Awesome Ramen

Since college, instant noodles have been a go-to for a cheap and easy meal. ProcessX visited the Sanpo Foods factory to see how they make Japan’s most popular Yakibuta (braised pork) cup noodles. The highly automated factory uses an army of machines to produce countless noodle strands, package ingredients, and visually inspect each bowl for quality.

While a handful of restaurants make their own ramen noodles, many turn to companies like Sun Noodle to make high-quality noodles to serve their guests. Eater takes us inside family-owned business that produces more than 300,000 portions of the chewy Japanese noodles each day, delivering them to dining establishments around the nation.

This might look like a pack of Top Ramen noodles, but it’s actually a kitchen sponge. Fred’s Top Scrub has a woven hemp surface that resembles wavy instant noodles wrapped around an absorbent poly sponge. It doesn’t come with a seasoning packet, nor do we recommend soaking it in boiling water.

This unique utensil was designed by Masami Takahashi for diners at the Japanese ramen chain Sugakiya. The stainless steel spoon/fork combo makes it easy to enjoy both the delicious noodles and broth at the same time, and without wasting disposable chopsticks.

Nissin Foods USA has announced a special version of its popular Cup Noodles just for American tastes. The instant ramen includes bits of sausage and eggs, along with the flavors of pancakes and maple syrup. The limited-edition noodles arrive this week at select Walmart stores. They’re either going to be awesome or awful.

Cup Noodles (aka Cup O’ Noodles) have been filling bellies on a budget for 50 years. To celebrate, Nissin has released a series of limited-edition retro t-shirts celebrating the early years of instant ramen. There’s a classic Japanese 1971 tee, a psychedelic ’70s tee, and a neon ’80s tee.

This special edition Yahtzee set features a dice cup inspired by Nissin’s iconic Cup Noodles instant ramen, along with dice decorated with icons of chicken, beef, shrimp, lime, corn, and carrots. We don’t recommend pouring boiling hot water into this cup though.

DanCreator / Cardboard Crafts built this full-size vending machine mostly out of cardboard. When a user inserts a coin, it dispenses a Cup Noodle instant ramen cup of their choice and then pours the right amount of hot water into the cup with the push of a button.

Whether served fresh from a handmade noodle shop, or cooked up quick from a package of the instant stuff, Ramen is one of the world’s favorite dishes. Mental Floss digs into the origins of the dish, as a specific kind of noodle made its way from China to Japan, and eventually led us to the delicious meal we enjoy today.

This playful deck of cards is perfect for lovers of instant ramen. Each deck comes packed in a resealable bag inspired by the cheap but tasty dormroom staple, while the cards themselves have a noodle pattern on back and on the suit symbols. Look closely and you’ll see the court slurping some ramen too.

Guitar maker Artem Mayer of Copper Guitars created this crazy custom instrument using 36 packs of instant ramen noodles. After casting them in polyester resin – and adding some delicious seasoning packets – he shaped the body and added a maple wood neck, hardware, and strings.

You can grab a pack of instant ramen and nuke it in about 3 minutes. But Andy from How to Make Everything wanted to see if he could make his own instant noodles and seasoning packet from scratch, using only primitive techniques that would have been available when noodles first came on the scene back in the Bronze Age.

Back in the day, we lived off of instant noodles. After all, they’re dirt cheap, fill you up, and they actually taste pretty good. Now that we’re “adults,” we prefer fresh-made ramen, but we still dig Fred’s silly sticky note pad which looks like a brick of the dorm room mealtime favorite.

Claire Saffitz is back in the Bon Appétit test kitchen to replicate a classic junk food item. This time she turns her attention to something more savory than sweet, with the college dorm room staple of choice – those bricks of curly instant ramen noodles.

Alex French Guy Cooking is addicted to instant ramen. He thought of four different ways to have instant ramen broth on hand, either as a powdered mixture or as a cube. Two of the recipes take only 5 minutes or less, while the other two take several hours.

…but it’s gonna cost you. Japanese food chain Ichiran serves only tonkotsu ramen – noodles in thick pork broth. They let you customize it to your heart’s content, then serve it in private cubicles. Just you and your food. There’s one in Brooklyn, but again…