(Photo: Honchan Ramen)
Ramen rice is basically when you order a bowl of white rice along with your ramen.
Some people love it, others think it makes no sense. “Ramen and rice? that’s way too many carbs,” or “the rice at ramen shops is kinda dry and meh.” I get it — I used to think the same.
But at some point I noticed something. When you’re eating ramen, your mouth kind of gets locked into that ramen flavor and the first-bite hit starts to fade. Then you take a bite of plain rice — a bit dry, nothing special — and somehow it resets everything, and when you go back to the ramen it feels fresh again, like the first bite. Ramen rice has this weird way of resetting your palate and making ramen feel good again.
Some people just treat it like “ramen is the side dish for rice,” or just a way to get full. That’s fine too. In the end, ramen rice is just one of those things… and that’s kinda why it’s good.
by Traditional_Class363
7 Comments
I only touch my rice when I’m done with my noodles. I dump the rice in the broth, mix and eat with a spoon
Sometimes I order a bowl of rice when I run out of noodles and still have a lot of good broth that I don’t want to waste, instead of ordering kaedama. Depends on my mood
Congrats, you just discovered the magic of how basic Asian rice meal work.
Though my favorite way to enjoy rice is with last bit of soup and treat that like congee.
I do this back in my home country when I was kid. Any instant noodles and rice. The soup and rice goes so well. I agree with the rice resetting the soup flavor
Though not traditional, but when making a bowl of the instant…I do airfry a basket of tater tots or a hash brown to over crisp. After eating or before, I dump them into the remaining broth…making a crude, but tasty hash gruel.
I got the idea when making a packet of instant potato ramyun..and really leaning into the potato craving.
Now, its a heavy breakfast to start the day with.
Rice soaking up the leftover broth is the real endgame.
You will find many friends who love ramen and rice combos in r/rameninjapan
It is a must get at iekei and a kind of nice to have at chan-style shops like the one you went to