Yesterday I watched a YouTube video on interesting things you could do with ramen. If you have never tried ramen before, this is not for you. You need to go to a real shop, where they have the broth boiling 24/7, with the lime and the chili sauce and the plum sauce. It is not an experience that is repeatable at home, especially in white kitchens. Most white people do not have the things on hand to make authentic ramen broth even if they wanted to, and not nearly enough culinary expertise. So, if you are a “newbie” to ramen, this cannot be something you do the first time you try it. Don’t even think that prepackaged ramen is close, because even the noodles are a little bit different.

That being said, I, like David Chang, love ramen. It’s easy and quick, and the sky is the limit on what you can put into it. Most people do veggies and some form of egg. A handful of frozen peas and carrots in the pasta water is generally all that’s necessary. The stock spices are good enough, unless you get the water ratio off. But most people don’t think of all the sauces you could serve. Today, I did a white American cheese noodle dish, and the only thing wrong with it is that it’s a bit too salty. I added too much of the stock spice to the roux, which was flour and two packets of spice (I was making two servings). I am now betting you could get away with half a packet, but I didn’t want to under-season the cheese and noodles. Since the “spices” are mostly salt, I should have realized this. But I don’t have to sweat it. Being a professional cook is about being able to go in a different direction IMMEDIATELY. THE MOMENT you realize you need to go in a different direction, you know what to do. Acid neutralizes salt, but I need more volume as well……….

I fixed it once everything was done, with pasta water, mustard, and ghost pepper wing sauce. If I’d had it on hand, I think I would have gone with more herbs, spices, and pasta water rather than making the acids do the heavy lifting.

I think that’s the last of my ramen packets, but if I find another one, I’ll try to do a carbonara…. I should start buying the noodles pre-cooked because I like making the sauces so much more than watching noodles boil…..

Saucier is literally my calling.

Your best bet when making new ramen sauces/broths if you’re going to use the spices it comes with is to keep extra on hand. You can control the amount of salt more easily if you are able to add volume- noodles without any seasoning at all.

I just realized I made Mac and cheese and there’s both chili and sesame oil in my pantry. I should have done an oil sauce….. but I have more cheesy goodness for lunch tomorrow. I have designed it to be nuclear hot on purpose. It works so much better than over the counter nasal decongestants.

Seriously, if you’re willing to endure 20-30 minutes of discomfort, the effect on my sinuses lasts a couple hours at least. I also don’t go any hotter than normal grocery store hot sauce. Yes, they’re ghost pepper, but it’s not like I went to a specialty store and demanded a sauce that will absolutely rip my asshole out through my ear. The ghost peppers are tamed with quite a bit of garlic. It’s not about the amount of Scovilles. If you can’t eat 30,000 Scovilles’ worth of heat at a time, don’t. The hotness of the pepper is essentially the highest “dose” you can take at one time. Same effect eating a pepper with less heat, but eating more of them.

I’m pretty sure I just ate my weight in sodium, though, so that probably wasn’t the best move ever. It would have been healthier just to make my own Alfredo, but of course I wanted to see if this YouTuber was onto something.

I think I would have preferred oil and chili flakes to Mac and cheese, but I will definitely make it again. Especially when you have American cheese, it’s irresistible. I just want to grab some rosemary, thyme, and basil out of our garden first.

There’s only so many ghost peppers I can eat.