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Now, I am a lover of Japanese cuisine. My first cooking experience was in the kitchen of a Japanese restaurant, and it was that experience that really helped kick start my love of food and cooking.

One of my favorite dishes of course, and the one which I have prepared the most often, is ramen. This wondrous noodle soup dish is simple to prepare, tastes delicious, and offers a veritable rainbow of flavor options and possibilities. Everything from a simple shoyu broth, to the slow-cooked creamy pork taste of tonkotsu broth, to a spicy curry ramen, and everywhere in between.

When it comes to packaged ramen however, I pretty much just use the noodles and make my own broth from scratch. Better flavor that way, more control over the salt content, more avenues for creative expression. It's nice to get some fresh yakisoba noodles and use those on occasion, but for the price you still can't beat the packaged noodles, and cooked in a nice homemade broth they're actually better than the crummy frozen noodles we used in my kitchen alma mater.

I generally do conserve the flavor packets however, perhaps out of the same instinct to through nothing away that causes me to stockpile grocery bags, which of course I almost never use. I just don't use the things unless I'm taking part in that oh so delicious handmade snack food: dry broken up ramen brick with seasoning.

But there is one exception to this rule. One ramen flavor to rule them all, the only one that has a flavor that really is worth the price of admission for any purpose other than a half-assed snack seasoning.

I speak, of this fine specimen:

It is, quite simply, the only packet ramen worth eating on it's own. It is the only flavor that stands toe to toe with the quality of the more expensive imported ramens you can sometimes find in the Asian sections of supermarkets. It is equal to even to the wonders of the Nong Shim Bowl Noodle brand.

There's just something about the heat of the dried peppers, and the peculiar, almost smoky qualities of the beef bullion used, that gives it a complexity of flavor that, quite frankly, you just don't expect to find in something that only costs 10 cents at the local megamart.

But it doesn't stop at the spice packet. In contrast to the almost depressing uniformity of your average packet of dried instant noodles, the wonderful folks at Nissin have seen fit to add an additional touch to this simple meal. Infused in the dried noodles is yet more dried chili and spices, adding an extra kick even to the noodles themselves.

And not only does it serve to season a not-half-bad instant ramen, but as I've discovered with tonight's evening snack, a conserved spice packet from this stuff also serves wonderful as a seasoning for some just steamed rice. I have experimented with it's seasoning powers only a few times in the past, but somehow I suspect that if I dared to try, it's flavor would serve well as a seasoning mix for a number of other endeavors.

And so I must tip my hat to this surprising little foil packet, for providing me with some real culinary magic. Next time you're at your local foodservice supply store, do yourself a favor and grab a flat of this stuff. It's a great thing to have around, not just for the noodles, but for the whole flavor combination.

The birthday dinner

It's becoming something of a tradition in my home now, that my gift-giving take the form of preparing a gourmet meal for the honored. I shudder to think how that could wind up working out if I'm still here on Christmas or Thanksgiving.

Last night's dinner for my stepfather's birthday was actually a repeat of the meal I prepared for Mother's Day: Chicken Alfredo, Caesar salad, and cheesecake.

The Alfredo is a simple traditional recipe, of cream, butter, and Parmesan cheese. The most important step here is simply getting the right cream. Much of the "heavy cream" sold in stores doesn't seem to have the thickness needed to really do the recipe justice, most of it seems to made with heavy cream, but then diluted heavily with skim milk. The trick seems to be to give the carton a good shake. If it makes no noise, you've got it good. If it sloshes around like you would expect from a carton of milk, look for another brand. I actually had to go to two different stores to find a decent heavy cream.

For the Caesar salad, I made some simple croûtons of toasted bread tossed with olive oil and, once again, that good old Johnny's mix (I really do abuse that stuff, don't I?) For the dressing, I bought Cardini's, the original Caesar dressing, from the man who invented the stuff. It's interesting too, because it really doesn't much like any other dressing that's routinely sold as "Caesar dressing", but it's very good stuff.

For the cheesecake, as I had discovered that we didn't have a suitable pan for making cheesecake, I instead went ahead and bought a pre-made plain New York style from the bakery. And prepared my own topping, using a recipe for cherry confit culled from Tyler Florence's recipe for New York style cheesecake. I'm not entirely certain it came out properly however. It seems thinner than the recipe and picture imply, and I may have used fewer cherries than I should have. I was on time constraint however, and pitting the cherries was proving rather time consuming, so I stopped when it looked like I had about a pound as per the recipe. I think in hindsight I will next time use about as many cherries, but half the syrup content.

All in all though, the meal was delicious, and seemed to be well received, and I know I certainly enjoyed it.

Ham soup!

Tonight's meal was a simple soup, with ham, vegetables, and macaroni, served with a side of baked garlic bread. The soup had a vaguely Italian flavor to it, in part because of the herbs I used, and would also I think serve well as a good white bean soup with some modification.

