Ah, the little things in life that give me the heebie jeebies.
I’m getting ready to heat up a bowl of ramen noodles this morning, and I get a pleasant surprise. Along with the noodles, I see some strange foreign object fall into the pot. I examine it for a few seconds and come to the conclusion that it’s a ( :eek: !!!) dead insect in my noodles! Ewww! And there were two of them!
At least, I’m 99% sure it’s a dead bug. (Does this look like a dead bug to you? 1, 2, 3, 4.) I’m pretty sure this is how the little fuckers got in there.
Realistically I probably could’ve eaten the entire batch of noodles, insects and all, and it wouldn’t have killed me, but still…ewwwww! I threw out the whole batch of noodles and made another one, after an obligatory paranoid visual scan of the entire bag of noodles before I dumped them into the pot.
It took me almost 6 years before I could eat Ramen again, after doggedly reminding myself that of all the times I’ve eaten the stuff, I’ve only had it happen once.
But now I have to really, really check the noodles before I can eat them.
some volunteers would pass the time trying to assemble an entire bug from the parts found in the rice bought at the market.
Just remember that its all in your head: If you believe that the bug is gone after you’ve picked it out of the ramen, then its gone and you can safely eat the ramen.
I once made hot chocolate from a pouch, drank the whole thing, and then saw that the bottom of my mug was filled with little rice grains with eyes.
If all those food additives and artificial flavoring are supposed to be horrible for us and will kill us all off with terrible malignancies, shouldn’t we at least design them to kill the damn bugs too?
Ramen noodles, ingredients: Noodles, salt, artificial flavoring and coloring, insecticide…
They were Maruchan brand noodles. (You can see part of the “M” in one of my pictures.)
I can’t say I disagree, really. I’ve decided I don’t even really like ramen noodles, but it’s pretty decent food for a college student who’s willing to sacrifice good food for really cheap food.
A dead bug? It’s just a bit of added protein. The good Ramen-folk are trying to help you balance your diet, and you get mad and pit them…such gratitude.
My daughter found something like that in a packet we bought last year. I emailed them, they responded very quickly, apologized, sent a sealable bag & postage for me to return it, and sent a bunch of coupons for free ramen.
I’m totally grossed out and won’t eat it any more, but the kids still like it.
I once opened a package of Ramen noodles, poured it into a bowl and was quite surprised when out fell a mass of noodles and swarming little red ants. Hundreds of them. :eek: I still have Ramen noodles often but I am never able to open another package without that image coming back to me.
I found a dead caterpillar in my box o’ raspberries once.
Whenever I told someone about it, they had the same response: “Better than half a caterpillar! Ha, ha!”
Everyone’s a comedian. :rolleyes:
Well, it wasn’t so funny at that time, because you’re still in shock about how you nearly ate that gross worm-like thingy, but an year or so later, you’ll find it hilarious.
I’m pretty sure those were Indian meal moths. They’re really common in boxed and bagged grain type foods. I got some in a box of Rice-A-Roni once. Unappetizing but less gross than many bugs out there…
Mmmm. My wife recently encountered a caterpillar imbedded in a McDonalds’ french fry. This did more to discourage her from taking our kiddo there after school every week than me nagging her about how bad that “food” is for them.
When it comes to stuff I eat though, I think of the bugs this way: would I still enjoy it if I didn’t know the bug was there? It helps me not worry about bugs. I suppose the same could be said of turds and other bad things, but I’m only good with bugs so far.
BTW, once you’ve tried good ramen, you won’t go back to the $0.15 grocery store stuff. Usually costs about $2/package at an Asian food store. Same amount of sodium, but much better flavor and higher quality noodles.
Even better, if you’re ever in Japan hit a ramen bar (also recommend the Ramen Museum in Tokyo) and you can pay around $10 for a heavenly bowl - freshly cut noodles, fresh veggies and meat . . . worth the $10. In Yen, of course.
