Culinary Adventures!

Well Carl asked for the name of the ramen I use for Old Bay Ramen so that he could replicate the experience, but I decided to do him one better.  Below is an illustrated, step-by-step guide to making your life a little more awesome.

STEP ONE: Collect the necessary tools and ingredients.  You will need a medium size sauce pan, water, ramen, old bay, a fork, and a bowl.

STEP TWO:  Prepare the water.  Since I hate waiting for water to boil on the stove, I use my handy water boiler.  Add water to pitcher up to the 0.5L line, and put the pitcher on the base to heat.

STEP THREE: While the water is boiling, get out your ramen.  This is my personal favorite.  I buy it in bulk.

STEP FOUR: Open your ramen and break the block into four pieces.  I find that if I don't do this, the noodles are waaaay too long and difficult to eat without making a crazy mess.  Place each quarter of ramen into the pot.

STEP FIVE: In the ramen package you will find two smaller packages.  The smaller (silver) one contains seasoning.  The larger (white) one contains the little dried up vegetables that never rehydrate correctly and just float around to annoy me.  Discard the larger package.  Pause to check out the awesome Halloween towel my mom sent me.

STEP SIX: Open the smaller package of seasoning and sprinkle it over the ramen quarters in your sauce pan.

STEP SEVEN: Now that the water has boiled, pour it over the ramen in the pan.

STEP EIGHT: Turn on the burner and bring to a boil.  Let boil for 5 minutes, or until the noodles are cooked and the sauce begins to thicken.

STEP NINE: Drain nearly all of the water out of the ramen.  If you are fancy and have a drainer, use it  If not, the lid will work fine.

STEP TEN: Pour your ramen into the bowl. Steamy! Delicious!  Good for your pores!

STEP ELEVEN: Season with spice.  Now I usually put a fair amount of Old Bay in (as seen in picture two).

STEP TWELVE: Stir that bad boy up.

STEP THIRTEEN: Enjoy!  You can add more Old Bay at will (I usually do at least two coatings stirred in).  Note: This concoction pairs nicely with Chilsung Cider (Korean Sprite).

Now lets talk about another food I've been eating WAY TOO MUCH OF.  Introducing....drumroll please...SONGPYEON! 

If we were playing Catchphrase in the US and I gave the clue "Thanksgiving food" you would probably automatically say "TURKEY!"  Well if we were playing here, you would say "SONGPYEON!"  This is the traditional Korean food that is eaten at Chuseok every year.  Basically it is rice that bas been pulverized into a dense paste and wrapped around a filling.   People LOVE THEM...however I do not find them that appetizing.  The fillings are usually questionable things like red bean paste, sesame seed paste, etc.  They are really chewy and I do not love.  Anyways, they are EVERYWHERE.  We had them for school lunch.  We had them as a snack.  We had them at after school.  And then, a girl at afterschool gave me a WHOLE BOX (as pictured above).  Without any exaggeration I would guess that this box of rice cakes weighed between 5 and 7 pounds.  Which was fun to carry home as I have to ride three trains.  Eh, its the thought that counts.

To give you some idea of the scale.

This one had some kind of sesame-esque filling.

Oh, and look! It pussed out the bottom when I bit into it, too.  How delightful.

Can you tell that I have the day off work and few plans? :)