I Made a Ramen Burger for My Mouth

photo 2When I studied abroad in Kyoto, I ate ramen more than any other food. Not instant ramen. In Japan they have thousands of small ramen restaurants where you get steaming hot, freshly made, absolutely delicious ramen. I can still remember specific bowls of ramen that I ate over there.

So about a month ago when I heard about a chef in New York who had invented a ramen burger, I knew I had to have one.

The concept is simple: You create ramen patties to replace hamburger buns, stick a beef patty in the middle of it, and put it in your mouth.

However, until I recently watched this video, I couldn’t figure out how to get the ramen noodles to stick together in bun form. Now I know, so I made my first ramen burger tonight. I’m here to tell you how it went and what I learned along the way in case you want to make one for yourself.

Oh, and yes, of course it’s delicious. I wouldn’t say it’s significantly better than a traditional burger. But it’s still worth trying to impress the ladies sometime. Or, in my case, the cats (who were not at all impressed).

Also, I don’t like following recipes, so I created my own unique burger. That’s what you’re getting below.

photo 4Jamey’s Kimchi Teriyaki Ramen Burger

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 pack of cheap ramen noodles
  • 1 pound of ground beef (will make about 6 burgers)
  • 1 glob of kimchi (spicy Korean bok choy)
  • 1 egg
  • 2 empty plastic deli containers
  • teriyaki sauce (or a random combination of condiments)
  • sesame oil
  1. photo 5Turn on The Daily Show in the background.
  2. Cook the ramen noodles. Just water and noodles, no flavor packet.
  3. Strain the noodles and mix them together in a bowl with 1 egg and half of the flavor packet. Divide the noodles between two plastic deli containers and put in the fridge for 15 minutes.
  4. Mix the beef with salt, pepper, ginger, garlic, and the other half of the flavor packet. Form it into patties and cook them in the sesame oil.
  5. If you’re like me and you only own one frying pan, wipe down your frying pan and reseed it with sesame oil. Carefully shake out the ramen patties into the skillet and cook both sides until they’re crispy and brown.
  6. Dress the burger with teriyaki sauce (or a combination of all the ingredients shown here) and put kimchi on top.
  7. Attempt to eat the burger with your hands like a true American before realizing that the ramen buns are still scolding hot from being in the frying pan. Switch to eating the burger with a fork, which is acceptable in no countries.
  8. Enjoy a delicious burger while watching How I Met Your Mother (eh) and Survivor (so awesome).

That’s it! Does this make you want to eat a ramen burger?

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