How To Cook a Perfect Bowl of Ramen

Ahhh... Ramen. Food of the Gods to students and the tight-budgeted all around the world, Ramen has the beauty of being both inexpensive (depending where you go to buy them), filling and tasty. There are pages dedicated to this fabulous food, often with recipes galore, some of which sound tasty and some of which sound...well...frankly nauseating.

Anyway, I tend to prefer Ramen on it's own, without extras, and I would like to now share my method of cooking the perfect bowl of Ramen.

Ok, we start with a packet of Nissin Demae Ramen. Made in Hong Kong, but for a Japanese company. It's worth anywhere from 65 cents to 95 cents, depending on where you shop. I got my latest batch of Nissin Ramen from my local Asian grocer.

Here's the packet:



The chicken flavour is really good... They also have beef, sesame, shoyu (soy sauce), tonkotsu (pork), and I think even a chili flavour.

The contents of the packet are simple, as opposed to Indo Mie noodles with their 5 flavour packets... This one has 2, a "soup base" packet and a tiny oil packet, which is usually sesame oil.

Now, this is the way I prepare my noodles. You will need:

1 small saucepan
Water
Noodle pack
Fork
Bowl for serving

To prepare:

1: Fill the saucepan with enough water to just cover the noodle brick.
2: Turn the stove on high, place saucepan on stove, and add approximately half of the soup base powder to the water.
3: Once the water heats up and starts to boil, add in the noodle brick. Don't worry if the water doesn't cover it completely.
4: When the noodles begin to soften, separate them with the fork and let them boil for about a minute.
5: Pour out about half of the water into the sink, making sure no noodles are lost.
6: Put pan back on the stove, and add in the rest of the soup base. Stir noodles and allow the liquid to boil off for about a minute.
7: While liquid is boiling off, snip off a corner of the oil sachet and drizzle half into the bowl.
8: Turn off stove, place noodles into the bowl with the broth, and then drizzle the rest of the oil on top of the noodles. Serve and enjoy!

This method ensures that your noodles are neither:

1: Too soupy.
2: Unflavoured.
3: Not soupy enough (which tends to be the case when people cook the noodles in the water and then drain off all the water and add the flavour packet...this is a big no-no! Your noodles will go all clumpy and gross.) Ramen is supposed to be a "noodle soup" and therefore you should keep it as such.

RESIST the temptation to add anything weird to your noodles, such as butter, cheese, ketchup or mayonnaise. (Don't laugh, I've seen it done by an ex-friend who thought his way was the perfect way to eat noodles. I didn't have the heart to tell him it tasted like oily noodle slop.) If you must add anything, it should be something Asian... like soy sauce or similar (e.g. Kecap Manis).

Mini-Review: Beard Papa Sweets

The last few times I've been to Brisbane I've gone past the new Beard Papa Sweets store which seems to be conveniently located at the entrance to the arcade I go through to get to Central train station. (Or the arcade I come out of after leaving Central, depending on perspective.)

Beard Papa Sweets has a flagship product, which is, in a nutshell, cream puffs. There's always a nice sweet aroma coming from the place, and this time I decided to check it out. I decided to get one vanilla and one of their "flavour of the week", which happened to be Green Tea. Click here to view.

While I do enjoy Green Tea, I didn't enjoy this cream puff. First of all, it looks disgusting. I'm sure that in Japan it's all the rage, and I'm not afraid of trying new things, but this was really...really awful. The combination of a bitter tasting Green Tea didn't go too well with the creamy texture, and I think I'll just stick to drinking Green Tea instead.

The Vanilla one was much better. The cream custard inside was delicate and had a nice flavour without being sickeningly sweet. Next time I go past there, I hope they have a different flavour... They have a range of vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, green tea, coffee.... and in the states they have a pumpkin flavour, which sounds interesting. They also make a Mango Ice Shower which sounds great for a hot day... as well as other goodies.

I'd give the cream puff product 3.5 bites out of 5, just so long as it's not Green Tea...

Brisbane Pride Fair Day 2007

June 16th, 2007 marked the 18th birthday of the Brisbane Pride Fair Day, its "coming of age". Myself and Green Gargoyle attended the day, the second for me, and the first for GG.

We braved the chilly winded weather and trekked the 10 or so minutes from South Brisbane train station to Musgrave Park. After going through the gate, we stopped off for a spot of lunch (Saté House rocks!) and I sms'ed a friend to ask if they were going to come. (In the end they didn't.)

We heard the drums of the Pride paraders as they reached the gate, and wandered over there... You're going to have to excuse my photos, I forgot my digital camera, so I took these with my phone, not completely awful quality, but no zoom....argh!


The drummers beyond the fence...


A huuuuuge rainbow flag...


Admittedly, I should have got closer for this shot.. This is the Brisbane Lesbian and Gay Pride Choir, of which a buddy of mine is a member. He wasn't there that day, though, as he wasn't feeling the best. But they are a great choir, and everytime I've heard them, they have been awesome.

There was another photo I took of the belly dancers, but there was a tent in the way, so you get to see like a head of one of the dancers and that's it....lol.

It turned out to be a sunny day, and I finally managed to pick up one of those silicone Pride wristbands, and a few other rainbow items, including a nifty hat! An interesting sticker I saw was one that said "F*#K HOMOPHOBIC RELIGIONS!", which was great, but the fact that it was a slogan of the Raelian movement, a UFO-based religion a la Scientology (and we all know how kooky THOSE people can be), kinda dulled the effect for me. And looking them up later on Wikipedia didn't make me any more interested in it, and neither did their website, particularly at the mention of the words "intelligent design".... UGH....give me a fucking bucket.

