Dinner at the Ramen Ya

Monday's are the only day all my kids are home for dinner and with Matt being gone we decided to try a local ramen-ya (ramen shop) in our area.

Before coming to Japan I always thought ramen was the cup-o-noodles or dried blocks that we lived on during college because we were too poor to buy anything else. But actually traditional ramen is a Japanese noodle dish with Chinese-style wheat noodles served in a broth (meat or fish based) with different toppings, such as sliced pork, nori (dried seaweed), green onions, eggs, goma (sesame seeds) and sometimes even tofu. Every shop and area has its own variation of ramen.

The shops typically have different spices and sometimes fresh ginger and garlic to add for some extra flavor.

The kids have gotten very good at eating with chopsticks over the past 21 months.

Proper etiquette is to drink out of the bowl and to slurp up the  noodles off the chopsticks. I, however, just can't bring myself to do either. So instead, I  drank my broth with this cool spoon and delicately ate my noodles off the chopsticks.

Most ramen shops also have one of our family's favorite little treats -- gyozas!

For once, I was actually able to read our bill! I guess 20 months of lessons are finally paying off.

The kids rated the overall dinner an A, and while it was very tasty, I think they were just excited they were all given little treats when we left.

 

Afternoon at the Instant Ramen Noodle Factory

The weather has been colder than usual here, so last Saturday we bundled up and decided to spend the afternoon at the Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum in Ikeda, Osaka. While we were unable to read most of what was displayed, there were lots of things to look at, and more importantly, the kids got to make their own Instant Cup of Noodles!

This is the inventor of the instant ramen noodle –– Momofuku Ando. I guess he is like the Colonel Sanders of Japan.

When you enter the first part of the museum, you are able to see the history of the instant ramen noodle. Most of this we could not read, but it was fun to look at the memorabilia and make up our own dialogue.

Sometimes reading Japanese to English translation here is like reading what a 1st grader writes. The words are spelled exactly how they sound.

In Japan you can seriously but anything in a vending machine, including instant ramen noodles.
Koichi Wakata is a Japanese astronaut staying at the International Space Station, and guess what he likes to eat in space. Yep! Instant ramen.

Another interesting area was a "Wall of Ramen", showing every instant ramen noodle product made. Who knew there are so many instant ramen noodle products!

The best part of the whole museum was getting to make your own instant ramen noodle cup.

First, buy your container for a mere ¥300 (about $3.10 USD).
Next, decorate your cup.
Third, put ramen noodles in the cup.
Forth, pick your dried ingredients. You can choose 4 items from egg, pork, shrimp, green onions, garlic, cheese, garlic, corn, chicken and asparagus.
Fifth, seal on your lid.
Lastly, shrink wrap your cup.

After your cup is all shrink wrapped you get to stick it in this protected air pouch with a long neck strap. I guess they want to make sure your cup makes it home in one piece.
I really wanted to make my own cup, however Matt made fun of me so I abstained. I did manage to get my picture taken with the giant instant ramen cup.