What do Yale, Techno and Fred Ramen...

...Have in Common? Raamen!

Fred Ramen
Go to Rosen Publishing to find a list of books written by Fred Ramen. He writes a lot of biographies of various nefarious humans (lightly termed 'humans') such as Albert Speer ("Hitler's Architect") and that Hermann Goering guy ("Hitler's Second-in-Command") and less volatile humans such as Hernando Cortes, Jerry West, and Joe Montana. Fred also writes about the Constitution of the US and has a historical map of Iran. He writes for the Young Adult market and several of his non-fiction books are recommended for schools. (The link above takes you to his "A Historical Atlas of North America Before Columbus.")

You might wonder why Rosen Publishing has so many typos on their site (Goering is spelled Goring; Hernando is spelled Hernan), but that doesn't detract from the fact they have a Ramen (even if it does have only one 'A') on their list of authors.

Shirts Plus
At Techno Ramen you can get a thong. Or a bunch of shirts with テクノラーメン imprinted on them. (That's katakana for Techno Ramen.) The thong and a hoodie are the only items advertised as "Made in the USA." All the other items don't share their country of origin information which can only make one suspect China (country of origin for raamen or 'lau mein').

Yale
The east coast school, not the locksmith. Check out this "Ramen to Riches" story by a Yalie with a background a bit different from most Yalies.

Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Yagoohoogle search for ramen.
A comparison of the three search engines looking for "ramen" reveals
Google ............... 2,690,000
Yahoo ................ 2,470,000
Yagoohoogle.......5,160,000
MSN ................225,999,068

Wow. How does MSN do it? I think they do it by including every website on the 'Net because some of the sites had absolutely nothing to do with raamen. (Check out the "Job and Volunteer Opportunities" site, for example.)

Thanks for dropping by; drop a drop of rum in your raamen and let me know how it turned out.

Alleviate Hunger (hungersite) and Help...

...Others

Please click on the Hunger, Child Health, and Literacy sites. (Here and on the top right of the page.) It costs you nothing, you get to feel good about yourself, and you help others all at the same time. And, if you make them your home site, you can click everyday. And feel good about yourself everyday! Think of the self-satisfaction you'll get from that! (And if you're really hungry yourself, you can click on the World Ramen link and view world ramen.)

Thank you very much.

How Do You Deal with...

...Security cams?

Today's raamen had half an egg, some really small bean sprouts, some oily greasy film on the top, the noodles, a thin slice of fatty pork, and some seaweed, but very little. It cost about US$3.00 and came with nothing. Nada. No onigiri, no pickled cabbage. Nothing. No ambience to speak of, either, as I was snarfing it down in a cafeteria.

However, whilst slurping I meet an Australian and an American who were sucking up to their supervisors, both Americans. Seems both the workers chose the job based on the city rather than the job itself. This didn't make their supervisors estatic, but they were only being honest.

We discussed, among other things, the presence of spy cameras in their office. They were placed there for 'security reasons,' according to their supervisors, who answered questions and then remained silent. Spy-like silent, I might add. Naturally. But we think the real reason is to catch white-collar theft.

Regardless, we proposed ways of circumventing the cameras, the easiest of which was to turn it off. Whoa, what a concept. The others included making a tape-loop of you working hard; turning the camera toward the window so the supervisors could see how the weather was doing; turning the camera toward the supervisors' offices so they could see how they were doing - not a popular one among the, uh, supervisors.

The raamen was mediocre to average while the conversation was above average. Probably because of the mix of nationalities. It was a shio (salt) raamen. Next week I'm going to try the tonkotsu (pork bone?) Kyushu-style raamen.

More when I eat more. (This is ironic.) Help others. Click here: The HungerSite

Raamen has Two A's...

...Doesn't it?

Every site and every book I read about raamen spells it with one A. Why? Because people spell it that way? Then, why do I spell it with two? To be different? To be contrary? To bne out of step with the rest of society? Yes. However, in my defense I must insist that, in Japanese, raamen is written ラーメン. Now, what does that long hyphen mean? To me it means stretch it out, say it long, say it proud. So, raaaaaaamen. To me 'ramen' is too short, too insincere, too Westernized thinking. Raaaaaaaamen. Sounds great. Maybe a few too many 'a's, so, raamen. "Ramen" would be written in Japanese as ラメン. (Without the hyphen.)

Trendy

There were/are two raamen shops near where I live. One was very trendy with jazzy music, lots of wood, plants, sharp-dressing waiters and waitresses, unique and stylish bowls and chopsticks. Plenty of parking. Went out of business in a year.

The other one, of course, was a pit: dirty, small, cramped, the owner/cook was brusque (not rude, just not kind). Been in business for decades. The cook probably bought his house, sent his kids through college and vacations in Spain for a month every year.

Maybe the trendy one ran by a different business plan: a certain percentage of return on investment had to be met and it wasn't. The stinky-poo shop probably works on the 'I made money' school of business.

In any case, check out Mr. Trendy Organic Raamen Man in another city. Especially read the last paragraph about what a traditional raamen shop is. I liked the "dingy joints, their counters crowded with chopsticks..." They left out the cockroaches. Out of the article, not the raamen. Raamen shops, the greasy chopsticks of Japan.

Nutrition

By the way, one thing raamen isn't is low in sodium. Check this out for the nutritional love raamen slurps your way. If you go to Nissin's website and slide on over to the FAQ, you might notice most of the questions have to do with the health or non-health aspects of their Top Ramen and Cup Noodles. Hmmm. Nutrition and Raamen. Sounds like a good research project for some underpaid, over-stressed PhD candidate.

