Survival Sunday 302: Kumamoto Spicy Ramen

New Year, New... Noodz?

It's time for me to tell you about some tasty ramen from Umai Crate!

That's right, the first thing I've made up for the blog this year isn't some sort of scratch-made treat or easy access meal, it's another random pack of noodles shipped from Japan. If you're studying abroad, live in Japan, or have access to a proper Asian market here in the US, however, you may be able to find this Kumamoto Spicy Ramen, which, spoilers, is delicious.

Here's the handsome package!

Ideally, you'd have some fried meat, some veggies, and an onsen egg to go with this delicious, thick-brothed ramen, but I was feeling lazy and hungry and just wanted to stuff my face with delicious noodles and spicy flavor!

A slightly blurry picture of what was in the package

In this sleeve of noodles, you get a robust handful of noodles (which are slightly salty when dry and are addictive to snack on while you wait for the water to boil), a powder flavor packet (the red one), and a packet of hot oil - probably hot sesame oil, if I had to guess.

The instructions from Umai Crate!

I looked up the conversion for 500ml because I didn't know if I'd have access to a measuring cup with ml instead of "cups" (thanks US Imperial system...), and it turns out that 500ml is about 2 cups (2.11 to be more accurate...).

Lucky me, the kitchen I was using had a multi-measure cup that I used to pour about 450ml of water into the pan, since my partner's not really a broth person and I was in the mood for some extra-thick soup. You can, of course, cook your noodles how you like.

I let the water boil on the stovetop in a fairly small pot (I figured that since it was a simple packet of noodles I wouldn't need much of a pot, and I was right). Once the water was bubbling around, I put the noodles in.

I don't break my noodles when I put them in the pot. I know some people do that as a space-and-time-saving method (shorter noodles cook faster, I guess?), but I'm more of a naturalist and allow the noodles to slowly wilt into the pot like a grumpy toddler slipping into dreamland.

Except I don't want to eat a toddler, and I really, really wanted to eat these noodles.

And once the noodles had been in their spa for a couple of minutes, I grabbed the red packet.

Opening the soup base on one of these Umai Crate packs is always exciting. It's basically a party every time, and you never know what you're going to smell, really. This time, the rich umami flavor came across in the scent of soy sauce and some meaty undertones. It smelled salty and savory and delightful, and I made sure to sample some of the powder that was left behind on the packet when I dumped it in the noodles. It was absolute heaven.

Salty, faintly sweet from the small amount of sugar in the soy sauce, meaty, soy sauce-y... perfection.

I turned off the heat and stirred in the flavors.

The water was almost completely opaque once I added the broth packet.

By now, the kitchen was filled with the wonderful smells of cooked noodles and rich broth, so I dumped the whole thing in a large bowl.

Look at that glossy, oily sheen!
Gorgeous!

Of course, there was one more step to add to this wonderful ramen - the spicy oil!

I tore open the sachet of oil very carefully, because that stuff is no joke to get in your eye, man. I promise, chili oil is a nightmare that you'll never forget when it's in your eyes.

Thankfully, though, it cooperated perfectly and drizzled into the bowl without fighting me at all.

Beautiful.

The oil itself has a very neutral flavor, since it only exists to lend spice, but once it combined with the actual noodles and broth? Call Guy Fieri, because that's a one-way-trip to Flavortown.

Oh god. Why did I write that...

But seriously, that's some addictively spicy, perfectly rounded deliciousness right there. If I could, I'd eat that once a week. It's the flavor equivalent of a sweater that, yeah, can sometimes be a little too warm, but it's so comforting to wear that you can't stop putting it on, even though it's mid-April and you might get heat stroke!

Mind, this isn't crazy hot. It's spicy, don't get me wrong, and if you get it down the wrong pipe, you're going to feel it for a while, but this isn't Shin Cup spicy in any way. It's not even as spicy as a Tijuana Mama sausage. It's just... comfortably spicy. It's the kind of spicy you keep going back for.

