Why do people believe what they believe? One of my go-to phrases in college was, "Well, my problem isn't with this (political) point of view or stance per se, it's more with the reasoning behind it."
I feel most people rarely sit down and think about why they are the way they are. Life just happens. Perhaps occasionally when you get into a conversation with a friend about why "Barack Obama is destroying America" you get a glimpse into their thought process (or lack thereof, in some cases), but for the most part we just absorb things into our belief system unconsciously, and that makes it hard to imagine why others might think otherwise. This will be an ongoing series in which I pick out random things I believe (well, probably not so random), figuring out what in my life experience caused me to take this stance, and whether or not that still makes sense now that I've thought about it some more. I highly encourage everyone to try this out - it can be quite fascinating, or terrifying.
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1. Ramen
OK, so I won't be starting with anything particularly deep or thought provoking. I basically made a list of random things I could talk about, and some things were there due to interest (no doubt I shall talk about StarCraft again), but others to challenge myself to think of something witty to say about any given topic.
I was a pretty sheltered kid growing up. In the States I lived in suburbs with pools and green lawns. Like almost every single middle-class ABC, I learned to play the violin (starting when I was 4 years old). I also got to play team soccer and hockey, go to YMCA and music camps, and other fun things.
In the midst of all this though, I never learned how to do the laundry. I don't mean using a washboard and scrubbing away with soap, I mean I didn't even know how to run a washing machine or dryer. I also never learned how to cook. I could make PB&Js, and I knew to add the cereal *before* milk, otherwise it would get soggy too quickly.
Gosu cook am I.
In other words, I was somewhat imbalanced. I could draw, I could swim, I could play music, I could sing... but I had no basic life skills. This seems to be the case for many kids in modern Taiwan as well. The emphasis on good test scores above all else compels many parents to set their kids up in an ideal study environment. Don't worry about doing the dishes, just go study. Don't waste time learning to cook, you'll figure it out later, just go study. Don't waste time hanging out with friends and learning how to socialize, just go study. Of course, parents mean well - and to a certain extent, I do believe that education can indeed be a great equalizer. And yet, it seems profoundly ironic. What is the point of getting a good education? Aside from this doing it for the joy of intellectual pursuits (a definite minority), most people go to school for fairly practical reasons. A college degree, while worth less than it was a few decades ago, is still nice to have, at least compared to someone who "only" has a high school diploma. This provides you with better job prospects which means more money which means a better life. In theory.
And yet, having "life skills" arguably contributes to better quality of life too. I think it's safe to say that for most people, being able to cook your own food instead of being forced to eat out at restaurants all the time is more important than being able to do trigonometry and calculus. I'd rather know what to say in an awkward situation than know a bunch of chemical compounds. This isn't a slam on "impractical" skills per se - I'd be the first to admit that being good at StarCraft in of itself isn't worth anything unless you're a progamer, but there are intangibles I got from it that made it at least somewhat worthwhile. But in terms of preparing your child for life as an adult, I think that some societies are doing it wrong, with Taiwan being a key offender. (of course, many sheltered kids in the States have similar experiences, but class differences in the United States are large enough that it's a bit harder to generalize)
At any rate, you're probably figuring out how all this connects to ramen. A lot of college students lacking in life skills eat unreasonable amounts of ramen not necessarily because it's tasty and fast, but because they don't actually know how to cook anything else. It's not really about time - cooking a simple dish really doesn't take that long once you get the hang of it - but it does take time and effort, and it's an investment that most people choose to forego.
I went to boarding school when I was 14. Our school would climb a mountain (>3K meters) every fall, and it was quite an awesome tradition that opened my eyes to many things, the first of which being how useless I was in some regards. The entire school (roughly 80 students and teachers) was split into 10 teams, and we each had a "food group". Basically, for multi-day trips food is one of the heavier items, and it's obviously easier to split it between several people. I didn't even know how to boil water at the time, by which I mean knowing how long it would take to boil noodles. I couldn't properly clean vegetables, and didn't know the proper order to add ingredients, so everything would be finished at the same time.
It's pretty astonishing how much I had learned by my second year there
Of course, this changed afterwards, as I loved mountain climbing, and so learned how to cook some really simple, quick foods... but that's also when I cooked normally too. And of course, that was a problem. You see, you can go without proper amounts of vegetables and other nutritious foods for a few days when climbing, because it's a special situation. But you can't just load up on pure carbs in everyday life. But that was the extent of my cooking skills. Noodles + tomato sauce. Noodles + soy sauce. Noodles + New England Clam Chowder. I got by, since I really didn't have to cook that often at the time, and didn't have to my first two years of college, since I lived in a dorm.
