Help me settle this debate I’ve been having lately.
I’m a moderately strict vegetarian who doesn’t eat anything more carnivorous than milk or cheese. I do eat chicken-flavored ramen.
Another girl I know says I shouldn’t be eating chicken ramen because it contains chicken stock.
I say there’s never been anything CLOSE to an actual chicken in this crap, and even if there was, it’s been watered down and diluted so much it wouldn’t even register in my digestive system.
Who’s right?
I guess it depends on how you define “vegetarian” and why you are one.
There are vegans who would maintain you are NOT a vegetarian because you each animal products such as milk and cheese. On the other hand, many other folks would consider anyone who doesn’t eat red meat to be a vegetarian. Then there’s my mother-in-law, who just doesn’t like the taste of meat and doesn’t eat it, but does use thinks like bacon for flavoring and chicken stock.
The “chicken” in chicken ramen is on the order of very salty chicken broth. How do you feel about clear chicken broth? That should answer your question.
Well, I did the vegetarian thing for almost four years. I refused to eat ramen during that time because it contained ‘meat’ stock. I was concerned that it would upset my stomach.
I don’t know why you’re a vegetarian, I would assume from your OP that it’s not for moralistic reasons. That being the case, eat all the ramen you want if it doesn’t upset your digestive system.
Vegetarians don’t eat chicken. Carry on.
My daughter has been vegetarian for a few years now. She will not eat regular ramen because of the meat stock (it’s on the label so there must be some trace).
I have found vegetarian ramen for her, so it is out there if you can find it. We don’t have any in the house right now but I can get you the brand next time I buy some.
I am a vegetarian (ovo lacto) and I avoid any product that says “meat” “chicken” “fish” and so on in the label. Even if it’s waaaay down on the list. I do my best. However, I do not fret too much if the manufacturer put a few “meat molecules” in the food, but it isn’t labeled. I didn’t know about it, so what can I do? And I doubt there’s much “meat” in there (like I said, molecules!) I certainly don’t worry about the few meat molecules (if they are there) disturbing my digestive system.
I did find some “chicken” ramen that had no trace of “chicken” on the ingredients label. Just “flavorings”. I assumed that since the manufacturer would probably WANT people to know about any trace elements of chicken in the ramen (if there were any), and label the package appropriately. But since I saw no “chicken” in the label, I ate the “chicken flavored” ramen. It tasted fine! And I didn’t get sick - not that I expected to.
And yes, Diane is right - there are vegetarian versions of ramen. “Oriental” flavored is one I’ve seen.
Nong Shim’s Shin Ramyun has no meat but tastes wonderful – quite hot and spicy.
Unfortunately, that’s not an assumption you can make. Those of us who are vegetarian and do not wish to eat small amounts of meat must read labels carefully. Anything that contains “natural flavoring” may contain meat. You cannot trust that any prepared product is truly vegetarian unless it is clearly labelled as such.
From the Vegetarian Resource Group FAQ:
What are “natural flavors”? According to our research department, the exact definition of natural flavorings and flavors from Title 21, Section 101, part 22 of the Code of Federal Regulations is as follows: “The term natural flavor or natural flavoring means the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional.” In other words, natural flavors can be pretty much anything approved for use in food. It’s basically impossible to tell what is in natural flavors unless the company has specified it on the label. A few of the vegetarian & vegan-oriented companies are doing this now, but the overwhelming majority of food manufacturers do not. Why do companies “hide” ingredients under “natural flavors”? It’s considered a way of preserving the product’s identity and uniqueness. Sort of like a “secret recipe” - they worry that if people knew what the flavorings were, then someone would be able to duplicate their product.
It should also be noted that ramen noodles are fried in oil before they’re packaged. I don’t know what kind of oil, but the possibility is that it’s simply lard, i.e. animal fat. I doubt the package would specify such, either, though I’ve never specifically looked for the information.
jayjay
Just a quick warning - All versions of “Oriental” flavored Ramen I’ve seen list either beef stock or “Natural Flavoring” as an ingredient, and therefore are probably not Vegetarian. I have yet to find completely Vegetarian (Vegan) Ramen, and I’ve looked.
