A college student in Seattle, WA confronts food in its many forms - in restaurants, the quick bites in between classes and work, and, perhaps most importantly, she confronts the great puzzle of how to feed herself now that her mother doesn't make dinner...

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

The Adventures of Top Ramen, the Amazing No-cook, Deep-Fried Noodle*


We all looked with trepidation as Ann rolled the food cart into class last Thursday. Sure, it had the usual spread of teas and hot water, as well as some really delicious looking lemon bars, courtesy of Teresa. But we were all glancing at the lower shelf. Bright red and orange packaging drew our eyes. Were we hallucinating? Or was Ann really going to make us eat Ramen Noodles and Diet Coke in our food class?

Ann asked us all to take a sample of the foods and to do a taste test. Not just eat them, she said, but taste them. Really observe what it is about the texture and the flavor that makes this food up... OK. The first thing I noted was that I would be preparing the Ramen differently than I normally do. I usually boil water, and drop the block of noodles in for about 5 minutes while the water continues to boil. Then I drain them, put them in a bowl, and sprinkle the seasoning on and mix with a fork. Today, I would be eating the noodles like "normal" people do - adding the flavor packet to the noodles, covering them with hot water and letting them soften for three minutes. So, though I had Ramen almost every day as a child and have it about once a week now as a college student, this would be a new experience.

The texture was very chewy - almost like calamari, actually. These noodles hadn't had time to be fully cooked (or rather, softened - Ramen noodles are already deep-fat-fried before they're packaged), and thus were not soft. The springy texture was accompanied by a very subtle flavor... a non-flavor, actually. Since I was not using a full block of noodles, I used very little of the seasoning packet. However, I had covered this yellow powder in water, thereby making a kind of broth - I guess the way you're "supposed" to make it. And it was very... blah. I'm used to a sharp zing with the first bite of my chicken-flavored-powder-covered noodles, and it wasn't there this time. It tasted very neutral, almost more neutral than water. Like this was my tongue's natural taste.

My reaction was a lot different from most people in the class, and I think it's because of the way I prepared my noodles... who knew there were so many different ways to make them?!? But I remember and understand what they were talking about... the jolt of spice and tang, followed by a homey, chicken-y taste... but is that really the way chicken tastes? We talked about this, about the way that chicken-flavored products actually taste nothing like chicken. They have been chickenized, and in consuming these products since the moment of our birth, my generation has been chickenized. I actually don't know if I've ever had real chicken broth by itself. My mother has used it in cooking, but I don't think I've ever had it on its own. The only chicken soup I've ever had is from Campbell's, Progresso, or Top Ramen. And this chicken-y flavor hardly bears resemblence to the taste of the whole roast chicken I had last week. However, it does give reminder of the chicken-n-a-biscuit crackers I ate when I was little... and of chicken nuggets. And all other manner of chickenized products that came before and after the ramen. But does it taste anything like the feathered, clucking bird portrayed on the packaging? No.

I also found it very interesting that there were a handful of people who had never eaten Top Ramen before. Never. In their entire lives. This was so hard for me to fathom, because I grew up LIKING the stuff. There was one summer in particular... I think I had to be about 9 or so... I would go over to my friend Sarah's house every single morning. We would play for a few hours, eat lunch and watch a movie, then go outside and play again until my Mom called me home. And every day... every single day, we ate Top Ramen for lunch. Sarah would boil the water, and then we would each make the big decision... Chicken, Pork, Beef, Shrimp, or Oriental? And we would prepare it in the manner I described above, fully cooking and then draining the noodles before adding the pungent flakes and powder of our selected meat. (Which, by the way, begs a question - what do Orientals taste like?)

Anyway, it boggled my mind that there were people who had never eaten Ramen, when I was clearly raised on the stuff. And, after forgetting about it for about 10 years, I came to college and rediscovered it as the meal you don't have to really cook. But several students in my class said that their parents never gave it to them, and that they'd never tried it, even after they came to college. I suspect that it's a class issue. My family wasn't poor, but we certainly weren't rich. We lived in a duplex and then rented housing until I was 7 years old, but we always were working with my Dad's U.S. Navy salary. It wasn't until he made Chief when I was about 10 that we got more money, enough to be significantly choosier about our food. And that was probably about the time that the $0.20 blocks of starch disappeared from our cupboard. But I suppose there are people out there who have never been exposed to this. They're the same people who grow up eating vegetable plates and hummus for snacks. They're the same people who, now grown, feed their kids organic apples and Starbucks nonfat hot chocolate. But for those of us who didn't grow up that way, for those of us whose parents want to but can't afford to feed us those things... what is left?

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