An interesting side effect of my shitty cooking was that I found dorm food delicious, because I wasn't comparing it to home-cooked excellence like most kids, but rather my own subsistence-mountaintop-survival-style-minimalist cooking. I just couldn't understand the constant complaints. In Michigan, all the dorm cafeterias actually have pretty much the same food (well, the new Hill Dining Center was an exception). They use the same frozen vegetables, potatoes, egg powder, etc. It's just that each dorm has its own "specialty". I know I'm going off on a tangent at this point, but I've got this little grin on my face as I reminisce about the good ol' college days.
East Quad was almost universally hated. It housed the Residential College - basically a small liberal arts college within the larger University - and thus provided more vegetarian and vegan options. I wasn't a vegetarian at the time, but personally I didn't think it was that bad. Plus, I actually liked eating in East Quad, because it had a smaller dining space, and that meant that the cookies were always fresh and warm, when compared to the larger cafeterias. Always look on the bright side of life.
South Quad housed both the athletes and the honor students. I'm not sure how that happened. At any rate, it was known for having pizza every day. Besides that, it was pretty much your typical Michigan cafeteria food. Powdered eggs. Beef drowned in soy sauce = Asian beef. That always cracked me up.
West Quad had a burrito bar. It was also really close to the Union, which housed a Magic Wok, Subways, Wendy's, Pizza Hut Express, and other culinary monstrosities. As such, if you wanted to guarantee yourself a table, you ate at West Quad. It seemed half-empty (an optimist would say half full) most of the time.
Markley was where they stuffed all the freshmen, and it was crowded.
Bursley was where they stuffed all the engineering, music, and art freshmen. It was known for several things - being huge (meaning the cookies were never deliciously gooey and warm), and its design. I always said that you knew what students lived and ate there - the engineering students built that conveyor belt for your finished lunch trays, the art students designed the pretty wooden mini-pagodas, and the music students didn't do shit because the acoustics of the place were terrible (glass on 3 sides), and you had to shout to hear yourself think.
At any rate, after moving out of the dorms, I ate a lot more ramen than was good for me. Now, it's important to note that not all ramen is created equal. All college students should know that. I greatly preferred the type that required a stove to cook, because that meant thicker and chewier noodles, which really separates bad ramen from good ramen. The soup and sauce is all flavoring and MSG anyway. Thin ramen noodles cook faster and are ideal for those who only have water heaters and no stove, but the noodles also have the consistency of soggy graham flakes. The Korean spicy seafood noodles were my absolute favorite, and I'm sure that after I die, my inner organs will be perfectly preserved for the amusement of future generations marveling at late 20th century mummification techniques. I would add vegetables to it to delude myself into thinking that it was remotely healthy, and I'd add an egg right after shutting the flame off so it would be half-cooked, allowing me to stir the yolk into the soup. Delicious!
My favorite. Seafood and Spicy!
I haven't eaten instant ramen in almost 2 years now. It's been ten years since I first learned to boil water and make ramen, and now, while I still have a long way to go, I can cook a wide variety of healthy dishes that most people can stomach without throwing up. You'll notice that a lot of my blogs are about growing up, and this blog is no exception. Part of it is realizing that I wouldn't be young forever, that my body wouldn't be able to continue cleansing itself of toxins and preservatives as it got older, and that I'd have to change these habits sooner than later before it became a habit too heavily ingrained. I've also lost my taste for heavily flavored foods - I think eating a primarily organic vegetarian diet over the past year has something to do with that. Organic foods really taste different, and I've grown to appreciate the taste of a food itself, rather than the food + ridiculous amounts of sauce and flavoring. And lastly, I decided that ramen was a symbol of a life that I wanted to slowly transition away from.
To put it simply, consider treating yourself as you would your own child. Now some people might feed their kids donuts for breakfast, but they at least have the excuse of not knowing better. I remember one night in college, when I was munching away on some gummy worms, that I suddenly stopped, and realized that I'd be a terrible father. "Hey, Daddy's too lazy to cook today, so let's just have chip and salsa plus gummy bears for dinner today." My parents certainly never did that to me, even if they were tired and might have been tempted to just order a pizza and get it over with for the night. They took the time and effort (well, my Mom really since she's the one that cooks in our family) to make sure we got the nutrients we needed. I guess it's about the kind of person I want to grow up to be.
So I guess you could say ramen has been a symbol of one aspect of my maturation. One might say that quitting it means more than you might think. Or, I'm just reading too much into it. However, I like to think that all this is to say that there are stories behind nearly everything in life, so long as you're willing to think about it. Try it, you might be surprised at what you learn about yourself.
