My search for the best vegetarian ramen

Last year I watched a Japanese documentary on the history and making of ramen noodles and came away thinking how glad I was that I had never eaten anything but meatless ramen. Just watching them render down the pig parts in that video would have been enough to render me vegetarian. I won't even go into some of the other stuff they put in some of those bowls. Things that were never mentioned in my favorite ramen movie, Tampopo.

Fortunately, Nissin and a few other companies have been making some instant ramen versions without meat or seafood ingedients for years. The Nissin ramen called "Oriental" is the one without animal bits. I just take those, cut the salt in half and add a bunch of crunchy blanched veggies and voila! I have perfect veggie ramen in 15 minutes.

Ramen originated in China but has been a Japanese staple for centuries. It's so popular here that they even have a ramen museum. Tokyo is full of ramen shops but until recently I knew of none that served real vegetarian or vegan ramen. I finally found a shop that does however, and I paid it a visit last weekend. It was very good but to be honest, I like my home-made version better. When I'm in a real hurry I just throw in some frozen veggies as the water boils and by the time the ramen cooks it's all done. And I don't have to spend 30 minutes on the subway to get it.