Rich’s not-so-common misconception about food #3

About a year ago, I found out for the first time that there was such a thing as ramen.  “Real” ramen!  I don’t feel so bad though.  The spell checker I’m using RIGHT NOW doesn’t even know there’s such a thing as ramen!  It’s got that squiggly red line under it!

So I discovered the miracle of store-bought ramen about 25 years ago.  You break the brick to smithereens, add hot water, wait a couple minutes, and you’ve got a real taste treat.  And no need to add salt.  There’s enough in there to give a dead guy high blood pressure.  Pork flavor was always my favorite, but unfortunately the big brand quit making that some years ago.

But then a year or so ago, someone was talking about a Japanese restaurant and said “They have really good ramen.”  I thought, What?  Why would a Japanese restaurant serve ramen?  That’s like a chili joint serving canned chili.  Well, no surprise to you I guess, but it turns out the ramen brick or bowl you can buy in the grocery store is instant ramen.  Apparently, there’s real ramen.

So I had to try it!  Strangely enough though, when I did, except for the fact that there are chunks of fresh meat in it instead of little freeze-dried cubes, I didn’t notice it tasting that much better than the instant stuff.  I guess I can forget my dream of doing a food review column for the Beacon News.