Anyway, life skills are definitely important. I sort of took it for granted because my parents always encouraged me to cook with them: sandwiches, pasta, stir fry veggies, fried rice, noodles, meat, fish, everything. So when I went off to college, I was so surprised that almost everyone there was absolutely incompetent at cooking. They couldn't hold a knife properly to cut things, they were inefficient in the kitchen - I would cringe seeing my friends attempt to cook multiple things at once - they didn't know how long the pork needed to be cooked so that it's not bloody.....
If you wanna stay healthy, you gotta know how to cook.
edit - some of my korean friends introduced me to neoguri seafood flavor ramen and it's so good. but my favorite is still shin ramyun.
Cooking takes a lot more time than you realize. Getting ingredients, cooking, cleaning up, it's very easy to spend an hour on a meal on average (much more than that if you want to cook more than really simple dishes)
As a young working professional in the city, eating out is also one of the most common social activities outside of drinking. It's really hard to have a social life if you don't eat out with people. It's also just fun to eat out
The way I see it, cooking makes sense if you are cooking for more than 1 person. If you just cook for yourself, you are better off eating out. The only exception is if you don't make enough money to do anything else, but honestly cooking for yourself is not much cheaper than eating out (unless you buy dirt cheap crap)
On July 17 2012 14:01 Wangsta wrote: It's really not difficult to cook
Cooking takes a lot more time than you realize. Getting ingredients, cooking, cleaning up, it's very easy to spend an hour on a meal on average (much more than that if you want to cook more than really simple dishes)
As a young working professional in the city, eating out is also one of the most common social activities outside of drinking. It's really hard to have a social life if you don't eat out with people. It's also just fun to eat out
The way I see it, cooking makes sense if you are cooking for more than 1 person. If you just cook for yourself, you are better off eating out. The only exception is if you don't make enough money to do anything else, but honestly cooking for yourself is not much cheaper than eating out (unless you buy dirt cheap crap)
buying food at the grocery store is way cheaper than eating out will ever be
with one person I do agree it does begin to get close, but even then buying groceries is still an amazing deal if you calculate how many meals you get out of what you buy vs. what you get at a restaurant
I guess you also have to remember it takes time to cook as well, which in many busy people's lives is worth the $
On July 17 2012 14:01 Wangsta wrote: It's really not difficult to cook
Cooking takes a lot more time than you realize. Getting ingredients, cooking, cleaning up, it's very easy to spend an hour on a meal on average (much more than that if you want to cook more than really simple dishes)
As a young working professional in the city, eating out is also one of the most common social activities outside of drinking. It's really hard to have a social life if you don't eat out with people. It's also just fun to eat out
The way I see it, cooking makes sense if you are cooking for more than 1 person. If you just cook for yourself, you are better off eating out. The only exception is if you don't make enough money to do anything else, but honestly cooking for yourself is not much cheaper than eating out (unless you buy dirt cheap crap)
buying food at the grocery store is way cheaper than eating out will ever be
with one person I do agree it does begin to get close, but even then buying groceries is still an amazing deal if you calculate how many meals you get out of what you buy vs. what you get at a restaurant
I guess you also have to remember it takes time to cook as well, which in many busy people's lives is worth the $
not sure where you live, but i think in general, buying groceries is way way cheaper than eating out, unless you order mcdonalds dollar menu (and who in their right mind who cares about their health would do that?) let's say i wanna eat waffles, sausages, and 2 eggs for a quick breakfast. i buy a dozen eggs for $1.25, 12 fresh sausage patties (raw) for $6.00 (im rounding up cuz i forgot how much they actually cost), a pack of frozen waffles for $3.50, and a stick of butter for $1.00 (dividing out the 4pack lump of butter that I get for $4.00). That's $11.75 for 6 meals of breakfast. If I go out to eat, it already costs me $6.00 for a single breakfast.
Cooking is also WAY healthier than eating out. You control how much veggies, meat, carbs, whatever you cook, and how it's cooked. You can refrain from using a ton of oil and salt, like they do at many restaurants.
I agree with Wangsta's point that eating out is a social thing though. I love going out with friends and trying out different restaurants occasionally. Then again, for me, cooking is a social event too. Invite some friends over and cook, have them bring some drinks or their own dishes -> good food, good drinks, good company -> life.
When it comes down to it, Kraft Dinner / Ramen is actually really expensive and you don't get much from it. You can get a "healthier" option in the same amount of time too. Although ramen does taste very rewarding once in awhile.
On July 17 2012 15:02 Leeoku wrote: When it comes down to it, Kraft Dinner / Ramen is actually really expensive and you don't get much from it. You can get a "healthier" option in the same amount of time too. Although ramen does taste very rewarding once in awhile.
Ramen is like 10 cents a pack. Also what the hell is a Kraft Dinner, are you from Canada?
