Ramen, noodles from japan

Ramen
1. Asian instant-style deep-fried noodles that are usually sold in cellophane packages, sometimes with bits of dehydrated vegetables and broth mix.
2. A popular Japanese dish of noodles in broth, often garnished with small pieces of meat and different vegetables.
3. The Japanese version of the Chinese noodle soup dish called Lamian (or La mian).
   
The origin of ramen :
     Noodles originated from China over 4000 years ago and reached the Japanese culture much later on. In fact, we had to wait up to 19th century, in the Meiji period, for ramen to become widely known in Japan. The Japanese dish was originally called “Lamen”, but will be later referred to as “Ramen”, since there is no distinction between the 'L' and 'R' sounds in the Japanese language and it was a more popular way to express the word.

After the Second World War came an intense food shortage in Japan, a turning point in the history of noodles. Ramen were perfect and greatly helped Japan, they were cheap and a great source of needed calories. A bit later, in 1958, Momofuku Ando, founder and chairman of Nissin Foods, invented the instant noodles, which are a lot closer to what we eat today. Named the greatest “made in Japan” invention of the 20th century, in front of the karaoke and headphone stereos, in a Japanese poll made by the The Fuji Research Institute Corporation, instant ramen became a Japanese cultural icon.

Today, 4000 years after the origin of the first noodles, ramen are known worldwide and are part of over 85 billions meals every year. The Ramenlicious team really hope you will enjoy the website and join the always growing noodle lovers community.

Lamian :
La (chinese) = Pulling and stretching.
Mian (chinese) = Noodles.
Ramen :
Men (japanese) = All kind of noodles made of cereal flour.

Ramen are very popular noodle dishes in Japan, and boiled noodles are basically served in different flavored soup with many toppings. Chukamen noodles which are generally made with wheat flour and kansui (alkaline solution) are used for ramen dishes. There are many regional speciality ramen available in Japan. They are different in broth, soup flavors, toppings, noodle texture, and more. Making a delicious ramen isn't easy if you are making the soup from scratch. The taste of ramen mainly depends on the soup, and it requires skills to make delicious soup. Ramen chefs usually train for a long time to make good ramen soup. Each ramen shop has its own way to make ramen soup, and there are so many different ways. Chicken bone, pork bone, dried sardines (niboshi), and/or kombu are used to make soup stock. Vegetables, such as ginger, negi onion, garlic, or/and mushrooms are also added. Categorized by soup flavors, there are mainly four kinds of ramen: shio ramen (salt flavored soup), shoyu ramen (soy sauce flavored soup), tonkotsu ramen (pork bone based creamy soup), miso ramen (miso flavored soup). Common ramen toppings are negi, shinachiku (seasoned bamboo shoots), nori (dried seaweed), boiled egg, narutomaki, and lots more.

How to make Ramen