cook: ramen

It’s almost Valentine’s Day, and so I’ve been decorating the home with flowers in that romantic palette of red and pink. And I volunteered to cook a main dish of huevos rancheros and stupidly volunteered to add breakfast burritos to the menu for a Galentine’s Day brunch. I told the hubs last night that I’m not gonna slavishly clean, arrange furniture, decorate, or vacuum after the party. If I end up vacuuming afterwards because the ladies don't, then I’m gonna refuse to reserve the clubhouse for them again. I will cook the eggs I volunteered and provide butcher paper and lend a couple vases of flowers. But the onus is gonna be on Helen and Nancy since it was their idea to stage this event. I also stupidly volunteered to make the flyer.

But I unfortunately forgot to add mimosas to the flyer. Helen said to add them. Uhh no. She can just write the drink in. I'm not making more flyers. I'm in a mood and doneso. D-U-N-Z-O.                    

I’ll only complain here that I’m done with self-involved and lazy people. My friend, Julie was like that and I haven’t heard from her ever since I refused to cook her shrimp and grits which I would’ve done until she pointed out one day that I do a lot for her and that she never reciprocates. She offered me a hypnotherapy session, which I declined. And it hit me too at that moment how one-sided our friendship was, and I resolved to no longer be her doormat. And though it makes me very sad to break up with a friend, it’s very healthy to accept that friendships end just like some romantic relationships end. I was resenting doing all the work and being taken for granted by Julie, which made me remember that it was similarly why I had ended a romance with an ex-boyfriend, Jim. I felt stuck in an unsatisfying, noncommittal relationship that lacked open and honest communication. I grieved the ending of my closeness to Julie just as I mourned over the breakup with Jim. Both Julie and Jim just had abruptly severed their connection to me, and that hurt. And because truth and a space for expressing these hurts were always missing from those relationships, I never got to express my pain and navigate a closure. And so I’ve journaled and mentally composed my goodbyes to them and thanked them for being in my life and teaching me. And I have learned more about myself, about boundaries, and self-respect. I know too that I’m still worthy of deep and meaningful connections and being surrounded by friends who are supportive and yet are not afraid to disagree with me in the interest of being protective of me. I know. I know. I seem to be asking a lot of a friend, but really it’s about mutual respect right? I am trying not to be so walled off in order to protect myself, but also to not suffer again from toxic people. Flaky, inconsistent, unreliable and kind of without character, who are easily impressed by things that don’t matter are the kinds of people I’ve tried to hold on to as friends in the past that I’d rather be alone most of my days with one or two close friends rather than surrounded by people of less quality. AND I’ve likewise been that trashy friend I’ve just described like Julie and Jim, and I don’t absolve myself from being that same flawed human being. I can only try to do my best. Sheesh this was a long prelude and a non sequitur to a blog post about what I cooked last night.            

I’ve so far eaten one prepared meal from the company, Methodology. And I’m not impressed. Yes the meals were packed in glass jars and a cardboard box in a supposedly more sustainable and environmentally friendly way. Am I supposed to dump the packaging in the recycling bin or give them back when they deliver my next meals? What do I do with the gel packs? The meal was okay. Not especially delicious or special. Anyway I’ll finish two more deliveries and will then cancel the subscription. I decided instead for dinner to eat the ramen kit I got at Costco which consisted of noodles, tonkatsu broth that contained corn and kikuragi mushrooms, and already cooked pork belly. I decided to add bamboo shoots, freshly harvested Savoy cabbage, scallions, a radish, and a hard boiled egg.

And I remembered the togarashi and nori in my pantry drawer. Oh and I also added low sodium Kikkoman soy sauce from my fridge to the soup.                            

And it wasn’t bad. Not as savory and satisfying as a bowl from Santa Ramen down the street, but tasty enough.               

I notice that a radish loses its sharp bite when cooked, and the vegetable added a nice crunch. The cabbage made it virtuous for me because Japanese ramen is as even the menu at Santa Ramen points out NOT a health food, which is amusing because I think American culture regards Japanese cuisine as healthy because of all the soy and fish in their dishes. And here’s ramen again the next day.        

And this time I cooked the ramen a minute less which made all the difference and made the noodles more toothsome.