from the pot, hobo-style. Soy sauce and Sriracha was passed around. No one really ever got enough to be full, but it didn't really matter and everyone left the table satisfied anyway. There was a lot of laughing and good-natured teasing and wearing of pajamas. It was fun.
Today, I often make ramen when I'm homesick (or just plain lazy), but no matter what I do, it never tastes as good as it does at home or at W&M. I don't know if it's b/c I eat from a real bowl now instead of a coffee cup, but there's something about that atmosphere, I think, that makes food taste better and the winter not as cold. I really miss that sometimes.
Showing posts with label ramen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ramen. Show all posts
Friday, December 3, 2010
Monday, August 9, 2010
foods i eat when no one's watching
Like most girls, I adore lists of any sort. "10 Tips to a Slimmer You." "10 Jeans Guaranteed to Make Your Butt Look Awesome." "5 Blouses to Boost Your Boobage." Etc. (And now you know what kinds of magazines I read after having a fancy-pants liberal arts education and a Masters degree from Northwestern.)
Today's list is inspired by a CNN article I read a few months back about the gross foods that we eat in secret when we think no one else is around. Because, let's face it--no one wants anyone to be watching when they eat packets of microwaveable Kraft mac 'n' cheese! (Not that I do, of course; that is what we journalists call "an example general audiences will understand, but not something that we do personally, especially not for four years in college.") But oh, how we love those guilty pleasures! Without further ado:
1. Raw cookie dough. Salmonella be damned, I love raw cookie dough for its smooth-yet-grainy texture, how you can kind of feel the sugar grains crack between your teeth. I love taking my time nibbling on the dough and the chocolate chipd and squishing it between my fingers. So I guess I don't eat it around people, not so much that it's a gross food, but that I like to take an embarrassingly long time to eat it.
2. Brussel sprouts. I know it's weird, which is why I don't tend to eat it around people. But I can't help but love brussel sprouts. Get a pan really hot and then melt some butter, throw in some Tony Chachere seasoning, cut the sprouts in half and pan-fry them until they're charred on the outside, flaky and tender on the inside. SO GOOD. Tyler thinks it's gross though, and has not let me forget the one time I made him eat ONE leaf, which he washed down with frantic gulps of water. (Not even the whole sprout! Just one leaf!)
3. Dried squid and fish snacks. Remember how we used to eat them in the Nicholas/Asian households? Those were the days! Remember how Benny bought a package of them and we roasted (okay, HE roasted) them over our stove so they got all hot and crackly? And all the squid and cuttlefish-related snacks that Sunny brought from Taiwan?? Haven't had the opportunity to be eating them these days, but it's something I know I would eat when no one's around. Mmm, savor that Asian goodness!
4. Rainbow frosting from the can. You know, the vanilla frosting that's got all the yummy roundish rainbow-colored candies inside? This is not to be confused with the kind that's got the flat sprinkles--the rainbow candies are like 12485231 better tasting and better textured than the sprinkles! I could just eat spoonfuls of this stuf, relishing every rainbow candy. So it's basically like eating butter and sugar and food coloring for a couple of hours. So gross, so delicious.
5. Ramen. Every bowl of Shin Ramyun takes me back to the good ol' Nicholas 107 days. Also, my mom used to only let us eat ramen on special days, like snow days, or if we had a bad day, so it's kind of become like my ultimate comfort food. Being alone out in the Midwest, I have had my share of nostalgia and homesickness, which means I turn to ramen rather a lot. I've gotten to the point where I've started to be all chef-y with my ramen. Like I'll mix different seasonings and sauces together or cook it with different kinds of stock (if you make it with chicken broth, it's basically healthy, right? Just like chicken noodle soup!). I also try varying combinations of what I call "ramen accessories": eggs, tempura, tofu, frozen corn, sausage. It's almost become like real cooking for me, which is kind of sick, if you think about it.
Some of you might be thinking "My gosh, Vicky, I never knew you liked rainbow icing that much," or "I never knew you were a ramen connoisseur," to which I reply "OF COURSE NOT, that's why they are SECRET FOODS that I eat when no one's watching!" These are foods that must be eaten with a certain lack of grace that just won't do with company around.
So now that you know my guilty foods, what are yours??
Today's list is inspired by a CNN article I read a few months back about the gross foods that we eat in secret when we think no one else is around. Because, let's face it--no one wants anyone to be watching when they eat packets of microwaveable Kraft mac 'n' cheese! (Not that I do, of course; that is what we journalists call "an example general audiences will understand, but not something that we do personally, especially not for four years in college.") But oh, how we love those guilty pleasures! Without further ado:
1. Raw cookie dough. Salmonella be damned, I love raw cookie dough for its smooth-yet-grainy texture, how you can kind of feel the sugar grains crack between your teeth. I love taking my time nibbling on the dough and the chocolate chipd and squishing it between my fingers. So I guess I don't eat it around people, not so much that it's a gross food, but that I like to take an embarrassingly long time to eat it.
2. Brussel sprouts. I know it's weird, which is why I don't tend to eat it around people. But I can't help but love brussel sprouts. Get a pan really hot and then melt some butter, throw in some Tony Chachere seasoning, cut the sprouts in half and pan-fry them until they're charred on the outside, flaky and tender on the inside. SO GOOD. Tyler thinks it's gross though, and has not let me forget the one time I made him eat ONE leaf, which he washed down with frantic gulps of water. (Not even the whole sprout! Just one leaf!)
3. Dried squid and fish snacks. Remember how we used to eat them in the Nicholas/Asian households? Those were the days! Remember how Benny bought a package of them and we roasted (okay, HE roasted) them over our stove so they got all hot and crackly? And all the squid and cuttlefish-related snacks that Sunny brought from Taiwan?? Haven't had the opportunity to be eating them these days, but it's something I know I would eat when no one's around. Mmm, savor that Asian goodness!
4. Rainbow frosting from the can. You know, the vanilla frosting that's got all the yummy roundish rainbow-colored candies inside? This is not to be confused with the kind that's got the flat sprinkles--the rainbow candies are like 12485231 better tasting and better textured than the sprinkles! I could just eat spoonfuls of this stuf, relishing every rainbow candy. So it's basically like eating butter and sugar and food coloring for a couple of hours. So gross, so delicious.
5. Ramen. Every bowl of Shin Ramyun takes me back to the good ol' Nicholas 107 days. Also, my mom used to only let us eat ramen on special days, like snow days, or if we had a bad day, so it's kind of become like my ultimate comfort food. Being alone out in the Midwest, I have had my share of nostalgia and homesickness, which means I turn to ramen rather a lot. I've gotten to the point where I've started to be all chef-y with my ramen. Like I'll mix different seasonings and sauces together or cook it with different kinds of stock (if you make it with chicken broth, it's basically healthy, right? Just like chicken noodle soup!). I also try varying combinations of what I call "ramen accessories": eggs, tempura, tofu, frozen corn, sausage. It's almost become like real cooking for me, which is kind of sick, if you think about it.
Some of you might be thinking "My gosh, Vicky, I never knew you liked rainbow icing that much," or "I never knew you were a ramen connoisseur," to which I reply "OF COURSE NOT, that's why they are SECRET FOODS that I eat when no one's watching!" These are foods that must be eaten with a certain lack of grace that just won't do with company around.
So now that you know my guilty foods, what are yours??
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