Yea I am. For a ramen pack which is the korean seafood spicy flavour or other big asian brands it costs like nearly rougly 50 cent/pack not on sale. KD which is mac & cheese goes for a dollar a box not on sale too.
I'm at Umich right now, lived in the deuce most of my life. Got put into east quad last year and the food was either good or the whole menu had the little vegan symbol by it, disgusting.
Lived off of microwaved shin ramyun last year, its my shit.
On July 17 2012 15:24 Leeoku wrote: Yea I am. For a ramen pack which is the korean seafood spicy flavour or other big asian brands it costs like nearly rougly 50 cent/pack not on sale. KD which is mac & cheese goes for a dollar a box not on sale too.
I don't know where you live that sells korean ramen for 50 cents a pack, but I want to move there. Shin Ramen for example is $1.50 per pack here.
Over here there are "home economics" classes that everybody is forced to take in school. So people at least know how to cook rice with something simple to it and bake something basic.
If you have things like that over there as well, how can people forget it so quickly?
When I first left home and started living on my own I barely cooked at all. The maximum were like noodles or boiled/fried eggs. Now that I pretty much live with my gf however all the knowledge I must have passively soaked up from my grandparents in terms of cooking shows and I have no trouble outperforming both my gf and (huehue) her mother.
I almost never know exactly what I'm doing but it just works most of the time. Combine some basic knowledge / passive experience by just hanging around the kitchen with google and wikipedia and you can already do lots of stuff. Just try it out! =)
Reading things like this, and the responses makes me happy i held off college for a couple years and went to live in the "real" world for awhile. I went from washing dishes to being a cook. Cooking is absurdly easy but i would have never known if i just studied, went off to college, and never took up a few years of fine-dining cooking jobs. Learning how to cook proper, and macgyver food is probably one of the best outcomes i think could have happened to me.Though i am a little behind in school now well, at least in math. I would have placed higher if i had went right out of high school.
Not only does it look good to the ladies, but it also impresses almost everyone i cook for, even if its something basic that i threw together with random crap from the fridge. I would be a very poor, hungry man if i didnt learn how to cook.
Also, to the person saying cooking for 1 is just as expensive as eating out, someone allready covered this, but you can get so much more food for the same cost as eating out. I bought a bag of rice, and a bunch of veggies, and some fresh chicken and ate fried rice for a week. Each meal probably cost me $7~, and that was making way more food each meal than i could actually eat. I always had leftovers! Learn how to cook, learn how to shop, save some money. Only sacrifice is time but hell, cooking is fun, especially if you are learning new things while doing it.
PS - white wine, chicken broth and butter are your friends. Any time something asks for water, like rice for example, chicken broth is where it is at.
I personally had a short period in my life when I was cooking mainly ramen myself as well. But I don't think it was the lack of the "life skills" I possessed. It was just a really lazy way to cook a decent meal, and the fact that I was ignorant of how easy real cooking can be.
However, I don't think "life skills" should be used one-dimensionally (ie considering playing the piano to be a life skill). In a way, they are, but these skills also teach you how to learn and to learn effectively with experience. That's why grownups seem to catch on to things quicker than, say, a teenager (with few exceptions, such as learning a new language).
On July 17 2012 14:01 Wangsta wrote: It's really not difficult to cook
Cooking takes a lot more time than you realize. Getting ingredients, cooking, cleaning up, it's very easy to spend an hour on a meal on average (much more than that if you want to cook more than really simple dishes)
As a young working professional in the city, eating out is also one of the most common social activities outside of drinking. It's really hard to have a social life if you don't eat out with people. It's also just fun to eat out
The way I see it, cooking makes sense if you are cooking for more than 1 person. If you just cook for yourself, you are better off eating out. The only exception is if you don't make enough money to do anything else, but honestly cooking for yourself is not much cheaper than eating out (unless you buy dirt cheap crap)
I agree with this, with the caveat that while cooking may cost just as much as eating out, dollar for dollar, regardless where you live, you are guaranteed to eat better food.
I still make Ramen occasionally as a comfort food but I never lived strictly off it either so maybe thats why I can enjoy it once or twice a month. I do agree that learning to cook is not only healthier and cheaper but its a pleasure all its own when you make the time to do it. It doesn't have to be complex, half my diet is basically various salad type food with meats or fruits in them to fortify me with the goodness my body needs.
On July 17 2012 14:01 Wangsta wrote: It's really not difficult to cook
Cooking takes a lot more time than you realize. Getting ingredients, cooking, cleaning up, it's very easy to spend an hour on a meal on average (much more than that if you want to cook more than really simple dishes)
As a young working professional in the city, eating out is also one of the most common social activities outside of drinking. It's really hard to have a social life if you don't eat out with people. It's also just fun to eat out
The way I see it, cooking makes sense if you are cooking for more than 1 person. If you just cook for yourself, you are better off eating out. The only exception is if you don't make enough money to do anything else, but honestly cooking for yourself is not much cheaper than eating out (unless you buy dirt cheap crap)
No its not, but as you said, it takes a lot of time. I personally hate cooking for myself, and even for 2 people its rarely justifiable unless someone be cleanin up me mess.
