Last night was girl-bonding with two of my friends — Aila and Arnie. Usually we go out with the rest of our office mates, so this in itself is a rare event. We went shopping for clothes (you know, girl stuff) and then scouted for a place to eat. To cut the story short, I ordered spicy ramen from a Korean food stall (ramen in Korea is called ramyeon), with kimchi on the side. It has a slice of cheese, which in my opinion blends perfectly with the dish and that melts in the mouth. Hmmm. I wish it had more cheese slices.

So anyway, that’s where I got the inspiration for this post: Ramen.

Ramen is a world-famous Japanese noodle soup. There are many regional variations of ramen in Japan, and there are also some varieties outside the country. Generally it’s composed of Chinese-style wheat noodles (which you can make at home), served in a meat- or fish-based broth and topped with pork, dried seaweed, kamaboko (a Japanese processed seafood product), green onions and corn, though you’d find that there are a number of other vegetables you can use as well. Soy sauce or miso is used to flavour the noodles soup.

The one below is a great base recipe for ramen noodle soup. It’s perfect as a quick lunch or dinner, especially if you’re cooking solo. Like other recipes I’ve listed here, I like the fact that you can easily personalise it according to taste or what you have in stock.

read more »