Eat Your Ramen Correctly And Don't Let It Cool Off

Raise your hand if you like noodles! Of course, we're talking about a heaping amount of ramen noodles here. While you can buy cheap packets of dry ramen noodles with excessively high amounts of sodium-infused seasoning packets at virtually any store you walk into, it's the real, authentic ramen that makes it a true, classic dish. Served with an arrangement of seasoned vegetables and a choice of protein, this Asian treat has been taking the world by storm, one bowl at a time. In the United States alone, approximately 95 billion packets of instant ramen noodles are eaten every year, and that's not even counting fresh bowls of ramen served to perfection at restaurants (via Delighted Cooking).

With all of this ramen to go around, it's pretty important to know the ins and outs of preparing the Asian noodles and the best ways to eat them. Hopefully, you already know about all the common mistakes to avoid when making ramen and can easily decipher the good from the bad ones at the store. Let us be clear: eating ramen noodles is an art and needs to be taken seriously. There's nothing to mess around about when it comes to these noodles. One of the most important things to remember when making ramen is that once they're ready to go, it's time to dive in right away. There are absolutely no extra minutes on the clock to wait to eat them.

When making ramen or any kind of soup-based food, you probably have the intention of warming yourself up with its flavors and drinking the broth. So why are you letting your ramen cool down to lukewarm before you touch it? This is probably one of the worst mistakes you can do to your bowl of ramen, and it's honestly pretty rude to the food itself. According to Bloomberg's YouTube, eating ramen hot is first on the list of the "official" rules to eating the delicious food. Ramen chef and expert Ivan Orkin, New York's owner of Ivan Ramen, tells ramen lovers that the best way to eat a bowl of ramen is to eat it while it's hot. 

When ramen is served, it's usually piping hot. Because of how hot it is, the noodles are still cooking in the broth, so they can easily get overcooked. When the noodles sit in the hot broth, they start to release starch and can get mushy and break apart within the broth. Specifically, there is only a five-minute window before ramen noodles start to break down within the broth and start to lose their optimal chewiness (via Ramen Hero). That means that once ramen is served, it should be consumed within 10 minutes...maximum!

Don't burn your tongue, but make sure to eat your bowl of ramen as soon as you possibly can when its first served. Anyone up for a ramen noodle eating contest?