If you do live somewhere that carries this Kumamoto Spicy Ramen, then please do pick it up. Even if it's just to shoot a pack my way...

mmm....

noodles...

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Saturday Casual Gaming 302: Merge Flowers vs Zombies

In Which I May Have Been Duped

If, like me, you've been a PC gamer most of your life, you've likely come across a game called Plants Vs Zombies, a strategic tower defense game by PopCap. If you've played it, you'll know it's both ridiculous and addictive, so imagine if you saw something that had a shockingly similar name but a slightly different gameplay style on Google Play for free? You'd probably check it out, right?

Well, I did.

I legit thought it was an offshoot for about... five minutes.

Similar style to Plants vs Zombies, too...

Within a few minutes, I realized that, despite the cosmetic similarities, and the fact that both games have you defending your home from hordes of the undead using only horticulture, they're not actually from the same company.

For one, Crazy Dave never shows up, and he's maybe the best part of Plants Vs Zombies, so I was very disappoint.

Still, Merge Flowers vs Zombies is a pretty decent game, and it's forgiving enough that I can play it distracted.

It's also bananas

You have a lawn with limited space. You know how to instantly crossbreed two plants to make a new kind of plant. You have a ton of ads to watch for bonuses and extra plants.

Yeah, this game is basically just a blatant cash-grab. As fun as it is, it has a new ad for you to watch every five seconds (maximum!) and you can't get too far too quickly without sinking in hours watching the same six ads over and over and over and over and over.... and over again.

You can ignore the ads, of course, and just wait for new plants to auto-spawn, but that takes a lot longer than watching a 15-30 second ad.

It's merge-style gameplay, so you drag and drop a plant on top of its double (if you have one) on your board to upgrade it to the next level of plant. Different plants have different abilities (massive damage, freezing, slowing, poison, etc). The more merges you make the more damage your plants do, and so on and so forth. It's an incredibly basic game with no surprises.

The lack of surprises is this game's strength - you don't have to do some clever combination of things to unlock the next part of the game, it's straightforward and tells you what you need to do to win from the very beginning. When you fail a level, you still get a (small) reward for trying. There are drones carrying extra plants that you can click on and watch an ad to get those plants on your grid (they seem to buffer, so if you're out of room but want the extra plants, go for it). The hordes of zombies are consistent and simple.

Basically, this is an excellent waiting-room or airport game - something to play if you've got time but need your attention elsewhere.

As a standalone "I want to play video games" kind of game, however, it's not quite like Plants vs Zombies, and I'm surprised they haven't been sued.

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Filmic Friday 302: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

In Which I Watch a Classic (?) Movie

I'm a straight-edge person. I don't drink or smoke or do any drugs beyond caffeine. I feel out-of-control enough due to my brain being about as well-wired as something worked on by a stoned electrician who flunked out of kindergarten, thanks. Hunter S Thompson and I have never really jived for that reason. I kinda got Vonnegut, but maybe that's because I was exposed to him first. Maybe I'd like Thompson more if I'd read some of his work before Vonnegut's? Regardless, it's not even a word-to-word issue with Thompson, it's just...

Dude, I don't want to feel like I'm high.

I don't like it. It's an unpleasant experience.

Even Sayonara, Gangsters - a book I read recently - grated on me after a while because its super-surrealist qualities made me slightly detached from the world around me.

I don't know, man. I like fantasy just fine, but when we start deconstructing solid concepts like "a chair is a chair" or "people go to a grocery store for food", I start feeling off-kilter and a little crazy.

So of course I watched Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Which is a story and a movie basically made by, for, about, and on drugs

The story of Fear and Loathing goes thusly: Raoul Duke (aka Hunter S Thompson) is on a business trip to Nevada because he's a journalist and he's supposed to be covering a dirtbike/motorcycle race for the newspaper he works at. He brings his insane, drug-dealing "lawyer" Dr Gonzo with him. The two have a briefcase literally full of all of the drugs, and they keep finding trouble along the way.

