From KCRW, I'm Evan Klyman, and this is good food.

I don't have so many early food memories of sensory memories,

but I definitely remember the first time I had instant ramen.

And I even remember the brand.

It was a sapiro Ichiban original flavor.

And my mom made it for me.

I remember looking at it and just being so struck by the aroma coming out from the bowl. And I was absolutely hooked after just a few bites.

Who doesn't love instant ramen? The drag noodles are most frequently associated with tired cliches about quick dorm room eats,

but for Peter Kim, the convenient packaged food is just a place to start.

In Instant Ramen Kitchen, he incorporates the dried noodles into recipes that go way beyond adding hot water and a flavor packet.

And in this economy, his book couldn't have

come at a better time. Hi. Hi, Evan. I haven't made a bowl of ramen in a while, but I really have

loved just customizing and playing, using it as a place to begin to play.

Yeah, I mean, that's one of the big themes of this book is I really want people to see

Instant Ramen as this sort of blank canvas for play in the kitchen.

Yeah, it's so perfect for that.

Though Instant Ramen sort of emulates in one way, traditional ramen, what are there

noticeable differences? Yeah, so I would say if we take a component by component, if we look at the

noodles, both traditional and instant ramen noodles have these alkaline mineral salts that help give them some chew. But a major difference with

instant ramen noodles is that they have typically been fried or they might be air dried. And that

actually creates a porous structure in the noodles that allows them to hydrate and cook very quickly,

hence the instant nature of it.

...