But the world, especially US is facing a food epidemic, one that we have yet to see the full effects from
On July 17 2012 14:01 Wangsta wrote: It's really not difficult to cook
Cooking takes a lot more time than you realize. Getting ingredients, cooking, cleaning up, it's very easy to spend an hour on a meal on average (much more than that if you want to cook more than really simple dishes)
As a young working professional in the city, eating out is also one of the most common social activities outside of drinking. It's really hard to have a social life if you don't eat out with people. It's also just fun to eat out
The way I see it, cooking makes sense if you are cooking for more than 1 person. If you just cook for yourself, you are better off eating out. The only exception is if you don't make enough money to do anything else, but honestly cooking for yourself is not much cheaper than eating out (unless you buy dirt cheap crap)
I agree with this, with the caveat that while cooking may cost just as much as eating out, dollar for dollar, regardless where you live, you are guaranteed to eat better food.
Also, if you have a freezer you can cook once a week and just freeze a bunch of batches. Cheapest possible way to eat, even when cooking for one person.
Most college people eat ramen because it is cheap and they are budgeting, not because they necessarily like it better than other foods, or that they do not know how to cook. I see a lot of assumptions in the OP and very little reasoning behind their assertion.
One of the easiest things to cook is grilled steak and if you asked your random college student if they would rather eat and cook grilled steak everyday other than ramen, the majority would cook the steak (honestly it takes all of ten minutes and requires little effort). The reason why you don't see the prevalence of cooking a variety of foods, is because again, college student's are generally poor and can't afford to 'spice things up'.
I had a rough hardworking childhood. I didn't know a kid that worked the same way I did =( which was kinda sad. But in the end it helped me out a lot as an adult although I hated it as a kid lol.
Life skills are important, education is important, a good parent needs to do a good job at teaching both to raise a kid that will be ready for the real world.
Personally when I cook I really just cook w/e is healthy for me nowadays. When you start putting on them pounds and become self-conscious of them ITS REALLY EASY to start cooking cheap healthy meals for yourself lol. But god I miss the days when I would make an omelette over fried rice with ketchup while I watched anime. Too many calories bro, too many.
I hate the concept of "unhealthy"... It seems like a big scam someone made up a long time ago to keep us with the same physiques (probably the fashion industry). We have limited time on this earth, that is a given. So whether it's 60 years, 100 years or 1000 is irrelevent, time is relative anyway. Actually I think our evolutionary process has stopped because of our long lives. Add to that we have these huge governments in place which are full of the previous generation that don't even understand what the internet is. I say, let's all eat "unhealthy" food, we'll die quicker and that's a good thing.
Oh, and for the love of god let us smoke!!!
-Written while eating a bowl of 2 packs Mi Goreng, one small tin of tuna, handfull of frozen vegetables, and 2 eggs.
On July 18 2012 03:47 Wegandi wrote: Most college people eat ramen because it is cheap and they are budgeting, not because they necessarily like it better than other foods, or that they do not know how to cook. I see a lot of assumptions in the OP and very little reasoning behind their assertion.
One of the easiest things to cook is grilled steak and if you asked your random college student if they would rather eat and cook grilled steak everyday other than ramen, the majority would cook the steak (honestly it takes all of ten minutes and requires little effort). The reason why you don't see the prevalence of cooking a variety of foods, is because again, college student's are generally poor and can't afford to 'spice things up'.
I don't know anything about the prices of food in the States, but I'm pretty sure there are always cheaper, tastier and easier (at least equally easy) meals than ramen fucking noodles. Everything in Sweden is generally expensive, but if you have a freezer you can eat like a fucking boss every day of the week for very little money, even if you're cooking only for one person. You just have to be smart with what you're buying.
New England Clam Chowder is definitively a great thing to add to noodles. I haven't tried it with ramen, but taking a can of clam chowder, cream of mushroom and a little milk and putting it over pasta is a quick and delicious meal.
Well, I was rather lucky in that my parents taught me how to cook as I grew up. I'd hang out with my mom in the kitchen a lot, and she'd let me do little things, like cracking eggs, chopping vegetables, etc. By high school, I could cook by myself and actually ended up splitting cooking duties with my mom fifty-fifty. I was by no means an accomplished chef, but I could whip up dinner quickly and efficiently and follow pretty much any recipe and come out with a pretty good approximation.