To be honest, Toby Maguire is probably the best choice they make in the whole movie

After a lot of mescaline, ether, and acid, the two have racked up considerable debt, trashed several hotels, blown the race story, crashed an anti-drug police seminar, attempted to kill one another, possibly corrupted a minor, and Raoul has had several flashbacks (one of which has the actual Hunter S Thompson in it) and hallucinations (because a circus-themed casino and a combination of ether, mescaline, and acid are a terrible idea). The whole movie is a series of psychotic breaks strung together in a barely coherent manner.

I will say that the puppets and costumes during the hallucination are pretty great, though.

This image captures a bit of the feel, but it's not eye-blastingly neon enough...

Did I love Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas? Absolutely not. Did I hate it? Also absolutely not. It's quite the experience, and if you've never seen it, you probably should, but... I don't quite get the diehard cult following the film has.

I guess I just wasn't stoned enough.

Regardless, everyone's acting their balls off, and Gary Busey's cop is a heck of a headtrip, so go for it!

Go Enjoy Something,
FC

Thursday Art Walk 302: Work In Progress

In Which I'm Working on More Bubble Art!

Guess who nearly dodged out the door without actually posting today's art? This dingdong, that's who. lol

Sometimes I spin too many plates at once and forget one of the things I'm supposed to do. That's what happened today!

I was:

• running a load of laundry,
• cooking up a batch of leftover fries,
• making coffee,
• drawing a picture,
• drying a separate load of laundry, and
• attempting to follow some LGR videos (specifically his thrifting videos)

Because of this, I:

• Rewashed half a load of laundry because it was sitting in the washer before I got there
• overcooked my fries
• made pretty good coffee, actually
• forgot to dry the socks at first
• completely missed 65% of the videos, and
• uh... didn't finish the drawing.

Then again, I didn't expect to finish the bubble art today - those generally take me at least 8 hours to complete.

Have a moody, 90s-style black-and-white preview of what I'm working on, anyway :P

So I'll finish this when I get home tonight, maybe work on a couple of other things, and I'll see you tomorrow for a movie review!!!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Wednesdaymania 302: Thank You Liger

In Which We Bid A Fond Farewell To A True Legend

In 1989, the world was introduced to one of the longest-lasting and marvelous characters in professional wrestling: Jushin Liger. Based on an anime character of the same name, Liger was a dynamic in-ring performer and highly respected both in and out of the ring. He was a grand success story.

But on January 5, 2020, about 31 years after debuting, the saga of the Puroresu Sentai Warrior finally came to a close. With over 4000 matches under his belt, Jushin Thunder Liger has officially retired.

It's so rare that I get to tell you of someone leaving the ring without them being in a box or a wheelchair, so I'm actually quite pleased. While Liger wrestled for 31 years, his human self, Keiichi Yamada was a wrestler for even longer, debuting without a mask in 1984. Somehow, in his 36 in-ring years, Liger/Yamada has not suffered that many major injuries at all! Yes, he had to pause for a time in 1996, but that was due to a brain tumor and not related to his career at all.

Yeah.

Liger survived a brain tumor and came back to wrestle that same year!

And this was after the surgery!!!

When you hear terms like "modern myth" or "legend of wrestling", perhaps the best wrestler to suit that description is Jushin Thunder Liger. He took what should have been a kiss of death (wrestling as a short-lived anime character) and made it a true career. Yes, Tiger Mask had the same origin, but Tiger Mask also had multiple versions of himself.

There's only one Jushin Thunder Liger.

For as long as I have drawn breath on this Earth, this man has been touring the world, wrestling his heart out. Before the tumor, he was a high-flier, but after his surgery, he completely revamped his style, becoming more of a flashy technician. I've loved every match of his I've seen, and I'd have to say, he's in my upper echelons of wrestling characters.

