that flat seasoning packet
with artificial chicken
stirred into ripple-pressed
perfect noodle squares–
the cardboard & boiling water
i lived on in college
because it was cheap
& i could cook it
in under 10 minutes
i can’t understand why
my children want ramen for lunch
because i ate it every day
happy hour didn’t include 50-cent beer
& a buffet
when i taste it now
if i close my eyes
i see highlighted pages
and notes for papers scrawled
on yellow legal pads
the same shade
as that broth–
just less salty
As an adult I’ve re-tried certain foods I loved as a child, and was left wondering why I liked them in the first place?
Yes–me too!
a stroll to the past! Tastes, images and sounds emerge and fuse. nice!
Thanks, Noel! Every time I smell them cooking I am drawn back to when I ate a lot of them. I do not eat them now if I can help it
.
Love how you see the color of the paper in the broth (though here in Sweden the paper was always white)
I would prefer the white paper to the yellow legal pads…
Thanks for commenting!
Love the last stanza and especially the last line…perfect!
Thank you, Anna!
I love it! Those last couple of lines are stellar. My son loves ramen too. I tell him it’s a good thing, cause he’ll need to in a few years.
Heh–thank you! yes, I didn’t mind them until I had to eat a lot of them
I loved Maggi when I was small, and I love it even today, after having lived 27 years in this planet
I have the same experience with rice noodle with tamarind sauce.
Those sound a bit tastier…
Depends on how old the tamarind is. You know, I do however long for the school days….
I miss them too–Ramen and all!
Yeah. I spent like eleven years in university in abject poverty, but remember those days fondly.
A lovely, sensuous poem that celebrates (of all things) Ramen!!!! Well done! I see the ramen through your adult eyes AND your children’s eyes. My college days were filled with 19 cent tacos from Taco Bell, but I don’t remember 50 cent beer!
I used to LOVE ramen when I was growing up, but after my starving grad student days, I’ll be happy to stay away from it for a while. Wonderful way of conveying your experience with ramen!
hahaha–I feel you,though it was undergrad for me…
Beautiful the way you played off the paper and the soup itself. Lovely intermingle and imagery. I get that you know the soup intimately, kind of like a lost love. Gone bad of
course.
LOL, Teresa–I LOVE your comment!
When I close my eyes I see SQL, html and Java code great write really takes me back four years when at Uni
when I close my eyes I see a cheap tin hot pot on the floor, 2 plastic bowls and a smiling friend sitting across from me..thanks Susan for the flashback. Nicely done
Thanks, Audra–it was a fun stroll down memory lane…
those damn noodles… seems like we all ate them!
They were so cheap and filling–it should be in the “student” aisle, along with mac & cheese…
roflmao… occasionally feasted on it in a far different sort of place.
Oh–I get that…Have heard of such feasting second-hand, where everything is starch and salt, Ramen is not nearly so bad…
Nice one.