Nama Instant Ramen

Ramen, a comfort food that Japanese has grown fond of and now makes a large part of their diet. With the surge of popularity in ramen, came many eager to sample what the different shops had to offer. Recently, Nama Instant Ramen was born to fulfill the wishes of those who are unable to actually visit the stores. In addition to offering a better alternative to normal instant ramen, Nama Instant Ramen are actually exact replicas from famous ramen shops themselves.

The word Nama （生）, which means fresh or raw, is an indication that the vacuum packed noodles contained each pack is fresh as can be. The soup base also gets a similar treatment, but usually in a condensed form. Depending on the different brand of ramen one buys, there might also be extra goodies like vacuumed packed scallions, menma (bamboo shoots) or even charsiu (barbecue pork) within the package.

If you happen to have a favorite ramen stall (and if the ramen shop happens to be famous), chances are that they will have boxes of Nama Ramen for sale. There are of course the full range of different variations of ramen available, ranging from the simple shoyu (soy sauce) and shio (salt) ramen, to Hakata-style tonkotsu (pork bone) ramen or even miso ramen. There’s a ramen for everyone.

Here I have with me is a box of Osaka shoyu ramen I acquired randomly from a Japanese supermart, pictures below.

A box of Nama Ramen. This particular box happens to be a shoyu ramen flavor from an Osaka shop.

Back.

Ingredients written both in Japanese and English. I'm quite sure there's a lot of secret ingredients omitted in the list.

A fairly detailed instruction on how to properly cook the ramen.

Contents of the box. Unfortunately the brand of ramen I bought only came with the usual nama noodles and concentrated soup stock, there were no vacuumed packed menma, charsiu or scallions.

This is a portion for a serving of ramen, the box contains 3 portions.

Pictures below will show you a rough guide on how I prepare my portion of nama ramen.

Pour the concentrated soup contents into a bowl and add hot water.

Meanwhile, in a boiling pot of water, throw in the noodles and cook. Instructions on the box will inform you the amount of time needed to cook the noodles to the optimum donness.

After the noodles has been cooked, add into the bowl of soup and add any desired condiments.

Final product. Friend egg and scallions are optional, added for my preference.

Nama Ramen make excellent gifts for ramen lovers or any gourmets who have not the chance to sample the actual ramen at the shop itself, the latter hold true for those not living in Japan.

Occasionally, Japanese supermarts in Singapore do bring in a few boxes of nama ramen for the benefit of the Japanese expats living here. Luckily for me, that is also the best chance for me to sample some of these names.