wrote in message
ups.com...
You can still make your own tomato ramen, but it takes an extra gourmet
cooking step - namely opening up a can of concentrated tomato soup and
adding another can of water, and cooking the ramen in it - one of my
favorite ramen recipes.

By the way, I have not been able to figure out why people pay about
4-10X the price for instant ramen in the Asian markets, since Maruchan
et al at 10 cents a bag in the supermarkets is just as good if not
better.


The question is similar to why anyone would pay $7.00 a piece for a Toro
nigiri at a
sushi restaurant when they can buy an entire pack of sushi for that price at
A&P.
I differ with you when you say that the supermarket brands (such as
Maruchan) are
"just as good". I believe this is subjective.
I started eating instant ramen as a kid in Japan and I can remember when
brands like
Charumera and Sapporo Ichiban first hit the market in the late 60s. Instant
Ramen has
been around so long in Japan now that there must be literally a thousand
brands and
everyone has their favorite or favorites. I pay high prices in Japanese food
stores here
to buy the brands I know and like.
The instant ramen sold in US supermarkets are flavored (the soup packets)
for American customers.
In Japan there is no such thing as "beef" or "chicken" for ramen. The
chicken flavor soup sold here
is designed to closely approximate what US consumers are familar
with...chicken soup.
The "original" flavor probably comes closest to what you'd normally find in
Japan.
And the reverse also holds true, you won't find common soup flavors like
Miso, Shio, Tonkotsu
here in US supermarkets. Plus anything with Hangul (Korean alphabet) writing
on it is going to
be hot enough to knock your socks off.
The "men" or noodles also varies depending on brand. In Japan there is the
"cup noodle" type
(just add water), the standard instant ramen with dehydrated noodles (boil),
and the "nama-mem"
or "fresh noodle" type which is already cooked fresh soft noodles that
simply need to be warmed up.
The last one comes closest to a real bowl of ramen in a ramen shop and is
the most expensive.
Having said all that, the supermarket ramen in the US has served a great
purpose helping out college
kids, people on budgets, or people who simply were satified with the
flavors. I can remember keeping
them around in my younger days. But for the most part I'd say it would be a
mistake to think that
the supermarket ramen is the same as those found in Oriental food markets.
Musashi