I'll take the kitsune udon. The extra tails make it extra delicious!

I had proper udon for the first time a couple of weeks ago!! Sooooo good. <3 It wasn't the kitsune kind, came with tempura prawns instead, but super yummy broth nonetheless. <3

Good stuff too!

That's weird, I've been on a bit of an "instant Ramen" kick myself lately! I never do the egg one usually sees, (they don't agree with me!😖) but I've been experimenting with different flavors and additions, made some delicious beef Ramen yesterday, with extra garlic, mushrooms, green onion, olives, shredded carrots, rosemary, sage, and a splash of red vinegar!

Ooh that sounds great! I'm a big fan of Nissin as far as instant ramen goes, and I love to kick it up a notch to 'full meal' status by grilling a chicken breast and serving it with spring onions (green onion/scallions depending on where you're based, haha), coriander and (not traditional or even Japanese I know but) a teaspoon of lao gan ma!

As far as the cheapo ramen, it's nissin chicken for me. I at least add some fresh pepper, but other ingredients can be good as well. It's very adaptable.

Chicken is great, I also like the spiced beef, sesame oil, black garlic and of course kyushu tonkotsu! <3

I'm just gonna go ahead and leave this right here;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yjq9ECRWNU

The outro of the ramen anime I watched was a song called "Men-holic" so it was clearly in on this same joke. :D

I had to give up ramen for a while when I went vegan, but then I found a brand that doesn't contain milk. It's the kind that comes in a brick in a packet with a bag of seasoning powder, and you boil it in a pot for about 5 minutes. It's made with rice noodles, seaweed, and miso, and it's delicious!

Yeah, that's the instant kind I use (though I don't know of its vegan-status when it comes to the non overtly meat-broth flavours), and it's great! <3

Good memory: My cousin's homemade ramen.
Bad memory: Learning that Cup Noodle has a 'breakfast' flavor.

I love trying new flavours, even when they're things that don't seem inherently 'good' lmao. :D

Haven't had a bad ramen yet, but some are definitely better than others.

The only bad ramen I've ever had was at a UK chain restaurant called Wagamama. The broth tasted like unsalted dish water they'd thrown some chillies into 10 minutes beforehand. I didn't expect miracles from a chain restaurant, but it was actively awful in its flavourlessness.

I mostly avoid fast foods, and only eat at selected chains that have proven to be reliable.

The best ramen I've had is at one Japanese place that I've eaten at a bunch of times. I've tried a number of different ones there, and they've all been excellent.

Mmm, Wagamama is a sit-down restaurant chain rather than 'fast food' but in this case that definitely didn't make any difference to the quality, haha. :D And gosh I wish I had easy enough access to a ramen place to have tried one multiple times. There's a Japanese restaurant in the city 60 miles from my home (I live out in the countryside) and I've been there once and definitely plan on going again. They don't have ramen on their menu, but their udon was delish and I can't wait to try other things too. :3

I live in the SF Bay area, so we have an embarrassment of riches where it comes to excellent food choices.

Ahhh nice! Never been to the states but I've definitely heard great things about the SF area food scene. If I had my way I'd live in/near enough to London to be able to sample all its joys, or hell if I'm dreaming I'd spend at least a year living in Japan itself. For now though I'm more than content to live within my means and take a rare vacation to sate my food-loving dreams. :D

When we went to oshibori for the first time and I had ramen from a restaurant for the first time (that wasn't a chain) for sure! Will def need to go back <3

Ahh nice. :D Weirdly I don't think I ever had ramen from there. The sushi (and a bento box one time) was always too tempting. :o

Had ramen many many years ago when I spent two weeks in Japan, instantly really finally understood why it's such a thing (ignoring instant ramen altogether) when you're treating it like a proper soup/meal with all the flourishes.

Was damn good and forever stuck in memory

Japan is my dream holiday, alas I feel like it's gonna be reserved for a dream future where I win the lottery or something because I would have to save up for like, 4-5 years with no other luxuries in order to afford a decent trip there (not saying it's too expensive, I just live a very low cost lifestyle). But that's amazing that you got to go. <3 <3

Mama brand is pretty good as a go-to just add water type and works with a lot of add-ons.

If you're going to be in London though I was there a lot last year for stuff and I kept coming back to this place just off Leicester Square called Misato, everything I ate at that place was banging.

