charlotteann

I love this stuff. I know I’ve said it before several times on this blog and certainly in person. I don’t think people think of me as being a fiend for ramen as much as they think of me as a nut for pizza or Chinese food, but my appetite for this stuff is becoming insatiable. So insatiable I am willing to risk indigestion by putting %80 of a bowl of ramen for dinner on top of a large, late lunch. Whether its gluttony or hedonism, I enjoy ramen at restaurants and in the comfort of my own apartment at least twice a week. And last week a friend and I finally had our second ramen dinner together at Norikonoko in Berkeley, CA.

A fellow ramen f(r)iend

I had brought this friend to my personal favorite, Tanpopo in San Francisco’s Japantown, where we enjoyed two enormous bowls of awesome before he suggested we try his favorite spot. After our dining experience at Norikonoko it looks as though we’ll be trying to one-up each other, a challenge for which I am more than excited (and think I am winning already, hah!). Norikonoko is a very cozy restaurant with a sliding door and maybe ten tables. It’s a bit beyond the hubbub of that mess of retail stores and coffee shops that exist for UC Berkeley students on Telegraph avenue inside of a dark wood grotto of restaurants and shops. Although ramen isn’t exactly a main feature on the menu (I’d say the robata dinners had that spot), there were four options available. In my experience, the fewer options you have for a particular dish the better: the restaurant isn’t trying to please everyone and (hopefully) as a result prepares those few variations very well.

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Hey gang. Times are tough and I know you’re sick of hearing about it. But there are relatively healthy solutions out there for those of us enjoying funemployment and/or trying to make it as an artist. Even if they aren’t very healthy you can at least feel comforted by them. Take for example the humble yet satisfying grilled cheese sandwich.

Grilled cheese sandwich with swiss and goat cheese

The grilled cheese is not only really easy to make, but you can also put whatever is in your fridge cheese-wise on it and it will all melt together in harmony. Some people like to put green things in their grilled cheese sandwiches (I did last May) but I am finding myself less inclined to do so. I think this is because I am actually using my salad spinner and eating actual salad! I hope my mom is reading this…

Just cheese

Then of course we have noodle soup. As much as I love it, instant ramen takes a toll on your system. I know I shouldn’t use the spice packet, but I do and love every salty, chemical-ridden bit of it. So as I as trying to pick out the least horrible of the instants today at the store, I noticed some fresh noodles in the refrigerated section.

Cheap noodles!

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When I lived in Oakland I would purchase the majority of my Asian foodstuffs at the EM Food Market on 14th street. It’s a Korean grocery store full of lots of interesting stuff. Not the best produce, but they have kimchi, a variety of frozen goodies, and booze. Anyway, I eat a lot of noodle soup. Noodles and water are pretty cheap these days, and I get to throw in whatever veggies I have in the fridge into the mix. It’s fun. But sometimes a girl gets lazy and buys the instant, MSG-laden ramen noodle soup. My favorite is the Shin Ramyun brand spicy gourmet flavor and it is perfect for a lazy Saturday (as most of mine are).

Many of us on a budget opt for Trader Joe’s. Almost everything they sell - whether you need it or not - is wicked cheap. Their produce however, is horrible. I’m sick of buying lettuce or celery that looks fine in the store that browns by the time I put in my fridge. The extra dollar I’ll occasionally spend for the produce labeled “organic” does not prevent this frustrating reality of buying your greens at TJ’s.

I’ve watched shoppers laden with pink plastic bags pick over the produce in Chinatown from the bus for almost a year now, so I decided to put on my fiercest shopping face and dive into the frenzy to stock up on my stir-fry staples: onions, scallions, cilantro, and mushrooms.

Grand total? $3.14. That’s it. I realize this isn’t going to provide the bulk of daily caloric intake, but it probably marks the last time I spend $3.50 for eight pre-packaged button mushrooms from a major supermarket. I can’t seem to Google the particular shop (Shang Ling?) I visited today, but it’s next to Little Paradise on the corner of Stockton and Jackson. The fruit was outside, the greens inside, and all in varying condition. Yet this is the fun part of shopping for food, you get to pick and choose for as long as you want, and there are no plastic bags with funky colors and chunky fonts covering up signs of decay. Instead, you get that pretty pink bag that all the cats want.