Anyways, it was sad to discover how bad some people are at cooking in college. Some people actually didn't know how to make ramen noodles and simply stuck them in the microwave without water-- the result was a pretty nasty cloud of smoke and a broken microwave. Another time, some frat guys tried to barbecue out back bragging about how they did it all the time back home, but couldn't manage to even light a fire (not to mention their burgers, which were misshapen gobs of ground meat). It must have been pretty deflating to have me, a nerdy and rather skinny ABC, come light the fire and do the first set of burgers for them.
Cooking competently is up there as one on my favorite activities. There's just a simple pleasure in seeing something take shape because of your work. Also, unless you totally flubbed it, it will taste really good to you.
I disagree that cooking is expensive or time-consuming.
Last year, my meal plan was $2700 for unlimited food. Given maybe 3 months(90 days) in a semester, that's 30 bucks a day or 10 bucks per meal given 3 meals a day. My mom goes shopping maybe 4-5 times a month for food an spends maybe ~$100-200 each time. So each month, even at ~$1000 of groceries, shopping is way better than my meal plan. That works out to be $250 per person per month, and works out to about $2 per person per meal.
Cooking itself takes very little time-- its just knowing how to prepare well. Like, when you get home, take out the stuff you want to cook and get it all defrosted or whatever. Heat your cooking pot/pan/wok in advance while you chop veggies and meat. Cooking is mostly waiting time too, so you can even multitask a bit there. To stir fry some veggies and meat and put it over rice/ noodles takes like 20 minutes.
I'm an ABC as well and my mom was an incredible cook. So when I left for college, I had to learn how to cook in order to get the same food I'd have at home. Eating out is nice but nothing beats a home cooked meal. And its cheaper...and it's healthier.
But to go further, it's truly sad how kids in college can't work a washing machine and need a friend's help. My mom always made me help out around the house so I guess it paid off later. And yeah, I played violin as well haha.
But if I have to pick, I'm going with Shin Ramyun. A classic.
Lots of kids in Taiwan can't cook at all, but a fair amount of ABCs can. Some of my fondest memories at Michigan involve staying on campus over Thanksgiving break. Someone would make Turkey, and mashed potatoes, and green beans and all the "standard" stuff, and then we'd also have potstickers, Japanese-style curry, sweet almond soup... nicely reflecting people's ethnic culinary backgrounds.
I wonder if this is because eating out is so convenient (And relatively cheap) in Taiwan. If you want curry, you can go out and get it easily. If you want fried rice, you can go out and get it easily. In the States, as an ABC growing up in the Midwest, you had very few authentic Chinese-food options, and they tended to be quite expensive. As such, our Moms learned to cook all the foods they loved, and you pretty much learned naturally. You pretty much had to, because eating out all the time (if you wanted Chinese) simply wasn't practical.
Yeah, learning to cook really is important. At least being able to do basic cooking is important, even if you eat out a lot. Not to say shin ramen isn't amazing, I'll have it once a month or so.
Cooking is easy. In the 21st century, in which google exists, making it a lot easier to find recipes to cheap/healthy/yummy foods extremely easy.
The caveat for a lot of college students is that they're often cooking for themselves (FOREVER ALONE). The time spent on cooking a meal is pretty long, and often not even all that cost effective. Even with freezing/refrigerating batches of cooked food (like rice/vege's/meats/spaghetti), and reheating it later, it's pretty easy to get tired of said food, after eating it 3-4 times in a row. Also since foods usually come in a bulk pack, or greater than what one person is willing to eat before it expires, often food ends up being wasted.
On July 18 2012 10:01 Funnytoss wrote: Hm, I'm reminded of an interesting phenomenon.
Lots of kids in Taiwan can't cook at all, but a fair amount of ABCs can. Some of my fondest memories at Michigan involve staying on campus over Thanksgiving break. Someone would make Turkey, and mashed potatoes, and green beans and all the "standard" stuff, and then we'd also have potstickers, Japanese-style curry, sweet almond soup... nicely reflecting people's ethnic culinary backgrounds.
I wonder if this is because eating out is so convenient (And relatively cheap) in Taiwan. If you want curry, you can go out and get it easily. If you want fried rice, you can go out and get it easily. In the States, as an ABC growing up in the Midwest, you had very few authentic Chinese-food options, and they tended to be quite expensive. As such, our Moms learned to cook all the foods they loved, and you pretty much learned naturally. You pretty much had to, because eating out all the time (if you wanted Chinese) simply wasn't practical.
I haven't been in Taiwan in like ~14 years, so my memory is fuzzy, but from what I remember, street foods are extremely available, cheap, and tasty. Especially since, they're often made by regular people (not mass produced company stuff), it's also relatively healthy (lacking preservatives, and other chemicals).