From the Retirement Match

As someone who delights in Liger's matches, it is truly sad to see him go from wrestling, but the man is 55 years old now, and he has a wife and son he hasn't spent more than a few days at a time with in 31 years. During his heartfelt farewell speech at New Year's Dash 2020, Liger broke everyone's hearts by telling his adorable wife and grown son "I have been away from you for 31 years, but now I am coming home, so you will have to put up with me, now". There wasn't a dry eye in the house. The translator, Chris Charleton, was weeping as he carried out his duties. Liger's family seemed misty.

Even his fellow wrestlers were reluctant to let Liger go. Kazuchika Okada and others begged for a group selfie to commemorate the occasion, Tiger Mask IV tearfully confessed that he was sad he wouldn't be seeing Liger any more (to which Liger essentially replied "You know where I live, I'm not dead"), and essentially everyone who was anyone in pro-wrestling has sent their best wishes (including HHH and Kushida).

Returning from his Wrestle Kingdom 14 Night 1 loss with his old friends

I don't know, guys. It's still processing, even 3 days out from his official retirement. Dude's a legend. They don't make them like him anymore.

But I can't deny that the image of him patting his wife and son on their heads as they hand him bouquets of flowers in the ring, then telling them that he's finally coming home was one of the most moving things I've ever seen.

So yeah...

If you're a Liger fan and you want to happy-cry a bunch, then definitely go watch both nights of Wrestle Kingdom 14 and New Year's Dash. There's also a gorgeous portrait that I feel accurately captures the sweet, yet melancholy, mood of Liger's retirement.

May retirement treat you well, Liger-san. May you spend a good long time in the joyous company of your lovely family, and may you always have the love and support of your peers and the admiration and adoration of your fans worldwide.

Go Enjoy Something,
FC

Talk About Tuesday 302

In Which I Blather Some More

It's the Second week (first full week) of the New Year, and guess what I'm doing today? I'm drinking coffee, planning the week in Blogging, getting ready to head outside even though it's gonna feel like about 30℉ (-1℃) and be off-and-on cloudy. But I'm not too concerned with the low temps and the lack of sun - I've lived here my whole life, and after surviving ice storms and nor'easters for 30+ years, I'm kinda used to the weather.

Not used to having owls screaming for mates or something outside my window at 3AM...

Seriously, I don't know what kind of owl it was, but it was rhythmically hooting for an hour straight. How inconsiderate!

On the blogging side of things, here are my plans for the next seven days:

• Tomorrow I wanna talk about Wrestle Kingdom and the bittersweet New Year's Dash.
• Thursday I'm gonna draw some stuff!
• Friday I'll talk about a movie, I promise.
• Saturday might be that Idle Pins game, but I can't make any promises on that one...
• Sunday might be some noodles, but if I get the chance, I might bake something, so stay tuned!
• Monday will be the completed headband and the start of something new... or old. Alright.
• Next week, I'll be back here, blathering about coffee, weather, wildlife, and whatever else is going on.

I'm so sleepy, though...

I might have to take a nap today. That sounds nice :)

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday 302: New Year, New Projects!

In Which I Discuss Present and Future Projects!

First things first: I'm making something!

5 rows in

10 rows in

15 rows in

20 rows in

25 rows in

I'm 1/3 of the way done with it, but it's going quite well. I'm liking how the same yarn I used on the hat I was making at the end of 2019 looks on this project, too!

But this won't be a long-term project, and I have plans.

Here's some stuff I want to make this year:

• One 1920s cloche hat
• a sweater or cardigan
• a vest
• a blanket
• socks
• slippers
• a really complex stuffed animal or amigurumi
• a skirt or shorts
• lace
• 100 snowflakes.

You read that last one correctly. I want to make and starch 100 snowflakes by next December.

I can do it, too. I know I can.

Stay tuned for more fiber mayhem, if that's your jam!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC