For what it’s worth, they were prescient enough to put the noodles and the soup into separate cartons. But a side effect of that is that, after the noodles cool down, they clump up when first thrown into the broth. It happens at bad pho restaurants all the time, and with takeout, it can happen to ramen too.

Here’s a theory: I’m thinking a good way to avoid this might be to run the clumped noodles under cold water to loosen/firm them up ever so slightly before throwing them in the broth. It works for soba… anyone ever try this with ramen? And if so, was there a difference between doing this with yellow egg noodles versus skinny white hakata-style noodles? Why is the sky blue?

yeah, the chinese restaurant i goto for korean-style black noodles does this. yellow egg noodles i believe. i’ll try the water thing next time. usually a few spins in the sauce is good enough to break up the clumpage.

rameniac - 26 April 2007 11:26 AM

...But a side effect of that is that, after the noodles cool down, they clump up when first thrown into the broth. It happens at bad pho restaurants all the time, and with takeout, it can happen to ramen too.

 
I hate when that happens. And then you pour a square shaped clump of pho into your now lukewarm soup and you spend most of your time trying to stab the noodles into submission!

Another thing you can try is simply dipping the noodles in boiling water for 5-10 seconds. That should loosen them up and at the very worse they’ll get a little more cooked...but highly unlikely.

the sky is blue because of the great forest spirit. did you not watch mononoke hime? But to get back to the subject...i agree with bikutaa (roomaji) on this.  boiling water for a few seconds!