Happy Chinese New Year of Ox!

One year I made a Ramen Sandwich. I cooked two packets of Ramen noodles and used both of the chicken flavor packets that came with them but nothing else because I wasn't at that point a risk taker. But after the noodles were all good to go I took two slices of whole wheat bread (or maybe it was 12 grain) and I packed noodles in between the slices and called it a Ramen Sandwich. It was tasty enough to have a second one too.

I'm not sure where I got the idea for a Ramen Sandwich. Those sorts of ideas usually come to you during blank times. They arrive when you're thinking of nothing else, just doing the same old thing, like cooking Ramen Noodles the same old way, waiting for that inspiration to strike. I may have been staring out the window looking at the snow coming down or it may have been Summer in Maine and there may not have been much snow where I was, in the southern portion of the state. Or I may have been staring at the stains on the kitchen counter top, or those pots I learned to know so well, or the flame curling up around the edge of that pot I was using for noodle cooking. I may have been sitting there with shut eyes just thinking of oceans and the breasts I'd seen in real life and drugs and my dog. Or maybe not. Maybe I wasn't doing anything. Whatever it was it wasn't memorable enough to file it for easy-access later on, like right now.

Needless to say that Ramen Sandwich was a hit for only two or three meals. After the third Ramen Sandwich lunch a few weeks later I wasn't satisfied anymore. I needed something bigger, something more explosive. Granted I could have switched up the Ramen Sandwich to incorporate the beef flavor packets, or perhaps used a different type of bread, but I just wasn't in the mood. Sometimes moods like that strike you down, and it's too painful to deal with anything, especially change. So I went back to the simplicity and ate Ramen noodles straight up, without the bread. Now when I could Ramen Noodles I used only half a flavor packet to cut down on boring sodium-packed chicken flavor, and I throw in ginger and garlic and Thai spice and curry powder sometimes. I put in some pepper too, because that's really what makes the difference. Red pepper if we've got some.

It's the Chinese Year of the Ox and it's getting warmer and I'm okay with eating Ramen again this year. I ate it when I lived with my folks and had the chance to eat much better, more creative meals. I ate it when I was at school in the little Styrofoam cups. I ate it when I first moved to this apartment a few months ago. I guess I'll keep eating it. I don't have anything wrong with it yet. It's a pretty versatile dish.