Ramen is gaining massive popularity among youngsters and children. Ramen is a traditional Japanese dish and it has excellent taste. People used to make it freshly in the past, but as time has changed, it has also changed a lot. Ramen is long noodles. Ramen noodles can be served with many different things and this article will be paying attention to what to eat with ramen.
It is an essential food in Korean cuisine too. Many ways can be used to eat ramen and the traditional way to eat ramen is by using chopsticks. In restaurants and cafes, ramen is still served with chopsticks. It is served with many side dishes to enhance the flavours. Now we can buy it from the markets all around the world. It has become everyone’s favourite snack these days.
We can easily find instant ramen from the stores which saves a lot of our time. Ramen is available in many different flavours. Although it is not very spicy now it is available in many spicy flavors too. This article will cover all the interesting things about the ramen.
1. What Is Ramen?
In the simplest form of words, ramen is a Japanese dish and it is very popular in Korea too. Ramen noodles are long noodles commonly made from wheat, flour, or corn flour. We can add readily available spiral noodles.
The flat noodles and transparent noodles are also being used in ramen. It is served with vegetable or chicken broth to add flavour. Many different toppings are also used to serve with ramen like egg, rice cake, or fried mushrooms. We will talk about the toppings used in ramen in the upcoming sections.
2. Toppings Used In Ramen
If we want to add different nutrients to the special bowl of ramen we can add many different toppings to it. One of the most popular toppings is egg even if it is a half-fried egg, hard-boiled egg, or raw egg. It adds the protein to the bowl.
We can add different kinds of fried mushrooms or seaweed. Many of us like to add kimchi to our ramen along with tteok-bokki and rice cake. This article is about what to eat with ramen noodles so we will talk about this in the next portion of the article.
3. Some Side Dishes With Ramen
We will talk about all the dishes we can eat with ramen and it will include the most popular ones.
3.01 Eggs
Almost everyone likes to eat eggs with their ramen noodles. There are a few different techniques to add eggs in ramen and the first one is to add it raw. When we add the raw eggs in ramen and mix it well it can add a very creamy texture to it because it combines well with the broth. The second option can be a half-friend egg because it is very crispy from the bottom and the york stays raw and creamy.
To make this we have to take a pan and put some oil in it. After this, we have to break the raw egg directly in the pan and let it stay still until it is completely cooked from the bottom. Now we can take it out and eat it with our ramen and it goes well with all kinds of ramen.
The third way is to eat a stained hard-boiled egg with it. To make this we have to boil eggs for 10 minutes and then add it to the soy sauce for more than 24 hours. Then the eggs will be ready to eat with ramen.
3.02 Kimchi
Kimchi is very common and famous to go with ramen all the time even almost all the cafes serve it this way only. Ramen has a little sour taste with some acidity. Although the traditional kimchi takes a lot of days to prepare to eat now there are recipes available to make instant kimchi.
To make the traditional kimchi first, we have to wash cabbages along with some radish. Then cut them into short pieces and put some salt in also make sure to put salt between the leaves of the cabbage too. Keep it in an air-tight container for some time and after that take it out and wash it again under running water. Now grind all the ingredients needed in it.
Anyone can look for the ingredients in detail on the internet. Thoroughly apply the paste on the vegetables and keep them aside for a few days. You can eat it instantly or you can wait until it is fermented. The kimchi has a sour taste because of the sour taste because of the fermentation.
3.03 Gyoza
Gyoza is a type of dumplings and it goes perfectly with the ramen. If you are a vegetarian then you can add chopped vegetables in it or else you can add the meat. First, we need the wrappers made from the flour. We can make it on our own or we can buy it ready-made from the market. They both taste good. Now start putting the filling inside the wrappers and seal it by making some twists.
When all the pieces are ready put them in a pan on medium flame. Now it is a very important step and that is to dissolve some cornstarch in water and pour it into the pan. After that put all your pieces in the pan and put the lid on. When they are ready take them out and serve them with some chilli oil. This is the best combination to try. You can also steam them first and then put them in the pan to reduce the cooking time.
3.04 Tofu
Tofu has always been one of the first choices when it came to the side dishes of ramen. It is healthy and tastes good when infused with some flavours. We can fry the tofu in olive oil and toss it in some honey. This will balance the spicy taste of ramen with its sweetness. There is another way to put the tofu directly into the pan when we are cooking ramen.
This process will allow the tofu to soak the flavours of the broth ramen and make it taste similar. If you are someone who doesn’t like to eat tofu then you can use the boiled potatoes instead of the tofu. Potato’s sweetness also goes well with the taste of ramen.
3.05 Chili oil
Now here is an ingredient to make your ramen spicy and greasy. Chili oil can be spicy based on the chilly flakes used in it and red pepper flakes are the perfect choice. First, we need a lot of red pepper flakes in a bowl and then add some chopped spring onion to it.
Now boil some olive oil and add it directly to the bowl, make sure to use a stainless steel bowl and not a plastic bowl. You can put it directly into your ramen or dip your gyoza dumpling in it. Chilli oil can be added to the instant ramen we usually find in stores.
3.06 Cucumber Salad
Cucumber can also be one of the good choices because it has fresh flavour along with a pleasant smell. It would be great to make cucumber salad inside of simply putting the cucumber in it. To make cucumber salad take some small cucumbers and cut them into small half-circled pieces or in a spiral.
Add some salt and red pepper powder to it. Mix it well and remember to add some honey to it. If you want then you can also add sesame seeds to it. Mix everything and serve it well. The chilli oil goes well with cucumber salad too.
4. Final Note
Ramen noodles are a traditional Japanese dish and they hold an important place in Korean cuisine too. We can find wheat noodles in it along with some flat flour noodles or glass noodles made with cornstarch. It makes it completely transparent and it tastes really good too.
In the past, only Japan made it available and praised it, but now everyone around the world likes to have it as a midnight snack. We can make it in both vegetarian and nonvegetarian ways according to everyone’s preference and diet.
To make vegetarian noodles we can add vegetable broth to it and use fried mushrooms, pickled vegetables, tofu, and rice cakes. In the nonvegetarian ramen, we can add eggs in many creative ways. We can add Japanese fried chicken with some cheese. For the side dishes cucumber salad is also a very good option.
For making ramen noodles we have to first boil the noodles and strain them then add it to the broth with some spices. Now we can put our toppings in it and let it stew for about 5 minutes.
After cooking it we can eat it by pairing it with some of the many side dishes like gyoza. Gyoza dumplings are easy to make because we just have to put the filling in the flour wrapper and seal it. Now we can cook it with some cornstarch and enjoy!
