One of the ways in which I can survive off a miniscule food budget each week is because I have easy access to cheap instant noodles.They might not taste the best of all the noodles in the world, but they're easy and quick when all I have is a few minutes a water cooler that dispenses hot water. Plus we have a decent selection at the Asian supermarket where I work, so instant ramen tends to be my go to lunch or dinner most days.
I like the Korean ramen/ramyun the best, since they're very spicy for the most part, and I love spicy food. In fact, now when I have Japanese ramen, I tend to add crushed red pepper flakes and/or chili garlic sauce to spice it up quite a bit. The seafood flavors are among the better tasting, especially lobster. There was this one lobster flavored noodle bowl we carried three years ago, and it was so good! Mouth-burningly spicy, but delicious. Unfortunately, we haven't had it in since.
Lately I've been eating more of the bowls with rice noodles. Eating the same thing every day gets boring, so I'm trying to branch out from the cheapest of ramen. Rice noodles do, in my opinion, taste better than the wheat noodles and ramen, so that's a plus. They just take longer to reconstitute, which is rather a disadvantage when I'm desperately trying to scarf down something to eat between customers on a busy day.
Another advantage to the noodle bowls is that they are warming. The store's temperature is usually in the 30s (yes, Fahrenheit) or 20s on colder days. Drinking the hot soup is a good way to warm up.
The downside is all the salt, plus MSG and preservatives. One noodle bowl usually contains almost a whole day's recommended amount of sodium. Yeah, that's not so good. There aren't really health benefits to ramen. At all.
But in a pinch, stuck at work with practically no money and no means of cooking an alternative, I'll take my hot, filling, instant noodle bowl.
XOXO
Gossip Ghoul
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