Upgrade Your Instant Noodles

I love ramen noodles, much to my blushing bride’s chagrin.

I never understood what the stigma around eating instant ramen was all about.  I love instant ramen!  I’ve tried lots of different varieties, but mostly for flavor ideas.  Maybe it’s the cheapskate in me, but I love the cheapest instant ramen we can get at our local grocery store; Maruchan Instant Lunch.  They’re a mere 29 cents each most of the time and often go on sale at 10 for a dollar.  My wife, who worries about my health, thinks instant ramen isn’t good for me, but I think we just need to stock up on some of the better upgrade opportunities for cheap ramen!
Personally, I like to add the occasional hard-boiled egg, especially to chicken-flavored instant ramen.  But, I’ve also been known to add pre-cooked, frozen shrimp to shrimp-flavored ramen and left-over beef or pork to other flavors.  Of course, I often will add various spices I may have laying around or something more exciting like sriracha, to literally spice things up.  (You can get more ideas for ramen upgrades at Serious Eats, but they get pretty complicated.  I keep things simple.)

But, my personal love of instant ramen aside, what I’m really bringing to you is a link to the World Instant Noodles Association.  Yes, that’s right, there’s an entire organization devoted to the love of my favorite high-sodium indulgence.  In fact, WINA is endorsed by  Momofuku Ando, the inventor of instant noodles!  You can’t get a better vote of confidence than that!
And, along with the latest news and updates about the world of ramen, you can find out all about the history of instant noodles and even about their use as emergency food in disaster areas at the WINA website.  For instance, did you know that Momofuku Ando invented what we think of as instant ramen in 1958?  And improved them into a single-serving in 1971 under the now famous brand “CUP NOODLE”?  He’s also behind the innovative Space Ram, instant noodles actually eaten in space by Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in July 2005.  Instant ramen are the food of the future!

And, if you still don’t haven’t had enough information about instant ramen and DIY improvements, here’s a video for you to watch before you grab lunch:

Next week, I’ll try to get something posted before I get hungry for lunch, since that obviously influenced my choice of links to share this week.
Enjoy your weekend!