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I'm sick of my ramen tasting boring. Anyone got any tips?

All the recipes I've checked out have you preparing it for like 3 days in 25 different steps. With a bunch of microraptors in the family I'm obviously not going for that level of authenticity, but there's gotta be something better than what I'm doing.

Even made my own chicken stock last time and it still tasted... ok at best?
The frustration is real.

What do you do now? Seems like a good starting point

Stock, noodles, sliced pork or chicken, soy sauce, green onions, boiled egg.

Does the ramen actually have to kill or is merely maiming OK?

goroth wrote:

Stock, noodles, sliced pork or chicken, soy sauce, green onions, boiled egg.

Still seems vague. What stock, how do you make it? Brand of noodles? Which soy sauce? Butcher shop meat or store bought or frozen? What are the steps? Ya feel?

I don't have it in me to make everything totally from scratch, but when I do it, the broth is some

Chicken stock (4 cups)
Soy sauce (I dunno, like....a cup? Half a cup? I just pour some in)
Sesame oil (just a little, like...a little)
Oyster sauce (a few spoonfuls)
Water (2? 4? It's probably more like 6 or 8 cups)
A couple diced onions and a couple things of diced ginger to sautee ("thing" is whatever you want it to be)

Sometimes I throw some cayenne pepper in there, or maybe a bay leaf or something.
My Filipino coworkers told me that whenever you add soy sauce to something, add some oyster sauce too, and they were right.

I like to throw firm tofu, whatever mushrooms, green onions, and whatever vegetables are handy in there.

I think that's the basics of it. It's not "real" ramen. Sorry about my shitty measurement system

Add in some good miso

alternative thai route: fried noodles with cheap instant noodles

-boil 2 packs of instant noodles until slightly undercooked/still a little bit firm
-drain water from noodles completely and put them aside in a bowl and save flavor packets from your noodles on the side unopened
-fry whatever meat or tofu you like. i recommend frying some minced pork
-before pork is overcooked, move it to one side of your pan and then fry a few eggs in the remaining grease/oil. scramble eggs them into a solid mass almost like a super thick omelet i guess, let them get solid and a little brown, flip the egg mass, then let that get brown. after the egg mass is fully cooked, chop it up into small squares with your spatula and mix it together with you minced pork that you left on your pan side
-add bakchoi or however its spelled in english that is cut up. also mushrooms too. or whatever vegetables you have laying around.
-add noodles, flavor pack from your noodle packages, a heavy hit of soy sauce, squeeze 1 whole lime and then mix the whole meal together well so it all blends. can also add a touch of vinegar if you want, but not too much.
-if your noodle package isn't a spicy flavor and you want spice, add something spicy.

done.poor mans fried noodle here. a common feast from one poor thai street rat to another. rotate veggies, meats, and flavor packs to your liking. always add a full lime and a few eggs and soy sauce. its hard to go wrong and will keep you full for the existential crisis you carry within daily but would rather not address until your stomach is full

I mince up some garlic and slice a whole onion, and cook that for 30 minutes (instead of making a stock). Sliced mushrooms get added, then the noodles and spice packets. At the end, I'll add leftover meats or fish, or frozen shrimp. If the ramen doesn't come spicy, I add sambal olek (chili sauce with garlic). Green onions are fantastic to finish with, but I rarely buy them, because they often spoil before I can use them all. One of the tricky things is knowing how much water to begin with, so that it's not too watery. If you need to add more water, take it from the tea kettle or you'll slow yourself down.

My number one tip is to buy your ramen at an Asian market, they will have a lot more interesting choices than most grocers.

If you have kids, it may be hard to find a balance between tasty ramen, and what will your kids eat.

Dude, this:

Make a broth ENHANCER

This is good for all ramen types, high effort or instant noodles.

Blitz up some dried shiitake mushrooms, add in all kinds of good spices you like. Get a tub of miso and pop that in there. A little bit of soy sauce. And whatever noodles you make will be excellent

cyanide. that's it...that's the post.

You're missing the bonito flakes. That's important, even if it's not a seafood ramen per se. And kelp.
If you're using chicken stock as the dashi, adding bonito flakes and seaweed will make a big difference.

this thread i will be haunting my asian market....

Whenever I make ramen now I just drop two eggs in the broth while they cook. When the noodles are ready, usually the eggs are nice and poached in the broth and it just makes any cheap ass ramen ike a thousand times better.

Then crush or chop a couple cloves of garlic, drop it in fresh, some peppercorns and you're done. That's my default.

If I can find those amazing Kimchi ramen in the red package I always get that. Wicked spice but the dried vegetables are surprisingly good in those.

Ramyun or Samyang I think is the brand, their noodles fucking rock.

fcknoise wrote:Dude, this:

Make a broth ENHANCER

This is good for all ramen types, high effort or instant noodles.

Blitz up some dried shiitake mushrooms, add in all kinds of good spices you like. Get a tub of miso and pop that in there. A little bit of soy sauce. And whatever noodles you make will be excellent

Yeah, you need some umami. Other options would be kombu or anchovies. Or just straight MSG - that's what makes the packaged stuff so great.