Hahaha, I have a list of places to eat in London and Misato is already on it! I want to try the Tori Udon. :D

I'm always trying to find new ramen sources near me. Haven't found one I didn't like yet!

By the way, what anime did you watch? Sounds interesting.

And, to suggest my own ramen, how about a ramen card game?
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame.....71/ramen-ramen

The anime I watched was "Ms Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles" it's a 12 episode slice of life show just about an otherwise very quiet, solitary girl who adores ramen and seeks out all sorts of different kinds in each episode. Fair warning the main "POV" character who tries throughout the series to befriend Koizumi-san is a creepy stalker, but it's played up for comedy and the show 'knows' she's creepy (plays creepy music under her obsessive ramblings, doesn't try to actually make her creepiness seem reasonable/valid, etc) so as long as you don't mind a thoroughly non-serious and harmlessly creepy MC, the ramen info the show provides is still more than worth it imo.

Also as someone who is very much a solitary person in terms of how I prefer to spend my time, I massively identified with Koizumi-san herself. "Please just be quiet and let me enjoy my ramen!!" XD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WrkdTrrwew

I haven't seen this movie but based on that one cutaway scene alone I really want to!

I'd always been curious about instant ramen for years, as I used to work in a store, and people would buy them literally by the case. And being so cheap, I eventually bought one pack on a whim. And it actually tastes kinda nice! The sodium content was like, "Holy shit..." so I rarely bought any more after that. I still buy them every once in a while, but what I do is ignore the seasoning, drain the water and customize it with whatever. My favorite is getting some cheese and heavy cream and making....I guess, ramen and cheese?

Of course when the South Park episode mentioned it, I saved this video and I just die laughing over and over. A handful of comments say despite the teen's complaints, you can eat it raw; and some people even prefer it that way. Of course out of curiosity, I tried it that way, and......it's actually not bad. It's comparatively like eating dry cereal!

So on my next snack, I opened one side of the bag, sprinkled about half of the seasoning packet in there, then I picked up an old controller to bash it with(yep). I knew if there was air in the noodle package, it would explode, so I put the ramen in a little Ziploc bag because me smrt. I took the controller and happily(but gently) bopped the brick until it smoothed out. And of course, the package didn't have any sealed air in it.

But the Ziploc bag did.

POP!

The entire contents of whole, partial, bits, and crumbs of raw ramen(and the seasoning dust!).

All over my lap.

As soon as the initial shock dissipated, I wasn't even remotely mad. I just nodded and said "Yep...I deserved that."

But yeah, ramen is pretty tasty.

Oh nooooo, no matter how you choose to eat your ramen doing it out of someone's lap (even your own) doesn't seem ideal. Unless... * new kink developed XD *

Which Anime was that?

Ms Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles! It's a great show 'if' you don't mind the fact that the main character who is trying to befriend the titular Koizumi-san is portrayed as a harmless but creepy stalker/obsessive. It's played for comedy and the show itself is aware of the character's creepiness, but I always recommend it with that caveat because... well, it's the worst part of an otherwise wonderful show, imo. XD I identify far more with Ms Koizumi's point of view, namely "go away and let me enjoy my ramen, annoying fellow high-schooler" XD

An anime about ramen... are you familiar with the movie Tampopo? Oh, wait, someone else has already brought it up. Still, it's one of my absolute favourite movies.

It's funny how it happens, but after seeing that prior comment and watching the Ramen master scene I was watching a stream yesterday where Tampopo also came up, via the egg kiss scene. Never heard of the movie before and then I hear about it twice in the space of 48 hours from totally independent sources!

Nissin has an instant tonkatsu ramen that is oddly good. Just needs toppings. Soft boiled egg, some shredded cabbage, a little this and that.
I also remember having a really nice instant ramen bowl in Iraq that even came with toppings. I didn't think to note down the brand so I have no idea how to find it again.

It's very good! Alongside the chicken from the same brand, those are my go-tos for a quick, delicious ramen bowl (which as you said, is made even more delish by adding toppings. I tend to go for a grilled chicken breast, spring onions (green onions/scallions) and as a totally non-authentic but delicious addition, a teaspoon of lao gan ma!

Ooh also some garlic chives and coriander as garnishes when they're growing in the garden. :3