The sun is tucking itself into the horizon, as the sky turns into cotton candy and all you can think about is how hungry you are. As colorful cotton candy is slowly melting into the darkening sky, you walk faster and you get hungrier. You already know what is in your kitchen, a couple of miscellaneous vegetables, and no leftovers. However, you know you have ramen. It’s to late to regret not going grocery shopping two days ago, so lets think about the ramen in your cupboard.
MARUCHAN RAMEN (5/10 stars)
The most basic ramen you can find in college kid’s cupboard. There are a lot of different flavors of chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, oriental, spicy chicken, creamy chicken, and so much more. My personal favorite is the shrimp and spicy chicken, that’s 1/5 spicy. Even though it’s the most common instant ramen with a very affordable price of 25 cents, it’s not the best. If you are not a fan of sodium, than you might want to either add more water into the broth or put less seasoning from the packet. I personally think this is the best microwave ramen, because of the noodle texture. When you cook it in a pot, the noodles can be overcooked pretty easily and get mushy and soggy. However, when you put in the microwave for 4-5 minutes, it’s cooked for a right amount.
MARUCHAN YAKISOBA (4/10)
If you don’t like broths, than yakisoba is the way to go. It requires a little bit of patience because you have to let it sit for a minute after you microwave it and then put in the seasoning packet. But if you over microwave it, or let it sit for more than a minute the noodles definitely get soggy and lose it’s chewy texture. The seasoning packet can get a bit salty in this one as well, and you can’t dilute it in the broth cause there is not broth and adding less seasoning from the packet makes it bland and tasteless.
SAPPORO ICHIBAN (8/10)
This is a big upgrade form the Maruchan ramen, with a price that stays barely under a dollar. This is definitely closer to the traditional Japanese ramen. There are different flavors of original, chicken, beef, shrimp and etc. I have only tried their original and chicken, which were both good. Their original flavor has more of a bean paste and soy sauce based broths, and their chicken flavor broth taste like it sounds, chicken. They have thin noodles that resemble Japanese ramen noodles. If you cook it for three minutes it has a slight al dente texture that isn’t mushy or soggy. This is definitely a cook it in a pot ramen, using the microwave cooks the noodles unevenly and you can overcook it.
Honorable mentions:
Annie Chun’s Udon super bowl and Nongshim Udon
- thick noodles and soy sauce base broth.
- required a minute of patience after microwaving
- coasts over two dollars and tastes better to cook it in a pot
>> to be continued..