While maybe not entirely appropriate for how it’s customarily eaten, i don’t think i’d enjoy it any more than i already do… and i enjoy it a lot. Also i really dislike eating piping hot noodles, so i like to take my time with it regardless.
“It’s 2015, learn how to use chopsticks.” and then criticizes how Asians (and many others) eat noodles.
No way! I hate it when people inhale their food. What I do is turn my head up, and lower the ramen (or udon, or soba) into my open mouth.
There’s a popular misconception in the West that slurping your noodles is considered good manners in Japan. This is not true. It’s more accurate to say that slurping isn’t seen as impolite. No one will mind if you slurp your noodles. No one will mind if you don’t slurp your noodles. But if you start hoovering everything into your mouth and making loud smacking noises with your lips, you’re gonna get a lot of weird stares coming your way.
On a side note, I think eating well is a skill, especially on camera. Brad Pitt is really good at this and I’m glad I’m not the only one who has noticed. He makes everything look so damn delicious.
Tarantino is also great at making food look delicious, and food is often used as a metaphor in his films. Here’s another clip of him expanding on it.
I got Ivan’s ramen cookbook as a present last year, it’s a bit daunting to make a bowl of ramen to his standards! I have not tried yet. I have access to a number of asian groceries, but finding bonito flakes that don’t have added MSG is not easy.
Ramen can be tasty. Too bad that shit’s not good for you:
I live in Vancouver and love the Asian influence on the city but wish they wouldn’t slurp in restaurants. I was enjoying dim sum the other day and someone sitting 30 ft away was slurping very loudly - that’s not acceptable as far as I am concerned. I respect other cultures and traditions (have a copy of Kiss, Bow or Shake Hands behind my desk) and they should respect ours as well. Slurping is disgusting!
Pffft, next you’ll be telling me that McDonalds is bad for me too!
Slurping noodles is done for a practical purpose. To allow an intake of air with your scalding hot noodles to cool them down as you eat them. If the noodles are cold, slurping is not only unnecessary, it is a bit rude.
You have to get the real stuff. From a restaurant. Not the flashfried/dried version you purchase in stores. The method of packaging the noodles and making them easy to cook also reduces the fiber content and much of the nutritional value. Plus the salt content of the soup base is enough to embalm a horse.
I put it on bread and make a sandwich.
You can try using a miso paste base. It has the salt, but not the MSG. Miso paste has a shelf life longer than most shelves.
You have to get the real stuff. From a restaurant. Not the flashfried/dried version you purchase in stores. The method of packaging the noodles and making them easy to cook also reduces the fiber content and much of the nutritional value. Plus the salt content of the soup base is enough to embalm a horse.
Yep, just like those videos said.
I would add, IF the restaurant is serving fresh noodles. Some serve prepackaged.
If i was at a japanese, or asian, restaurant that served noodles and someone wanted to slurp them down i’m sure i’d be ok with it. I prefer not hearing someone loudly slurp their food, but that’s the intended way for it to be consumed. As you said, it does help with not getting scalded… i prefer to wait a bit for it to cool down instead.
And also then uses a spoon.
I thought most of the point of using bonito is that it’s composed mostly of glutamates, aka the natural form of MSG.
I’ve been eating ramen for 25 years. The traditional method is ok, but I prefer getting a larger bite of noodles and chasing it with a few spoonfuls of broth. Feels more substantial to me that way.
I’m going to go out on a limb… I don’t think any ramen place is making fresh noodles.
There, I said it.
Right? They’d be serving some other kind of noodle dish if the noodles were fresh. The essential ramen-ness of ramen would be lost!
