I am what many call a clean-eating health freak, but I have a dirty little secret I would love to share in the privacy of the internet. I am addicted to ramen — always have been, always will be. It’s my favorite sick food, hangover food, comfort food and celebratory food. I just can’t get enough.
But the thing about ramen is, even though it is delicious and ridiculously cheap, it has a bad reputation. It’s associated with poor, lazy college students who spend 15 cents on instant noodles so they’ll have beer money for later. I’ve been there.
Thankfully once you graduate and start living in the real world, you don’t have to give up your obsessive love of crappy noodles. Here are 10 ingenious ideas from Reddit to dress up instant ramen to enjoy in your adult life:
1. Advanced egg poaching
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Reddit says: “When you put the noodles in, use your chopsticks to gently separate them as they get soft. When you can get an opening in the middle, crack the egg right in there. Make sure you keep it at a low boil. The swirling water with regular poached eggs is to keep the egg from spreading out too much. The noodles surrounding the egg will do this for you. Also, a bit of egg separation isn’t that big of a deal when it’s in a soup and you’re not trying to make a neat presentation on top of an English muffin for Eggs Benedict.”
2. Chicken-y goodness
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Reddit says: “For the ultimate experience, pan grill a chicken breast and put that on top of the ramen + scrambled egg.”
3. Frozen wonton
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Reddit says: “My current favorite thing is using Nissin sesame flavor as a base and then adding different stocks and soy to build up the depth like a real Ramen soup. I’ve also found that tossing frozen wanton into pretty much most flavors of instant noodle works really well and sometimes even provides enough flavor to substitute for stock.”
4. Hot and sour
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Reddit says: “Tapatio, toasted sesame oil, tablespoon each of sugar and vinegar. Hot and sour Ramen (add peanut butter for Thai) — it’s the best dress-up I’ve found. Bonus if you add leftovers; taco meat works the best.”
5. Kale, mushrooms and onion
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Reddit says: “Shin Ramyun Korean ramen, sautéed kale, mushrooms and onions, scallions, nori, and a soft-boiled egg, topped off with a drizzle of sesame.”
6. Korean style
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Reddit says: “I’m Korean, and we’ve been making Shin ramen like this ever since I can remember. When the water starts boiling, and you add the noodles, crack an egg open and just drop it in there and let it boil with your noodles. In a few minutes, your ramen will be ready, and you should have a whole egg intact as well.”
7. Spam (no one’s judging)
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Reddit says: “Egg at the very least, bonus points for spam or some other form of protein.”
8. Spice it up
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Reddit says: “I add seasoned rice wine vinegar and some spices like powdered ginger, onion or garlic, frozen peas, frozen spinach, some hot sauce. Also, I separate the broth, then drizzle raw egg into the broth and cook it.”
9. The works
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Yes, please!
10. The works, part II
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With presentation like this, you can support your Ramen habit for life.
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