More when the hunger strikes.

A Good Raamen Shop Should Have...

...Cockroaches.

Big ones. Hungry ones. By cockroaches, of course, I mean big friggin' black cockroaches that fly when too irritated and can take the arms off of a small bird. Preferably a Blatta orientalis, the most common creepy from Japan. Why? (I mean, besides being able to find a roach in your raamen environment.) Because raamen is not health food; despite what some raamen apologists claim. Healthy? It's noodles floating in pork (read: dead and boiled pigs) bits.

If you've ever been in Japan and if you've gone drinking with your buddies in Japan then you know that after a few hefty bottles of sake or shochu (my favorite deadly drink.), your buddies will drag your inebriated soul to a raamen shop. A cheap one. Where you will be expected to consume oily, greasy, pork-ladden soup with vegies. And maybe a couple of onigiri. Why? Because you need something to throw up. Nothing worse on the train station or in the back of a taxi than dry heaving in a foreign language.

Raamen. A great food. I love it. And it's not just for after drinking anymore either. You can have it for lunch! In bright and shiny new chain raamen shops. With cheerful waitresses in bright white uniforms and charming smiles. Boring! Boring! Raamen is meant to be slurped down in a dive. With a crappy TV in the corner with bad reception. Or a radio (ever been to Japan? And you listened to the radio? Why?) just slightly out of tune that nobody listens to anyway.

More in two seconds; I need a bowl.

What in the World Happened...

... In Nebraska on this date in 1916?

My mother was born. Thus setting the stage for this blog about raamen and it's lore and love. Would my mother approve of my mating cockroaches and pigs in a blog on a food item? I don't think so. She may have never eaten raamen. She's eaten spaghetti. And what's the connection? Noodles. She did, however, instill a bit of a wanderlust in her offspring, thus giving me about two thousand addresses before I finally landed where I am now: Japan, for those interested. Other places being Washington, Wisconsin, Virginia, and a bunch of smaller places in between. (Can you think of something smaller than Lake Delton, WI?)

My mother was quite excited when I landed my first job in Japan. She started planning her vacation to visit me before I even got out of the car at the airport.

First time I stopped in on a raamen shop in Japan I was aghast. Startled. Concerned. Weirded out. Why? The presence of vermin not only on the floor and behind the counter but On the counter, on the walls, on the chopsticks. And, in one exciting moment, in the raamen. Oooh, lovely sight. Sharing your raamen with another of God's little creatures. I nearly upchucked my sake but that would've been a waste of several hundreds of dollars of good alcohol and several hours of mindless drinking.

How can you dislike a food whose whole preparation is diametrically opposed to cleanliness and readily acceptable levels of restaurant hygene?

In the next post, more about raamen.

More to Raamen than Raamen

Working Raamen Sites

For Fueled By Ramen records ("No Food, No Sleep, Just Records") and their very lively bands (Check out "I think Patrick Swayze is Sexy" by Kane Hodder) go to: Fueled By Ramen

For online renting of English-subtitled Asian DVDs including Japanese anime, rush off to the aptly named RamenCity at, aptly enough: RamenCity

To find out that instant noodles (Top Ramen, Cup Noodles) is an invention of Momofuku Ando and rakes in hundreds of billions of dollars a year (okay, $10 billion), go to Straight Dope at Straight Dope

(plus, I wanted to write Straight Dope on my blog. I mean, roaches are always welcome at raamen shops.) Mind you, of course, instant noodles are to raamen what an open, festering gunshot wound is to a nice bottle of chianti in a lover-friendly lounge with good live jazz.

If you want to brush up on your Japanese skills you can go here to find out that Japan has 12,634 raamen shops. I don't think so. I think there are a few thousand not counted. I mean, is this site talking about raamen shops or chain stores with bright lights? I don't know either. You be the judge (or teller) at the RamenBank at RamenBank

And if you still want to eat instant raamen in less than three minutes or so, go to this site and download a timer so you won't oversleep and miss that gourmet meal. (Instant noodles, the devil's plaything.) Timer

More on raamen after a quick snack, but thanks for all the folks above for proving raamen doesn't have to be about just noodles anymore.

What is Raamen and ...

...How Can it be Cured?

Raamen is not that university student garbage in the styrofoam (environmentally friendly students always use it, eh?) cup. Those are instant noodles, the Asian fast-food invention of the 50s, when Japan was on the verge of starvation. Understand that? On the verge, the precipice, the edge of dying from hunger. They - they being Momofuku Ando, founder of Nissin Foods (the home of Top Ramen and Cup Noodles) - invented instant noodles in that instant, 1958, and behold, they didn't.

Raamen, on the other chopstick, is a nice soup (broth, stock, dashi, whatever) into which are placed a variety of vegetables and other food items such as seaweed, an egg (or half of one, anyway), onions, a wonton or two, bean sprouts, mushrooms of a Japanese variety, and - often - a hunk of sliced, diced, brunt pig. (pork, for you meateaters, the other white meat.) There's tonkotsu ramen (pork), miso raamen (miso), shio raamen (salt), and shoyu raamen (soy sauce).

Naturally there are a few billion recipes for different kinds of raamen, like curry raamen. If you want to see 268 (and growing) recipes, check out Matt Fischer.

Raamen: the noodles, the topping, the broth. These simple three ingredients have a great variety of variation; lots. In fact, you can make a vegetarian raamen (leave out the pork, duh.) or a spicy hot raamen (add kimchi maybe?) if you want to. The point is, raamen is not instant noodles. Thank you very much.

More seriousness later, maybe.