Other organisations that were there.... the Australian Labor Party, and the Democrats... but funnily enough, not the Liberal Party... (too conservative for something like a gay pride festival, I suppose) 3 different rainbow merch stores (and I bought stuff at each one), and all sorts of other interesting things.

The highlight of the day... probably the puppy dog I saw that had it's paws and tail dyed in rainbow colours. I thought that was cute! OH! and GG and I had our photo taken by someone from Q News... :D

Call Centres and Why They SUCK!

(or a rant about broken english speaking call centre staff)

Now, this isn't an unusual complaint, I've heard similar complaints..but this is mine, and I'm so angry i feel like a good rant.

*puts on rant pants*

RIGHT.
Call centres give me the shits. It's bad enough having to call one in the first place because of some problem you have. But what's worse, is call centres that fuck you around.

Here's my story: The other day, I registered a new sim card with my old mobile number, so that I could reap the benefits of picture messaging and GPRS internet on my phone. (I have over $500 credit, gotta waste it somehow.) I'd also just got a newer updated phone that does all this wonderful shit, and why not take advantage of it.

Anyway, my mobile provider has a website that lets you set things up online, which is fine by me, seeing as the less stupid people I have to talk to, the better. I put up with the 10 minutes of speaking to some idiot from Pakistan to get my old number transferred onto my new sim, but figured I could do everything else I needed via the internet.

Not so. I go to the website and go to set up my MMS, and it tells me that my mobile details could not be retrieved, and to call customer care. Bugger. So today, I suck it up and call the number that the website gave me.

Turns out it was the wrong number to call (right company, wrong section), so the guy (who was Australian) gave me another number to call, which wasn't much different from the one I had just dialled. He then transferred me to another department. Another minute on hold (after 5 minutes on hold to begin with, i might add), and I'm greeted by another Australian accented voice that asks me what I would like. So I explain my problem again. He then says "Oh, you've been put through to the landline department, I'll have to transfer you to the pre-paid mobile department."

My patience, at this point, is starting to wear thin. I'm put on hold again, and almost as soon as I'm put on hold, I'm answered by an accented voice from Pakistan or India... whichever, I do not care. He tells me he is the POST-PAID mobile department, and I am all "WHAT? I was told I was being transferred to the PRE-PAID department!" and going off at this guy who is all apologetic and says "Ok, I'll transfer you to the Pre-paid department. One moment please."

After another short period on hold, I am answered with "Yes?" ...just that and no "Hello this is the pre-paid department, how can I help you?" So I said, a bit sarcastically "This is the PRE-PAID department, RIGHT? You haven't sent me to DSL internet or something have you?" and the guy starts rattling off at me in an equally annoying Pakistani/Indian accent, which is thicker than the guy I was previously speaking to.

I explain my problem, yet AGAIN... and the guy says "ok, let me activate MMS and internet for you, let me put you on hold" after asking me if I'm aware of the charges involved for both services. 3 minutes of lousy music, and he comes back on the line, apologising for making me wait... then basically asking me the SAME QUESTION and then putting me on hold again. Another 3 minutes of lousy music follows, and then he comes back on the line, again, apologising for making me wait, and telling me he's having problems... what kind of phone do I have...so I tell him and then mention that I've had my number transferred to a new sim card. He tries to tell me that I'm on a "very old" plan (bullshit, I upgraded to it around this time last year, so it's not THAT old), and would I like to change to the newer one?

He then goes on to tell me that with the new deal, I've got to nominate some phone numbers to call that are with the same company in order to benefit from whatever extra credits... and I tried to tell him that I don't have any numbers on the same provider to call...and he goes... "ok I'll try and sort it out, let me put you on hold AGAIN" and by this point I'm just like "yeah ok put me on hold"... another 3 or so minutes on hold and he comes back and tells me.. "I've put in a request to activate GPRS on your phone (so I can use MMS and internet), but it won't become active for another 48-72 hours, but I can't set up MMS or internet due to an error at this time"

I, barely understanding that, asked him to explain it again. So he speaks SLOWER as if i'm a fucking IDIOT... and then I ask "so, I'll have to call back after that time is up to get it set up properly?" and he replies that yes, I will have to call back after that time is up.

Well. FUCK THAT. I'll go to the retail store and get it set up instead, by someone who isn't a moron and speaks proper english.

I don't give a shit whether it's cheaper to pay someone in Pakistan to do customer service, I'd much rather speak to someone who speaks english than deal with some idiot who probably doesn't even live here. It would be a hell of a lot less frustrating for the customer.

And it's not just phone companies. I had to call me bank a few months back to order a new keycard (i'd lost mine), and had to deal with oen of them, too. No wonder people go off their heads and shoot people... with call centre staff who don't speak english...how can you blame them?

In response to...

In response to THIS VIDEO,

YOU ARE A MORON!

First of all, your camera person is a dickhead. Try filming during the daytime (so it doesn't look quite so halfass), and try sticking to one spot. A tripod wouldn't go astray, either.

Second, to the person cooking the egg... I don't even know where to start. There is a difference between a FRIED EGG sandwich, and a SCRAMBLED EGG sandwich. What you made, seems to be a bastard combination of the two. Get yourself a proper egg flip, and you won't look like such a douche when you try and flip your egg with a spoon and turn it into egg mush.

Third, who the FUCK adds ketchup to their egg WHILE it's cooking? Ketchup is for putting on both slices of bread, BEFORE you deliver the cooked egg (which still looks like an EGG) on to it.

Fourth, your spelling SUCKS. Sause? Depens? WTF is that? Learn to spell, please.