Actually, scratch that. I put the noodles, the spices and the egg in the hot water first, while the veg is steaming. Then I just plonk the whole thing together and start the fire.

If you want the noodles springier I guess you could put them in WITH the veg and the egg, but I dunno if you could do it without breaking the yolk.

🤔

…worth a try.

Also works well with Mamee Noodles, duck flavor, which is AMAZING and is beloved by the spouse, who has… like, 20 packets at home right now. We bought it cheap because they were on sale.

The Mamee noodles one requires a little change to the recipe though, since some of the seasoning is embedded into the ramen matrix itself, and you mix the sauce and some additional seasoning after the 2 minute cook time.

But it's good.

I also once tried the Mamee Chef Curry Laksa flavor that they had that some gwailo raved over and said it was the best ramen flavor EVER.

and… it's pretty good! it very cleverly incorporates coconut milk powder and has the tofu skins in the whole mix, and it was pretty good!

But here's the thing. It's not curry laksa tho. If I wanted curry laksa I'd eat curry laksa.

Like, ramen flavors are, at worst, pale imitations of the thing you're imitating, and at the best, they evoke other feelings and become their own things by themselves.

Which is why Mamee Curry noodles are perennially popular, and honestly, I think it's why the spouse likes the Mamee duck flavor noodles. They don't taste exactly like the things they're trying to simulate, but are their own things.

I have to say tho that the Mamee Chef flavor that comes close is Lontong. That was SOMETHING.

Too bad the Mamee Chef lines are so fcuking pricey, tho. And the lontong flavor is great, but feels like it'd be so bad for me. I can feel my BP spiking after eating it.

I once tried using a miso strainer I bought at Daiso to put all of the noodles in, so that once it was done I could take it out and complete cooking the veg and egg.

the strainer took too much space in the pot, tho, and in the end would have diluted the soup, which would have defeated the point of cooking the egg in, which always subdues the taste. which is why you put in less water in the first place.

and it complicates cooking flavors with seasonings embedded in the noodles.

ehh.

@vfrmedia Who do you think misses a taste of home food? 😂

I dunno if it'd be the same, tho. Some recipe formulations change as you go through different regions. It's definitely the case for stuff like chocolate — Australian Tim Tams are WAY different from Indonesian Tim Tams, mostly because the Indonesian Tim Tams are less melty (and thus, less delicious).

@tariqk
Next time I get some I'll check the barcodes, but I'm fairly certain these came from MY (unlike for example Kikkoman soy sauce which goes nowhere near JP but is made across the North Sea in NL!)

@vfrmedia then I know that there is a market for this sort of thing for desperate Malaysian students who want a taste home 🤣

Oh, I was there, once. I feel that pain.

@tariqk Ipswich is a coastal town and recently built its own University, I think there are quite a few folk from MY who travel here (either short or long term).

There's a large population from PH (to the point an entire store selling pinay handbags exists), and many folk from LK as well as from BD and IN..

@vfrmedia There you have it.