I remember Anthony Bourdain talking about the whole "eating out" phenomenon also applied to Hong Kong, in which majority of people eat out, rather than cook.
I too know the pains of not learning some basic life skills due to study habits. I can only really cook ramen and some basic things like eggs and bacon, Luckily for me my Girlfriend is an excelent cook. Definite plus that she's Korean since Korean food is definitely one of my all time favorites. Mmm...Bulgogi. Seriously, I could eat that shit for breakfast, lunch AND dinner.
Dollar store. I live on less than $90 for eating per month (3 meals per day, all month. Almost no eating out). I buy my fresh fruits/veggies at Lucky or something though, cuz the Dollar store doesn't have those.
Now that I think of it that $90 per month also gets me whatever supplies I need as well, on top of food. Toothpaste, paper towels, etc etc.
On July 18 2012 03:47 Wegandi wrote: Most college people eat ramen because it is cheap and they are budgeting, not because they necessarily like it better than other foods, or that they do not know how to cook. I see a lot of assumptions in the OP and very little reasoning behind their assertion.
One of the easiest things to cook is grilled steak and if you asked your random college student if they would rather eat and cook grilled steak everyday other than ramen, the majority would cook the steak (honestly it takes all of ten minutes and requires little effort). The reason why you don't see the prevalence of cooking a variety of foods, is because again, college student's are generally poor and can't afford to 'spice things up'.
I don't know anything about the prices of food in the States, but I'm pretty sure there are always cheaper, tastier and easier (at least equally easy) meals than ramen fucking noodles. Everything in Sweden is generally expensive, but if you have a freezer you can eat like a fucking boss every day of the week for very little money, even if you're cooking only for one person. You just have to be smart with what you're buying.
You can't eat cheaper than Ramen. They're usually around 10 cents a pack here in the States, so for less than a dollar you can feed yourself for the day. Let me know what meals you can make that would sufficiently satiate your hunger for the entire day on less than one dollar.
You make a claim then provide no examples...what was the point of your post exactly?
Lol I just turned 25 and have been living independently since i was 18 I love to cook and can do variety. but i have to admit I cook better enhanced ramen now then i ever did before :p (just not as often)
Instant ramen are so bad. There's a reason they cost some cents. The only way to eat ramen is in a dedicated ramen shop, preferably in japan. Everything else is, oh dear.
On July 18 2012 12:06 FullNatural wrote: Dollar store. I live on less than $90 for eating per month (3 meals per day, all month. Almost no eating out). I buy my fresh fruits/veggies at Lucky or something though, cuz the Dollar store doesn't have those.
Now that I think of it that $90 per month also gets me whatever supplies I need as well, on top of food. Toothpaste, paper towels, etc etc.
I want to get married in a Dollar store.
If you love deals you'll love Costco better. The only way to get legit deals is buying in bulk. Or else how would dollar stores make money?
I have to agree that taking the time to learn how to cook for yourself, then realizing you can support yourself food-wise is a very satisfying feeling. Although I haven't moved out yet, I'm still going to develop my culinary skills + other basic life skills for the real world
On July 18 2012 12:06 FullNatural wrote: Dollar store. I live on less than $90 for eating per month (3 meals per day, all month. Almost no eating out). I buy my fresh fruits/veggies at Lucky or something though, cuz the Dollar store doesn't have those.
Now that I think of it that $90 per month also gets me whatever supplies I need as well, on top of food. Toothpaste, paper towels, etc etc.
I want to get married in a Dollar store.
If you love deals you'll love Costco better. The only way to get legit deals is buying in bulk. Or else how would dollar stores make money?
I agree sometimes costco is the way to go. However, I live in a 280 sqaure foot studio with no real kitchen. So I dont have much space. Also bulk isn't always the cheapest way. ie the dollar store still wins out alot of the time.
Dollar stores make money by selling off brands, selling products closer to their expiration dates, selling products with miss shaped and/or very slightly damaged packages, selling odd size products that werent a hit with the big stores, selling domestic goods made in the USA (which is ironic, cuz this is obviously good for our country), not allowing refunds (exchanges only with recepit generally), having a very good product to employee ratio, having no fresh produce (costly to have in stores), low maintenance products (no forkllifts/pallets needed to stock etc), strategic placement of stores (along bus routes and low income areas etc), stores with nothing other than pure product (no silly displays etc), and just simply having less arogant prices. I have never seen a store with so many made in the USA products before.
Great blog! So much extrapolation from ramen. I love it.
I'm going to be heading off to college soon, and I am trying to teach myself how to cook day by day. Eating out everyday at dorm cafeterias is going to get tiresome (doesn't matter if the dorm food is rated #2 in the US), and I have this weird thing where I cannot stand eating the same thing twice in a row. (e.g McDonald's for lunch on Monday, no burgers or fries on Tuesday).
