The Intrinsic Properties of Ramen: A Digression

Ramen is delicious and not exactly nutritious, and I love it. It's the stereotypical poor apartment dweller and or college student staple meal. It's simple and quick to make, tastes great, and costs like a dollar for twenty of the things. You can get them in styrofoam cups or packages of the noodles and flavoring. You can get them in all kinds of flavors, each unique (sort of) and wonderfully tasty for some incredible reason. My two personal favorite brands are Maruchan and Cup Noodle, with the former making primarily the packaged noodles and well, if you can't guess what Cup Noodle does I might as well just stop writing this now. But since I'm writing this in real time and not actually talking to anyone I'm going to assume you're not an idiot and continue anyways!

In all reality ramen is great pretty much any time of the year, though for me it is particularly great in winter. It's for the same reason one doesn't really have hot chocolate all that often in the summertime, or hot soup for that matter, which is a much more valid comparison I guess seeing as how they're practically the same thing BUT WHATEVER. I was cold, so I turned on the heat in the room (which I'm still not entirely sure if it actually works or not) and heated up a cup of noodles and am as of this writing enjoying it. I might make more after, I might not. You never know with these kind of things.


The thing about ramen, or at least store-bought ramen, is that it doesn't seem fully realized. What I mean to say is that, yes, it says "Chicken/Roast Beef/etc. Flavoring", and it smells like chicken/roast beef/etc., but it doesn't quite actually reach the taste of said flavor(s). It's probably to be expected from a mass produced form of meal for those with low budgets, but the true issue I find with the taste is actually the smell. The companies manage to get the smell so perfectly tuned that you are in fact excited to eat your bowl or cup of noodles. You are temporarily fooled into actually believing what you're eating is a heaping helping of wonderfully cheap sustenance that tastes fantastic, but it is instead a heaping helping of wonderfully cheap noodles that almost tastes fantastic. Note that I left out the sustenance part, because living off of ramen is just plain unhealthy, especially if you're one of those types (like me!) who's daring (read: stupid) enough to drink the broth afterwards. All the sodium I'd ever need ever has never tasted so good or been in liquid form.

Taking a quick jaunt over to Wikipedia reveals images of what looks to be legitimate and incredibly good ramen, the kind of ramen I'd love to actually partake in. The real deal. The stuff that I wish I could have on a regular basis but can't because I don't live anywhere even remotely close to China or Japan and don't have infinity dollars. For now I'll just have to settle on my Roast Beef flavored Maruchan cup of Instant Lunch and be satisfied, dreaming of what I could be having instead of what I have.