Original Nissin Chicken Ramen - A Taste of History

The first instant ramen was manufactured by Nissin in 1958.  Instant ramen was invented by Momofuku Ando who wanted to invent a food product that was could be stored and be conveniently cooked up for the common folk.  He went through a great deal of trial and error before he perfected his concept.  I went to visit the Nissin Ramen Museum in Yokohama and learned all about the history of chicken ramen and cup noodle.   Chicken (aka Chikin) Ramen was a luxury food product when it was first introduced as it cost five or six times more than fresh ramen.
Chicken Ramen Package
Earlier this year I found Chicken Ramen at the T & T Supermarket for the first time and I bought a five pack just to try it.  I'd definitely buy it again if I had the opportunity as it doesn't show up on the shelves often - it is pretty rare actually.   Chicken Ramen comes in an attractive package and shows the cute little chick logo you see below.  They have made little stuffies of this chick and there is plenty of merchandise too at the museum in Yokohama.
Unlike many instant ramen, the ramen shows up in a disc.  There is also no powdered soup packet.
One morning, I just decided to cook a pack of these up for breakfast and mostly followed the directions on the back.  This ramen has the chicken flavour kind of built into the noodles - not infused but it is part of the noodles and it gives a subtle chicken flavour with a hint of smokeyness.  It is very mild and it was tasty.  They recommend you add an egg to it and let it cook in the soup while the noodles cook.  The noodle disc actually has a round indent in the middle for you to put a cracked egg into.  Very cool!  I cracked an egg into it, but let it cook longer than they recommend to make sure it was more cooked.  The noodles mixed with the egg were very nice and the egg gave it additional flavour and texture all in a good way!

Cooking chicken ramen!

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