.SOMETIMES RAW.

I love to cook and try out new things. I have had an eye on making my own Ramen soup for a long time. Ever since I fell in love with eating Ramen at a Sushi Restaurant. It is just a favorite treat of mine.  For those of you who do not know what Ramen: It is a simple noodle soup dish from Japan. Traditionally the Japanese put in rice noodles (these I used for this recipe as well) but I have eaten it also with Ramen wheat noodles. The broth is usually meat but sometimes also fish-based. Traditionally the Japanese add miso or soy sauce, and seaweed and sliced pork – or optional fish. Important here are green onions thinly sliced. Then add as many vegetables as you like. Simple.

So I have been enjoying Ramen now and then but finally I wanted to try to make it on my own. For some reason it felt intimidating but it is easier than I thought. I share my recipe here today but you can add, personalize or create your own flavor combinations of course.

Serves: 4-6 people

Ingredients: 

1 lbs pork – either pork tenderloin or loin. (I used tenderloin – 6-7 pieces of meat)

1 big onion

6 large carrots

6-8 cups water

1 tablespoon salt

2 tablespoon sesame oil

2 tablespoons of soy sauce

2 tablespoons of sake (yes, you can drink some while cooking)

1 bunch of green onions (I just used it for decoration at the end and did not cook it)

About 2 ounces of fresh ginger root sliced or optional the already ginger that is already pre-made in the glass with water and salt added ( I prefer the fresh ginger)

4 cloves of crushed garlic

3 packs of ramen noodles. (I used organic “Forbidden Rice Ramen” from Wholefoods)

Toppings: Go crazy here. I used: carrots cut in small cubes, eggs, jalapeños, green onion, parsley, spinach and some more ginger

Instructions: 

Season the pork with salt, put it in a bowl and let it sit for an hour or so. Remove pork and place in a large pot on the stove. Now add the thinly sliced onion, some carrots, the ginger and garlic and six cups of water. Add the salt! (Mom always says: “Soup without salt does not taste good!”)  This is how to start the broth. Bring everything to a boil. Once it boiled for five minutes or so let it simmer for two hours. (This is important to keep in mind because it is quite a while!)

Now you have two hours to prepare all your toppings. First I sliced all the carrots into tiny cubes, cut the green onions and the jalapeños, washed the fresh spinach, cut it in stripes and put everything into small bowls so my family could customize their own bowl of Ramen. Put all the toppings in the fridge and start boiling the water for the Ramen noodles. Once water is boiling, put Ramen noodles in and let them boil for one minute or so. Then turn down heat and let them cook for another five minutes. Put in colander and rinse with cold water. You find the instructions on how to boil Ramen noodles on the package but I just wanted to share how I did it.

Now boil the eggs.

By now the broth should be ready. My mom told me to check if a broth is ready by putting a fork into the meat while it is simmering and if it goes through the meat nicely it all done. (Thanks mom!)

Take out the meat and start cutting it in stripes and place them into a bowl as well. Add sesame oil, soy sauce and sake to the broth. The broth can continue to simmer until you serve the soup.

To serve, fill bowl with noodles and now everyone can add the  toppings they want. Then pour broth into bowl. Add sliced boiled eggs and garnish with the sliced green onions if desired.

Pour the rest of the bottle of sake and enjoy!

“That tree said I don’t like that white car under me, it smells gasoline. That other tree next to it said O you’re always complaining you’re a neurotic you can see by the way you’re bent over.” – Allen Ginsberg 

I woke up this morning and I felt sick. Just this little cold one gets sitting in the car for too long with the air-condition blasting in the face. Not really sick as in stay-in-bed-and take-tons-of Nyquil-sick. Just blah-get-out-of-my-way-sick. (sorry Jean). So I made myself some breakfast that I did not really enjoy because my taste buds are sick as well I believe and I thought about what I can possible make out of a day like this. Sitting miserably in the kitchen my husband walks in and showed me “Allen Ginsberg’s ‘White Shroud” originally signed by Allen Ginsberg with one of these little cartoons he usually put on the cover page. Well I do LOVE Allen Ginsberg. With his poem “Howl” and of course the movie based on said poem I was hooked. I read basically everything by him. Front to back. I watched everything on Allen Ginsberg on Youtube. There is a great documentary on Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoevVtG-Gh8

