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August 25 is Instant Ramen Day in Japan, in commemoration of the day back in 1958 when Nissin unveiled Chicken Ramen, the very first instant version of the country’s favorite noodle dish. In celebration, we were going to chow down on some instant ramen, but since we do that all the time anyway, somehow a bowl of plain ramen didn’t seem quite special enough.

So instead, we drew on our love of anime, world travel, and the simple joy of not sweating profusely to come up with four recipes to spruce up instant ramen, specially tailored to be simple enough for anyone whose cooking skills mean their home is always well-stocked with the stuff.

1. Ponyo Chicken Ramen

Ingredients
1 pack Chicken Ramen
400 ml (13.5 oz.) boiling water
2 slices of ham
2-cm length of green onion
1/2 boiled egg

Directions
1. Stack the slices of ham, and slice them in half. Dice the green onion. Slice boiled egg in half.
2. Put Chicken Ramen noodles in bowl, top with all other ingredients.
3. Pour boiling water into bowl, cover and let stand for three minutes to cook.

First, we decided to recreate the ramen served to Ponyo by Sosuke’s mother in the beloved Ghibli anime. Really, it’s so simple you can make it with ease even while 50 percent of your brain is tied up with a mental playback loop of the movie’s infectious theme song.

You could get probably away without slicing the ham, but skipping that step makes the whole thing so easy it’s hard to convince yourself you’re doing any cooking whatsoever. The only pointers we have to add are to be careful not to scald yourself with the hot water, and to take your commemorative snapshot quickly before the noodles absorb all the broth like ours did. Risa may not be the greatest cook, but she knows how to make a tasty bowl of noodles!

2. Thai-style Chicken Ramen

Ingredients
1 pack Chicken Ramen
400 ml boiling water
1/2 lemon
Cilantro
1 chunk ginger
1/2 boiled egg
Rayu chili oil

Directions
1. Slice lemon, finely chop cilantro and ginger.
2. Place noodles, cilantro, and ginger in bowl. Add rayu (to taste).

3. Pour boiling water into bowl, cover and let stand for three minutes to cook. Squeeze lemon to add juice.

This tangy southeast Asian variant winds up tasting just a little bit like tom yam kung, the popular spicy soup from Thailand. If you want to get even more gourmet, you can use a little less water and add bean sprouts, shrimp, lemon grass, and kaffir lime to the broth.

3. Italian-style Chicken Ramen

Ingredients
1 pack Chicken Ramen
180 ml boiling water
100 g (3.5 oz.) tomatoes
1 sprig of basil
2 slices of ham
Parmesan cheese

Directions
1. Chop tomatoes, basil, and ham.
2. Place noodles in a bowl, cover and let sit for three minutes to cook. Half-way through the cooking process, open lid and turn the noodles over once.
3. Add basil, tomatoes, ham, and parmesan cheese (to taste) to bowl.

We didn’t just look to Southeast Asia for ramen inspiration though, as we also turned our eyes to Italy. The refreshing tomato and basil blend nicely with the noodles’ flavor, especially if you give everything a good mix before you start eating.

4. Chilled tsukemen Chicken Ramen

Ingredients
1 pack Chicken Ramen
180 ml boiling water
Roasted sesame seeds
Green spring onion shoots
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Approximately 5 ice cubes

Directions
1. Finely chop green spring onion shoots
2. Put noodles into the smallest bowl they’ll fit in. Add boiling water, cover and let sit for three minutes to cook. Half-way through the cooking process, open lid and turn the noodles over once.

3. Use a colander to separate the noodles and broth, catching the liquid in a separate bowl. Add ice cubes, sesame, spring onion shoots, and sesame oil to broth.

Finally, if the weather is just too hot for a steaming bowl of noodles, you can try this chilled version, in which the noodles and broth are served separately (called tsukemen in Japanese). Be careful not to use too much water, or else the sesame oil will harden when you add it to the cold broth.

We realize that these four recipes, simple as they may be, do move your meal a step away from “instant” class. Still, you can do all the prep work in the time it takes to boil the water you’ll need anyway, and we think you’ll find the tiny extra bit of time and effort involved in shifting your meal to “almost instant ramen” is definitely worth it once you taste the finished product.

Photos: RocketNews24
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