Like most Americans, my first exposure to ramen was the freeze dried brick of wavy ramen noodles, with the seasoning packet.  What I didn’t realize until much later in life, is that there’s a whole culinary world and culture around ramen.

An engineer by day, when I’m not helping out around the house with our four kids, I’m either listening to good music, making fun costumes, or researching ramen.  My wife and I love watching scary movies.  I’m also part of an international costuming charity organization which dresses up in movie accurate costumes of everyone’s favorite space opera from 1977.  I have a white plastic space trooper costume, and a devil-horned space wizard ninja costume with two red laser swords.  That’s where the “Darth” part of my Instagram handle came from!

I remember watching the first episode of Mind of a Chef, with David Chang, and he eats ramen in Japan with his friend, Peter Meehan.  My wife thought it would be fun to dress up some instant ramen for dinner one night, and after a brief recipe search I found a simple Ajitama ramen egg recipe.  It was so delicious, we dreamt up “Ramen Wednesday” to compliment “Taco Tuesday”.  With a busy family, it can be difficult to plan meals, so having simple “go-to” recipes throughout the week really helps.  From there, we made a point to sample ramen on our travels wherever we went.  Then when travel ceased due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we craved ramen and I started researching more and more, and as my bowls got better, “Ramen Wednesday” happened more often.  We got a pressure cooker, and the speed of cooking ramen increased dramatically. My wife thought I was crazy, but she really saw a spark, and encouraged me to put “#ramenwednesday” out into the world.

Ramen is still mostly a quick, inexpensive, instant meal for Americans eating the noodle brick and seasoning powder.  I love extra spicy ramen kits!  However, over the years more and more traditional ramen restaurants are gaining footing. In New Orleans, Louisiana, there are a small handful of restaurants that serve ramen, amongst other Asian inspired dishes.  If you’re lucky, chefs will do “pop-up” ramen events or special menu items at established eateries.  I can’t wait to travel again, and sample more ramen with my family, both in America and abroad.

While I haven't traveled to Japan yet, my wife and I want to visit, for sure.  We both love Japanese cuisine, and plan on visiting some day.  Our oldest son is learning to speak Japanese, and it’s incredible hearing his language skills develop.

“Taco Tuesday” is a common weeknight dinner custom in America, and I would love to see “Ramen Wednesday” become more widespread.  Not just in America, but around the world.  Busy families like mine, are always looking for nutritious, filling and inexpensive meals on weeknights.  Ramen can be as easy as you want, or as complex as you want.  I use leftovers from prior weeknight meals (bones, meat, vegetables, etc), and my home pressure cooker to simplify preparation.  If you have a family, or other commitments, sometimes dining out is best, and having a warm, thick, and delicious bowl prepared by a chef or ramen master at a restaurant is the way to go.  Regardless, if you’re looking for a meal on any given Wednesday night, why not Ramen?  It’s fun to slurp noodles with family and friends!

The recipes I provide below range in difficulty from super easy to somewhat advanced. The key is preparing the Ramen components ahead of time, so assembly is easy. My recipes are intended for the home cook, and not necessarily for professional chefs. 

If you ever have questions on a recipe, please reach out via Instagram. 

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