The garlic bread came out really well. The "Country Buttermilk" Safeway Select bread I used has a really great flavor to it, that pairs well with the Johnny's mix. It also serves well for the bacon bruschetta recipe I posted earlier.

Soup recipe follows:

1 lb. ham, diced
1 medium onion, diced
2 roma tomatoes, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
2 slices of bacon, chopped
1/3 lb. macaroni noodles
2 cloves of garlic
Dried or fresh basil, oregano, parsley to taste
49 oz can of chicken stock

Add the bacon to a large stockpot and heat over medium heat. Cook for about 5 minutes, and add the garlic and vegetables. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes, and then add the ham and heat for another 5 minutes.

Add the chicken stock, then fill the can about 2/3 full with water, and add that as well, then bring the heat to high, and add the herbs, a few dashes of black pepper and salt, and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.

Once the water comes to a boil, skim off any fat that foams up around the edges of the pan, and then add the macaroni noodles, and boil for about 10 minutes.

For the garlic bread, spread a little butter on slices of bread, sprinkle with Johnny's mix and paprika, and put in a 350 degree oven for 5-10 minutes.

Eggs, eggs, and more eggs

Today's menu for some reason would up consisting entirely of fried egg sandwiches. I think perhaps my mother is psychic, as this time she wasnt' even in the house when I made the bacon and egg sandwich that served as my breakfast.

She just came home with a bunch of fresh sausage patties, Canadian bacon, English muffins, and a whole block of some cheap store brand "sharp cheddar", and wanted me to make egg mcmuffins.

By and large the meal was pretty straight forward, brown the sausage, fry the bacon, fry the eggs, slap them between a split English muffin with some sliced cheese.

I did make brief use of a trick I learned for pizza making, one of my favorite pieces of culinary prestidigitation, on how to make cheap cheese taste vintage, since I only had a small amount of the vintage white left. The trick is to to top the cheap cheese with a little bit of the good stuff. The similarity in flavors makes the two cheeses blend well, so you get the richer flavor of the vintage white, while the milder young cheese will help cut that bite at the back of your throat from the sharpness of the older cheese, which makes it an especially great trick if you've got any diners who aren't so hot on sharper cheddars.

Tonight's Snack

It is very rare for me to make it too many hours past dinner these days without the desire for some kind of snack. Basically unless I am completely exhausted and wind up crashing shortly after my evening meal, my night owl nature will inevitably out pace my metabolism, and I'll find myself craving some kind of snack.

The problem of course is that by this time it's usually past midnight at least, and I'm in no mood for anything with the remotest level of complexity. I'm tired, hungry, and still feeling a bit of the after dinner laze.

It is these situations that lead to my recent addiction to garlic toast. Just pop a couple of slices in the toaster, butter them up, and sprinkle with my favorite garlic spread mix, and the latest development, a few shakes of paprika.

Tonight however I was craving something spicier. In this evening's episode of No Reservations, Anthony Bourdain had taken a visit to Indonesia, and this along with a lengthy discussion with a Lithuanian acquaintance about the wonders of Tom Yum soup, had instilled in me a craving for the wonderful flavor that is red chilies.

For this, I looked to one of my favorite ingredients: chili garlic paste. This ubiquitous variant of the sambal that serves so much of southeast Asian cuisine, combines the simple flavor of red chili with a little touch of garlic flavor, and makes an easy way to spice up any dish with a bit of a fresher chili flavor than the dried red pepper flake and cayenne found in so many kitchens.

Immediately I hit upon the idea of just making a simple topping for my usual toast, and the result was what amounts to a simple bruschetta-like dish with a very rich flavor.

You will need:

2 strips of bacon
1/2 of a small onion
1.5 teaspoons of chili garlic paste
2 slices of your favorite bread
Johnny's Garlic Spread mix*
Paprika
Butter

Chop the bacon into small strips, and add to a small fry pan over medium-high heat. While that cooks, chop the onion and add it to the pan, followed by the chili garlic paste. Toss to evenly distribute the chili paste, and allow this mixture to cook, tossing occasionally, until the bacon is cooked but not over done, and the onions are soft and have absorbed some of the reddish color of the chili paste.

As this is cooking, toast two pieces of your favorite bread, and very lightly butter, then season with a light sprinkling of the Johnny's and the paprika. Top each slice off with half of the bacon and onion mixture, and enjoy.

*If you're the sort who likes to do everything from scratch, like I am when I'm not feeling lazy, you could easily replace the Johnny's with fresh ingredients. Add some minced garlic to the topping mixture along with the onion, and then, towards the end of the cooking, add some finely chopped fresh or dry herbs, like some basil or Italian parsley to the party and toss to combine. Finish off the flavor combination by lightly sprinkling the toasted bread with Parmesan cheese, and then top with the bacon and onion as usual.