Yum! Ramen for Starving E-Gamers: 24-Pack 3-Oz Creamy Chicken Maruchan Ramen $5.76 @Amazon/Walmart

[lifanus]

It was my college fav. I'd sit in front of my PC, game all night on Wow and chugging down 2-3 packs of these goodies.

Goes great with extra grilled spam/hotdogs/beef slices/eggs or whatever that you can throw in to add extra protein!

24-Pack 3-Oz Maruchan Maruchan (Creamy Chicken) for $5.98
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00R4HS45A Shipping is free with Prime or on orders over $35. Save 25% with the first Subscribe & Save
Walmart: https://www.walmart.com/ip/seort/113621042

Cheers

 

[Falkentyne]

God that stuff is gross
Only good ramen is nong shim.

 

[Unabomber]

Preface: I make my own ramen broth, taking time to boil a bunch of pork bones and garlic cloves overnight to get that base stock. Yeah, it's a bit snobby, but hey, pork bones are cheap, and highly nutritious.

I agree with Falkentyne, that the Nong Shim brand is superior (their instant Tonkotsu Ramen is probably the best of the instant noodles), but you have to keep in mind, that you're going to pay a lot more for it, and if someone's a starving grad student with a high metabolism, then quantity over quality may very well prevail.

Anyways, the Marchuan creamy chicken is actually not that bad at all, especially for cheap instant noodles. What makes the dish pretty good is the addition of the extras, such as sliced boiled meats, boiled eggs, green onions, and spicy chili sauce. As long as those are leftovers, then it makes for a cheap, filling meal in a pinch. You don't want to be eating it every day, though, since you'll eventually run into high blood pressure issues...

There are other better brands, such as Sapporo, but again, the cost vs. the quantity still comes into play.

 

[SunnyD]

Nevermind. I'm an idiot and it's too early for me to be mathing.

 

[Extra-Titanian]

Preface: I make my own ramen broth, taking time to boil a bunch of pork bones and garlic cloves overnight to get that base stock. Yeah, it's a bit snobby, but hey, pork bones are cheap, and highly nutritious.

I agree with Falkentyne, that the Nong Shim brand is superior (their instant Tonkotsu Ramen is probably the best of the instant noodles), but you have to keep in mind, that you're going to pay a lot more for it, and if someone's a starving grad student with a high metabolism, then quantity over quality may very well prevail.

Anyways, the Marchuan creamy chicken is actually not that bad at all, especially for cheap instant noodles. What makes the dish pretty good is the addition of the extras, such as sliced boiled meats, boiled eggs, green onions, and spicy chili sauce. As long as those are leftovers, then it makes for a cheap, filling meal in a pinch. You don't want to be eating it every day, though, since you'll eventually run into high blood pressure issues...

There are other better brands, such as Sapporo, but again, the cost vs. the quantity still comes into play.

So... Uh... Recipes when? I don't speak enough Japanese to ask my local ramen joint.

 

[Mr. Bluntman]

It was my college fav. I'd sit in front of my PC, game all night on Wow and chugging down 2-3 packs of these goodies.

Goes great with extra grilled spam/hotdogs/beef slices/eggs or whatever that you can throw in to add extra protein!

24-Pack 3-Oz Maruchan Maruchan (Creamy Chicken) for $5.98
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00R4HS45A Shipping is free with Prime or on orders over $35. Save 25% with the first Subscribe & Save
Walmart: https://www.walmart.com/ip/seort/113621042

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Cheers

If only that nasty shit looked like this when you cooked it. Just an artificial flavoring packet and bland noodles. Bleh.

I'd be better just to buy the noodles themselves and roll your own broth and toppings

 

[Unabomber]

So... Uh... Recipes when? I don't speak enough Japanese to ask my local ramen joint.

The base:

2 lbs pork neck bones (or leg bones if you can find them)
Minced garlic
Ginger
Kosher salt
Black pepper
Chopped up green onions
2 tablespoons of soy sauce (regular Kikoman works fine)
2 teaspoons of sugar

If you want a bit of extra flavor, take a cast iron skillet, put about a tablespoon of oil in it, and heat it up to medium high heat. Put the pork bones on the skillet until you get a good bit of browning on the bones and meat.

Put the bones into a decent sized stock pot, and fill it with water, just to cover the bones. Get the water to near boiling, and turn off the heat. Remove the bones from the pot, and put them in a colander. Rinse off the bones, and dump the stock pot.

Put the bones back into the pot, and fill the pot about 2/3rd of the way with water, and put in the other ingredients as well. Bring it to a gentle boil and boil it for about 6 hours or so. You can go overnight if you want more rich flavor. While it's boiling for the first hour, skim off the foamy scum at the top. It should stop generating foam after about an hour.

