Written and photographed by Designer Girlfriend
Desperate times call for desperate measures. Or rather, desperate financial times call for desperate financial measures. Thus, the theme for this article was born. I was recently accompanying Yod and Actual to an Asian supermarket. It's always entertaining to grocery shop with them, whether it be in a mini-mart, a mainstream grocery store, an ethnic market, or a discount food chain. On this particular shopping trip, I had an agenda. I wanted to gather up a nice sampling of ramen packages. You know, a girl has to watch her pennies in these uncertain times. And the last time I was watching pennies this closely was college. And isn't ramen the staple in every college apartment? So I was planning a college throw-back theme, minus the Coors Light and the horrors of midterms.
I gathered a nice sampling of ramen packages, different flavors, types of noodles, different ethnicities. I had about a dozen different types. And then I realized I had the opportunity to do some taste testing. I recruited my unwitting Cousin and Yod and Actual. The plan was set!
Here are the ramen packages, complete with their prices. You want to know if you just fell in love with a high-dollar ramen! (I was planning to sample 8 ramens, which we later edited to four.)
Next was a flurry of ripping open packages, tearing open various spice/seasoning packets (some powdered, some liquid), and boiling A LOT of water.
This particular package had a lot of flavor accessories.
So here were our four delectable choices:
Disregard those packages on the right, we didn't taste those. Everyone wrote comments for the four ramens.
Comments on Bowl A: Mushy, not enough flavor, not enough tooth. Flavor is chicken-ish, but mostly salt and a hint of onion. Ok if you are getting over the flu.
(Bowl A was the Nissin Oriental Noodle $0.69)
Comments on Bowl B: Smells of pine or mint. Smells like lemongrass. Chunky things in the broth are odd. Would eat this again. LIked these noodles the best. Do not like the mouth feel of the noodles, they are mealy.
(Bowl B was the Indo Mie Chicken Curry Flavor $0.49)
Comments on Bowl C: This bowl looked the most appealing. It did not taste interesting. Smells faintly like soap and tree bark. Smells like Aveeno lotion. I think this wants to be duck flavor. Not much flavor.
(Bowl C was the Pho Bo Rice Noodle Beef Flavor $1.29)
Comments on Bowl D: The broth was a good color (it didn't photograph well in a blue bowl) and the noodles looked tasty. It smells like sour cream and onion potato chips. By far the best regular noodles. Sort of bland. Good amount of salt, not too much. Would eat again.
(Bowl D was Kung Fu Artificial Onion Flavor $0.59)
And ramen tasting was just Part I of our bargain night! With our bellies full of broth and noodles, we went to the local Grocery Outlet to search for a meal for 4 for $20. On this particular day, the fresh produce was unacceptable, so we needed to rely entirely on packaged foods. This delighted Yod. He tried to shoo us away from the fresh produce. Then we saw the condition and the price of the produce, and we went back to food in bags, boxes and cans. Silly us, we thought it was Yod's inherent mistrust of fresh fruits and vegetables that made him shudder when we neared the produce gondola. He was just trying to save us...
We wandered around the store for a long time, trying to compose a somewhat cohesive meal. It was nearing closing time, and some tough decisions had to be made quickly. So we got a lot of interesting things that were not cohesive at all.
We have here a "Catering Collection" of appetizers, a tube of polenta, twisty pasta with cream sauce, a green chile marinated pork loin (for about $3.25!), caribbean blend veggies and a blackberry cobbler. And we came in on budget!
The Catering Collection was impressive for its quantity of food. The stuff was also very tasty. We all had a different favorite item. Left to right we have spinach and cheese quiches, crab cakes, cheese souffles, and mushroom turnovers.
The twisty pasta dish did look a little curious when it came out of the bag...
The pork loin looked and smelled great
And it all came together to make this handsome plate. Thank goodness Actual saved the day while we were at the store, she found Caribbean Blend. Vegetables made it onto the menu! It was a good mix of broccoli, green beans, red bell peppers and carrots. I would buy it again. The veggies gave our plates some color.
It all looked and smelled good, and the appetizers had been great. We were ready to enjoy our $20 meal. Alcohol had a budget of its own. Supplied from the cellars of Yod and Actual. I love that bubbly red stuff. I even held onto it in the photo, lest someone try to take it from me.
Satisfied customers
This is Yod's plate. Note the presence of vegetables!
By consensus, the polenta was good, the veggies were good, the twisty pasta was bland and forgettable and the pork loin was interesting. It wasn't bad, just green chile marinade was an intersting choice for pork loin. But that's what you get at the discount market: very familiar foods with a little twist that didn't go over so well at the mainstream grocery stores.
After ramen tasting, a trip to the store, appetizers, dinner, and generous amounts of spirits, it was time for dessert.
The photo doesn't do the flavor justice. It was great. Fresh berry flavor, a good amount of sauce and a tasty crust to boot. I don't think Yod had any dessert, but us girls dove in. I have had good luck with the Mrs. Smith's brand. I would buy this again.
We had leftovers from the $20 meal! We could have fed another adult, maybe two. But that might have been because the evening started with ramen tasting...
Go see what you can make for $20. I dare you!