My husband knows all this and bought this book for me. Classic. So, Jean walks in with this book and all I did was – I cried. Maybe due to me not feeling well or or or… who cares. But it was just so awesome. I asked him: “Is it mine?” And he said: “Of course my love!” How awesome is this?! I read the book almost instantly. Believe it or not, I have not heard about it nor have I even read any of these poems. Overall I can say that it is a pretty interesting collection of his poems. One particular poem “Love comes” I read out loud to my husband and he said: “Well, it is Ginsberg, he has his own style!” which is true indeed. His politically inflamed passion and his dramatic flair is just well… Ginsberg.

I think that his biggest achievement was “Howl” but “White Shroud” hits a few high marks that come pretty close to this poem. Was it Faulkner who wrote once that the best writers are those who try and dare and take risks and even if they fail they are still better than those who play it safe. In none of his books/poems was he afraid to take risks. He just wrote what he thought. Simple as that. Did this make him look silly? Maybe for some but who cares. Some poems in this book I must say I was scratching my head thinking c’mon Allen, you are not really trying to write something here. He was the first to admit that he got caught up very often in these demands of just being Allen Ginsberg (His poem “I’m a Prisoner of Allen Ginsberg”). I believe this is the reason why he put more talent and effort in some of his poems and just bothered less with others. In his poem “Going to the World of the Dead” for example I thought that he just did not care about what he had written:

Excerpt: …”Your Nuclear Bomb

Ho Ho Ho

Let go your Disaster your Death

Let go Ho Ho Ho Ho Ho Ho

Ho Ho Ho Ho

Ho Ho Millionaires of Mexico

Ho Ho Ho Millionaires of Nicaragua Let go Let go.”

I think this collection offers a good cross-section of his range. My favorites include “White Shroud”, “Industrial Waves”, “I am a Prisoner of Allen Ginsberg”, “Those two”, “In my kitchen in New York”. So overall I believe it is worth reading if one is a fan of Ginsberg’s work. My mom would hate it hahahaha! It is a good look into the mind of a radical who is trying to come to terms with getting older and leftover success and baggage.

And thank you again my love. For making this day special even though I do not feel well. <3

“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.”  -Jack Kerouac

So I am sitting here listening to David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” thinking that life is awesome. It just is. Let me start by this morning. I “know” that my husband writes me a little good morning message every single morning but today he did not. I was not worried until he still had not responded to my messages until around noon. I thought that maybe something happened to him – simply because I am so used to this routine of him saying “Bonjour mom amour” every single morning. I believe in souls – and that we all do have one.

For my husband and I it feels that our lives and souls have been intertwined for quite some time now – almost four years and we have already accomplished so much. Time seriously flies. We were set out on a grand adventure from the beginning and I do not want to miss one single day of our past. It was perfect in its own little way. From restaurants where we sat until they closed and threw us out, to New York subway tunnels to discover something new and to eventually explore New York City in its entirety. Museums, Broadway shows, French restaurants or just sitting in a park doing nothing but reading which was my favorite thing by far. Street art and great music, all these long nights out to discover us. And then the baby we created.  😀 Perfection!

Through all the magnificent and sometimes also hard times we found strength in each other and we grew. Grew together. Sometimes I cannot fathom how much we have done so far in these couple of years and how much we have actually grown.

I am looking forward to the future and all that we were, all that we are and all that we are becoming. Always and forever mon amour. It is still hard for me to realize that I have found such a kindred spirit to walk beside. Awesomeness! Life with you is truly magic.