Ox tails also work beautifully, if you want a beef-based ramen, but unfortunately, after mainstream culture somehow "discovered" how amazing ox tails can be, the price of them went from 3 bucks a pound to 10 bucks a pound.



For the noodles, if you can find the Chinese or Filipino (pancit) egg noodles from your Asian foods store, that's ideal for ramen. If not, just buy whatever dry thin spaghetti you want, and boil it as usual, plus an extra minute. Make sure you add a tablespoon of baking soda so you can cook the noodles in an alkaline solution (more ideal texture for ramen, plus they actually turn a bit more yellow).

You can put any number of toppings on your ramen, from sliced green onions, bamboo shoots, chili peppers (or chili paste), sliced garlic buds, sliced meats, etc.

 

[4saken]

thx Op in for some. I like a good Ramen, don't get me wrong, but growing up on these there is just something I like about em. Plus great for when i go camping.

 

[CAD4466HK]

Meh, The creamy chicken is bland. I prefer the beef flavor for maximum kick.

 

[dogDAbone]

Yep, that's a great price for Ramen packs, which is yummy & great for an OCCASIONAL, quick snack 'em, but I usually eat the shrimp or beef flavors, and only use about 1/4 of the seasoning packet, and add either leftover chunks of ham, chicken or steak and some low-sodium teriyaki/soy sauce and some fresh garlic too..

But as already noted, due to the high sodium content, think about doing like I do with the seasoning packet, which is where 99.9% of the sodium is....your Doctor will thank you

 

[StoleMyOwnCar]

Preface: I make my own ramen broth, taking time to boil a bunch of pork bones and garlic cloves overnight to get that base stock. Yeah, it's a bit snobby, but hey, pork bones are cheap, and highly nutritious.

It's not really snobby. The contents of instant ramen basically is carbs, sodium, and bottom of the barrel garbage. You can maybe barely subsist off of it, but the health repercussions might catch up to you, and they might not be pretty. You'd have to pay me to eat it. In college I subsisted off of a local supermarket (Publix) having constant buy one get one free deals. I would simply buy whatever was on sale. This wasn't too much better than Ramen. I got cancer shortly (a few years) after I got out of college and had a job (I'm cured for a bit over 5 years now). I also had higher blood pressure. Probably mostly unrelated to the diet due to the type of cancer, but blood pressure tends to be related to salt intake. The overall level of health you keep during possibly multiple years of your life will tend to come back and bite you in the ass one day.

 

[xx0xx]

I love ramen, from the cheap crap to good stuff. I stock up on it but I don't eat it constantly. 1-2 lunches a week max or an occasional weekend snack-meal. If I do find myself eating it more often I don't use all of the seasoning, while it tastes good I avoid drinking the broth too, maybe some sips here and there (I love soup so there's something satisfying about it). Might be exceptions depending on the quality of the ingredients and/or if its from a restaurant though.

For cheap and especially flash-fried noodle style ramen, I toss some or all of the broth, which takes with it some sodium and some initial stuff that comes off the noodles (oils, etc) when they're 'cooking' in the hot water.

I thoroughly enjoy it but try to be more mindful of it these days and find ways to enjoy it that aren't as unhealthy (not saying anyone needs to do as I do, though!)

 

[Mad Maxx]

I'm a Ramen guy and have at least 15 boxes (24 packs/box) as part of my WW3/Economic Collapse/Zombie Apocalypse survival stockpile. Tough to beat $5/box from Walmart. I'll indulge maybe twice/week for a quick lunch.

 

[Darunion]

This post needlessly made me hungry. good find!

 

[TheBuzzer]

nice deal, however amount of salt in those are crazy.
710 milligrams of salt per serving (each serving is only half the ramen)
so
1420 milligrams of salt per package

each day we should only eat less than 2300 milligrams of salt.


So eat at your own risk.

 

[Unabomber]

nice deal, however amount of salt in those are crazy.
710 milligrams of salt per serving (each serving is only half the ramen)
so
1420 milligrams of salt per package

each day we should only eat less than 2300 milligrams of salt.


So eat at your own risk.

Yeah, it's best not to drink the broth after you're done with the noodles of those instant ramen servings. Any instant noodle package is going to have a high salt content, and even those ones packaged with fresh noodles and liquid broth concentrate, will have a similarly high content.

The deep fried noodles are also probably not a good idea for ingesting large quantities. Here again, you could easily make your own ramen out of spaghetti noodles, using the alkaline boiling method listed above, and your body will thank you.

 

[SamirD]

nice deal, however amount of salt in those are crazy.
710 milligrams of salt per serving (each serving is only half the ramen)
so
1420 milligrams of salt per package

each day we should only eat less than 2300 milligrams of salt.


So eat at your own risk.

So don't ever look at the nutrition labels of the pre-made sandwiches you get at airports when travelling--it's ultra-rare to find one under 1400 and I've seen as high as 2800 on one--crazy!

 

[StoleMyOwnCar]

So don't ever look at the nutrition labels of the pre-made sandwiches you get at airports when travelling--it's ultra-rare to find one under 1400 and I've seen as high as 2800 on one--crazy!

The same goes for a lot of premade things. For sandwiches, I think it largely depends on the lunchmeat being used. Ironically, you would think it wouldn't need it, but basically any frozen meal can have anywhere from %70-100++ (yes over your daily recommended value) worth of sodium inside. You would literally get less from a bag of some funk foods. They get away with this by saying that "one serving" is half of this, when it's like, who the fuck actually eats just one serving of it? It's impractical. Lol...

None of them are really "good" things to subsist off of, but ramen is certainly one of the worst (if not easily the worst). You don't get very many (or variety thereof) calories per packet, so you would need keep consuming it if you were to actually try to subsist off of it. The amount of net salt consumed per day would be extremely high. There's also what's in the packet. I'm not sure if it's changed (for the better or for the worse), but I doubt the type of preservatives or flavoring used at this price level can be anything good. Well, you can just read this WebMD article. Yes it's WebMD, but it's somewhere to start. FWIW, according to them, even just the noodles themselves aren't that great for you either lol (TBHQ).

 

[paco]

Yeah, it's best not to drink the broth after you're done with the noodles of those instant ramen servings.

My wife used to boil the raman noodles, drain all the water, then put on the seasoning packet and eat it. Might as well just sprinkle salt on plain noodles. Not sure how her heart has survived as long as it has!

 

[Armenius]

Creamy Chicken is the worst flavor, though. Picante Chicken is the best, but I do like the Beef and Pork flavors, too. Shrimp isn't bad, either.

nice deal, however amount of salt in those are crazy.
710 milligrams of salt per serving (each serving is only half the ramen)
so
1420 milligrams of salt per package

each day we should only eat less than 2300 milligrams of salt.


So eat at your own risk.

They make low sodium versions now that are 540mg per serving, or 1080mg per package, which is better. You can limit how much of that you absorb if you don't drink the broth.

My wife used to boil the raman noodles, drain all the water, then put on the seasoning packet and eat it. Might as well just sprinkle salt on plain noodles. Not sure how her heart has survived as long as it has!

I used to do this when I was younger, but one day I decided to follow the directions and keep the water to make the broth and discovered how much better it is on the palate.

 

[horrorshow]

Spicy Chicken Yakisoba or GTFO....

 

[horse]

I admit I used to eat Ramen quite a bit. Honestly I think they're great. I used to like mixing like beef and mushroom flavors, oriental and shrimp together lol. but lol at this thread

 

[sfsuphysics]

6 bucks is a good deal? God damn inflation, I remember getting that stuff 8 for a dollar when it wasn't on sale, when it went on sale 10-12 for a dollar.

That said, that stuff is real hard times food for me, always has been, seems like a good idea, but then after eating it I feel like such garbage with all the salt and msg they have

 

[Darunion]

6 bucks is a good deal? God damn inflation, I remember getting that stuff 8 for a dollar when it wasn't on sale, when it went on sale 10-12 for a dollar.

That said, that stuff is real hard times food for me, always has been, seems like a good idea, but then after eating it I feel like such garbage with all the salt and msg they have

yup. I used to buy 10 for a buck at my local drug mart back when it was something i ate regularly. Yea if i eat them now i have sausage fingers for the rest of the day lol

 

[The Mad Atheist]

Nevermind. I'm an idiot and it's too early for me to be mathing.

.25 a pack, same price as Dollar Tree.

Ramen, the staple food for college kids and those that have a tech addiction.........

 

[brennok]

My wife used to boil the raman noodles, drain all the water, then put on the seasoning packet and eat it. Might as well just sprinkle salt on plain noodles. Not sure how her heart has survived as long as it has!

This is how I was taught to eat them. I found if you added the seasoning to the water they were bland. Tossing the noodles with a little bit of the water and the seasoning packet was great though. Beef was my go to and stopped buying them when you couldn't find them in bulk at Sam's Club anymore. They started to only carried chicken. Finally tried them again on a whim when I was craving them and man did they give me heartburn. They were so good though, but maybe more due to the memories of eating them with friends in high school.

I may have to try some of the other brands to see if they are any better especially with how popular Ramen has become. Top Ramen and Maruchan were they only two you could find locally back when I bought them.

 

[Savagek]

Can never have too much ramen

 

[Jinxycat]

Creamy Chicken is the worst flavor, though. Picante Chicken is the best, but I do like the Beef and Pork flavors, too. Shrimp isn't bad, either.

Interested in other opinions on this as well. I remember the worst flavor I had was sriracha chicken. I haven't had creamy chicken before, or ventured far from chicken in general

 

[Jinxycat]

This is how I was taught to eat them. I found if you added the seasoning to the water they were bland. Tossing the noodles with a little bit of the water and the seasoning packet was great though.

This is how the indo style ramens are eaten I think - water is discarded with just enough to make the sauce come together. This one is delicious: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BEBMJX0

 

[Savagek]

Interested in other opinions on this as well. I remember the worst flavor I had was sriracha chicken. I haven't had creamy chicken before, or ventured far from chicken in general

i dont know about ramen but the worst I've had was Cup noodles pumpkin spice. It was sickeningly sweet.

 

[Jinxycat]

Yikes, that sounds awful

 

[Ducman69]

i dont know about ramen but the worst I've had was Cup noodles pumpkin spice. It was sickeningly sweet.

The ultimate hapa girl fuel?

 

[CruisD64]

The Nongshim Tonkatsu Ramen from Costco is excellent. Add a softboiled egg and whatever other goodies you like and it's a great meal!

 

[Unabomber]

The Nongshim Tonkatsu Ramen from Costco is excellent. Add a softboiled egg and whatever other goodies you like and it's a great meal!

They also carry the tonkatsu udon (thicker noodles) as well as dan-dan mien at Costco, and those offerings are also good.

 

[Jinxycat]

I also found nongshim gourmet spicy to be excellent, but fairly spicy. And Nissin Raoh Miso was delicious.
The tonkotsu versions of each are also great but something creeps me out about the creaminess from a packet.

 

[next-Jin]

I lived off nothing but ramen, koolaid and cigarettes for a month straight and I was in the best shape of my life in the Army back in the day. I was living off post (single soldier, not married so no meal card).

There was a DFAS pay issue if I remember right and I was broke.

I was one of the idiots who went with the once a month pay from the late 90s or early 2000 when I set it up.

I buy this still all the time and use it for quick meals off and on when needed. I use a 1/3rd of the packet then a ton of franks redhot and pepper.

 

[Savagek]

The ultimate hapa girl fuel?

lmao exactly

 

[Axman]

I also found nongshim gourmet spicy to be excellent, but fairly spicy. And Nissin Raoh Miso was delicious.
The tonkotsu versions of each are also great but something creeps me out about the creaminess from a packet.

Nissin Raoh makes better packet ramen than some actual ramen shops I've been to. Minus the extra stuff, but still, the sauce and the noodles are amazing.

The best possible way to make packet ramen, and yes, I've done the Parasite steak ramen, is nacho cheese ramen.

You need a pack of Maruchan chili ramen, some jarred queso salsa cheese, one or two slices of American cheese, and a little heavy cream.

Make the ramen as usual, but with cream and the American cheese. Then when it's cooked, add the queso.

You're welcome.

Also anyone who says that's gross or whatever can get stuffed, I've been to your Michelin restaurants and know what the fuck I'm talking about, and I'm talking about nacho cheese ramen.

 

[Extra-Titanian]

Nissin Raoh makes better packet ramen than some actual ramen shops I've been to. Minus the extra stuff, but still, the sauce and the noodles are amazing.

The best possible way to make packet ramen, and yes, I've done the Parasite steak ramen, is nacho cheese ramen.

You need a pack of Maruchan chili ramen, some jarred queso salsa cheese, one or two slices of American cheese, and a little heavy cream.

Make the ramen as usual, but with cream and the American cheese. Then when it's cooked, add the queso.

You're welcome.

Also anyone who says that's gross or whatever can get stuffed, I've been to your Michelin restaurants and know what the fuck I'm talking about, and I'm talking about nacho cheese ramen.

My local ramen joint has a cheese ramen, it's like a regular miso/dan dan ramen with shredded cheese that melts and coats the noodles as you pull them out.

It's the best.

 

[Unabomber]

I also found nongshim gourmet spicy to be excellent, but fairly spicy. And Nissin Raoh Miso was delicious.
The tonkotsu versions of each are also great but something creeps me out about the creaminess from a packet.

From what I understand, there are three type of starch in the broth packet, and some of the creaminess comes from the use of tapioca starch. There's also a good bit of dissolved collagen / connective tissue, along with dissolved bone matter in the broth packet (labeled as "thickeners"). You actually get 8 grams of high quality protein in those Nongshim tonkotsu ramen bowls. You also get a lot of sodium, fat, etc., but you do get a complete protein out of those, whereas you get very little protein out of the cheaper instant fodder. Still, it's about the same amount of usable protein as you would get in a single half-pint serving of milk.