Ramenbox Thoughts

Okay, I -was- asked, so!

Sapporo Ichiban Original: Beefy. Very good, non-sticky, non-clumpy noodles. The absolute safest, least-threatening noodle bowl I can imagine. Very unami, very MSGriffic, not particularly oily, but brothy and tasty. This strikes me as "the basic noodle", the starting foodunit that ramen begins to deviate from. The urnoodle. Step One in your handbook.

Nong Shim Big Bowl: THIS, meanwhile, is what... well. It's called Shin Ramen. This to me means "True Ramen". It is Fucking Spicy. Capsaicin is right there on the ingredient list. I consider Spicy to mean Better, so this is like -my- starting point. Any noodle where you finish the noodles and have some water and then you're like "OOOOOH BOY HERE WE GOOOOOO" as you drink the broth, like a roller coaster? That is True Ramen. Korea is doing something right with this.

More Ramenbox

Mama Pork Ramen: This came with three packets! One with the soup powder, which smelled Intensely Porky, one with Chili Powder, which was chili powder, and one with what I can only describe as "thick sludgy goo" that didn't smell like anything I really wanted to eat. I put them all in ANYWAY. The result was a little grainy (probably because the chili powder did not break down in any way, because it's CHILI POWDER), but tasty. It did taste like pork. Actually, it tasted like pork that someone had violently bludgeoned with a sack of garlic, possibly in a ninja-style fashion. I -like- garlic. So this was tasty. This was actually kinda delicious, although next packet I'm just leaving out the chili powder. All it does it float around and maybe offer a mild spice hit. Slight aftertaste of onions, though, and I'm still curious about that sludgy goo. Maybe that's where the garlic and onions came from? I DO NOT KNOW. But I will eat your mystery goo, clearly.