Reminds me of the stories my uncle tells me of his college days, eating microwave burritos that cost $1 for 3 burritos. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner. Terrible lifestyle, imo.
Btw, Nongshim is overrated. Samyang Ramen and Jin Ramen is the way to go. Avoid Cup Noodle btw. If you have only eaten Cup Noodle brand instant ramen before, you're missing out. If you really want a cup noodle, get Nongshim Kimchi cup noodles or just the regular ones.
Not really a fan of those cheap ramen noodle packs... that shit is death.
Before my wife moved into my apartment, I use to cook chicken breasts with vegetables... EVERY DAY! I never got tired of eating chicken breast because I had some delicious seasonings that I mixed the chicken in, but my food diet worked perfectly with my workout routines. Now my wife always cooks, but I'd prefer my own cooking. >,< DON'T TELL HER I SAID THAT!
On July 19 2012 13:54 Silentness wrote: Not really a fan of those cheap ramen noodle packs... that shit is death.
Before my wife moved into my apartment, I use to cook chicken breasts with vegetables... EVERY DAY! I never got tired of eating chicken breast because I had some delicious seasonings that I mixed the chicken in, but my food diet worked perfectly with my workout routines. Now my wife always cooks, but I'd prefer my own cooking. >,< DON'T TELL HER I SAID THAT!
I'm fucking telling you so hard. I too can never get tired of chicken breast. I moved in with my cousin and his fiance a while back and they had one of those things (can't remember the shit name right now -_-) where you just dump a chicken and add some sauce mixture and it just cooks in a few hours along with having a rice maker oh man was it delicious every time.
I just went downatairs to make myself.. Instant ramen...
I really wish parents - especially asian ones in my case - involved their kids in life skills more. I'm kind of in the same hole: sheltered when it comes to cooking, and while i'll be okay for a bit cause i'll be dorming, my forages into cooking have been very, very lackluster.
On July 19 2012 09:09 Steveling wrote: Instant ramen are so bad. There's a reason they cost some cents. The only way to eat ramen is in a dedicated ramen shop, preferably in japan. Everything else is, oh dear.
I just went downatairs to make myself.. Instant ramen...
I really wish parents - especially asian ones in my case - involved their kids in life skills more. I'm kind of in the same hole: sheltered when it comes to cooking, and while i'll be okay for a bit cause i'll be dorming, my forages into cooking have been very, very lackluster.
On July 17 2012 14:01 Wangsta wrote: It's really not difficult to cook
Cooking takes a lot more time than you realize. Getting ingredients, cooking, cleaning up, it's very easy to spend an hour on a meal on average (much more than that if you want to cook more than really simple dishes)
As a young working professional in the city, eating out is also one of the most common social activities outside of drinking. It's really hard to have a social life if you don't eat out with people. It's also just fun to eat out
The way I see it, cooking makes sense if you are cooking for more than 1 person. If you just cook for yourself, you are better off eating out. The only exception is if you don't make enough money to do anything else, but honestly cooking for yourself is not much cheaper than eating out (unless you buy dirt cheap crap)
I agree with this, with the caveat that while cooking may cost just as much as eating out, dollar for dollar, regardless where you live, you are guaranteed to eat better food.
Cooking for yourself (and/or others) is only more expensive if you choose particularly more expensive ingredients and/or count your time invested as cost.
dishes like fried rice which contains: rice, carrots, peas, corn, green bean, (usually can get this pre-packed and frozen), egg, condiment/spice, and optionally chicken or shrimp or pork is far cheaper than at restaurant cost,
or spaghetti: spaghetti sauce, spaghetti, ground beef, spice, and optionally various vegetables is really cheap too
If you're going to marinate a prime-grade steak in wine and cook artichokes sprinkled with saffron sure you'll get some pretty high costs.
For those who eat lots of instant noodles, or even maybe knowledgeable enough to cook plain rice, a pretty good way to fancy it up and make it a bit more nutritious would be to use some dehydrated vegetable bits (like soup mix). Should be able to buy it in bulk bins at grocery stores or possibly pre-packed bags. It looks like this stuff, but you should maybe find a better price than that Adding seasonings like paprika (or much more) can also help.
You can even save money if you buy the instant noodles as plain as can be (quite plain types that just have one simple flavor/powder package) and make & add all the extra ingredients they have yourself, stuff like: ([exclusively chili] chili powder, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, ginger powder, curry powder, chives, oil/fat of choice.
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/7ADL4.jpg)
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well, at least in math. I would have placed higher if i had went right out of high school.![[image loading]](http://www.gogonoodles.com/images/ramen/indomie.JPG)
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