Concentration

In the last couple of weeks I've had a vegetable raamen at the same place twice. Both times the noodles were too soft and the vegetables overcooked. Plus, the TV was too loud and obnoxious. However, it was showing the news of the hour and being depressed by the murders and war fatalities took my mind off of the food. Which is a pity. I think when we are giving nourishment to our bodies we should concentrate on the project at hand rather than allow our minds to wander off in uncharted and unproductive side streams. In fact, if you will.... Perhaps we should concentrate always on what we are doing at the moment. Concentrate on the now, rather than dwell on the past or contemplate the future.

That doesn't mean we ignore the travesties brought on other people; we can't ignore the war dead or innocent people being murdered in the streets. We should do what we can to help all that we can. We should do what we can to help the end of a war (Peace isn't always bad, is it? I mean, blessed at the peacemakers? Isn't that a quote from some book?). No, we can concentrate all of our efforts supporting and nourishing those around us and hope, by a ripple effect, that others will help and help and eventually killing and wars will not be all diplomats and and murderers can think of.

Support the Prince of Peace

Life Recycling

This isn't to make people concerned or anything, but I think vegetarian raamen without a pork base is better for the world than a pork-based soup. Am I wrong here? There are a gazillion sources online (some true) that show how a lot of grain is used to feed pigs so we can eat the pigs. But, of course, the pig farmers add a lot of chemical junk to the pig's feed. If we eat the grain instead of the pig, we get the health benefits of the grain and skip the chemical junk. Of course the pig will have to die of old age after watching Arnold on "Green Acres" in his declining years, but doesn't that beat gathering all the chemical junk in our bodies? Just wondering.

Which brings me to this week's post: A vegetarian/vegetable raamen I had for about $4.00. It was okay in that it didn't have pig flesh, but the noodles had been cooked too long. The ambience of the raamen shop was pretty bleak, too. Industrial lighting and institutional seats (plastic). All together, not a good place to eat good food. If they could upgrade the ambience, boil the noodles a little less I think they'd have a winner. And it's near a university. A winner all around.

Simple Life/Simple Raamen

There's a new trend called 'slow life' creeping around Japan on little cat-like feet ready to pounce and the gist of the movement is that people should, as Joni Mitchell sang all those years ago, "get back to the garden." This has resulted in lots of people doing things themselves (Do it yourself-ers) and moving to more isolated places in Japan instead of slaving through the rat race in a concrete oven that's jam-packed with other race-ratters. (Is that a word?) One other result? More people more aware of what they eat and that, my friends, leads us to 'healthier' raamen. Yes, there is a trend away from your college-crowd snack food and back to food that doesn't required a chemistry degree to make. I.e. buckwheat noodles, water, homegrown veggies, and a little soup stock. You can be it takes a lot longer to make than the boil-water-three-minutes-uncover-consume raamen, but it's definitely better. And that has resulted in more raamen shops with 'healthy' raamen (trying to compete with the homegrown breed, I guess.)

Raamen: The Last Bastion of Homegrown Peace