INSTANT RAMEN FIDEOS

Pg. 70 – Lucky Peach Issue #1

This was a huge hit. It took seriously like 15 minutes to make and got me back over to a very cool store in my neighborhood called McCall’s Meat and Fish Co.  I purchased the manila clams, P.E.I. mussels, and chorizo there. I used a smoky pimenton (spanish paprika, people!) I bought at the The Cheese Store of Silver Lake.  I’m totally into Sapporo instant ramen, so that is what I think I’ll be using for most of these instant ramen recipes.  The recipe called for some aioli to top it off, but Dave Chang suggested using mayo mixed with some finely minced garlic instead of making fresh aioli. He thought it seemed silly, which I agree with since the recipe takes such little prep and cooks so fast. Another anecdote he shared was that I guess somewhere on the internet exists a Lucky Peach video shoot for this dish (I’ll look for it, I get lazy, okay?!) and he apparently didn’t like how he treated the aioli.  “…I plopped a gross dollop of aioli on the finished dish, and it made me feel like a total hack. So I am hereby officially not recommending that as a technique or garnish. (But it tasted realllly good.)” Funny, but I didn’t even consider for a moment drizzling it on the top, I totally plopped a gross dollop. And it was really fucking good.

I was sharing my documentary cooking photos with my neighbors afterwards and Sharon (who, damn her, always has really good ideas that make me have to work harder) liked the way I was scrolling through them so fast and suggested I show them on the blog that way, so I made a quick slideshow video for you this time. I hope you enjoy it, and I really can’t begin to tell you how delicious this dish was. Mouth-watering. We literally consumed it in like 4 minutes. There was hardly any talking, just moans of bliss as we ransacked the shells and sucked up the lovely juices.  And the instant ramen was grrrrrreat! If you ever came over with the ingredients in tow, I promise I will make it for you immediately (as long as I get my own bowl).