Re the OP, I don’t believe that you can eat chicken and still be Vegetarian, so I’d have to agree with your friend. But if that’s what you want to do, <shrug>.
Last time I checked it was Palm Oil, which, IIRC, is one of the worst kinds of fat for you - super high in saturated fats. Forget the meaty-ness, avoid ramen because of this…
Here’s the ingredient list for Nong Shim’s Soy Ramen (but I don’t know what they fry the noodles in):
In general, I’ve noticed that quite often when a product uses soybean paste, it will forgo meat flavouring. You still have to keep a close look out for soybean paste and fish paste combos, particularly in sout-east Asia products.
Ovo-lacto veggie here.
Wouldn’t eat chicken ramen… Cuz, well, it’s got chicken in it.
However… OXO now makes a “Chicken-Style” veggie boullion cube, which is indispensible for recipes that call for chicken stock. Tastes just like chicken, which I guess means it could be made out of just about anything.
If you go to the Top Ramen website it does say that the Oriental flavor is vegetarian. There is a few other ones I remeber seeing, although not anything around in most food stores. Some health food stores have ramen miso soup which is vegetarian and a little better tasting then most ramen.
Not sure how universal this is, but here in the UK, I’m pretty sure that if the word ‘flavoured’ is used on packaging, then it must contain the real thing, whereas ‘flavour’ might not.
The logi being that something is ‘flavoured with’ strawberries (it must contain real strawberries) or it has the ‘flavour of’ strawberries (it might be based on artificial flavours, or natural ones that just don’t include strawberries)
rlea, I went to the official Top Ramen site, and couldn’t find anything about their Oriental Ramen being Vegetarian. Were you thinking of another site?
Oh, and Muffin, thanks for posting the ingredients to Nong Shim’s Soy Ramen. I’ll have to go see where I can find some!
I came across McCormick’s “All-Vegetable Bouillon”, both “Chicken Style” and “Beef Style”, specifically stating “Contains no meat products.” The back of the packet stated: “McCormick All-Vegetable (contains no meat products) Bouillon, wiht its unique blend of vegetable ingredients, gives you all the rich, satisfying beef/chicken flavour you expect from your bouillon, without any artificial flavours.”
Woo-hoo, me thought! The ingredient list even looked pretty good: “Sea salt, rice flour, sugar, hydrogenated cottonseed oil, water, yeast extract, hydrolyzed soy protein, natural vegetable flavour, dehydrated vegetables (onion, celery, garlic, parsley), tumeric, disodium isoninate and guanylate.”
Whoa, Nelly! Let’s just back up a step. Disodium isoninate. Just what is that? Now all I know is that it is a flavour enhancer, but I don’t know how it is made. But something in the back of my mind makes me wonder if this is the tasty taste taste that makes fish sauce such a great flavour enhancer? Is disodium isoninate made from fish, or meat? Is it made from veggies or even minerals? I don’t know, but that buzzing in my brain pan tells me I better contact the fine folks at McCormick and and ask them if their disodium isoninate is vegetarian.
McCormick imports the stuff from Massel International of Australia, which is close enough to south-east Asia to make my fish sauce alarm bells go off. Massel promotes the product as having “no animal content”, but I’ll ask them about the disodium isoninate just the same.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they have a non-animal dertived disodium isoninate. I’ll post the replies from McCormick and Massel when they arrive.
Re.: Massel’s Beef and Chicken Style UltraCube / McCormick’s Beef and Chicken Style All-Vegetable Bouillon:
I just received this from Massel’s:
So there you have it. It’s veggie friendly!
Every vegetarian has some questions that they don’t ask and their own things that they are stubborn about. Unless you have serious religious beliefs about vegetarianism, there is nothing wrong with that.
I, for example, am stubborn about gelatin. I don’t even believe in eating kosher gelatin, although it is rumored to usually be vegetarian. I am not stubborn about things like “natural flavoring”, or anything else that doesn’t come right out and declare itself as meat, because it is so hard to know and will probably be in such small amounts anyway that it doesn’t really matter. I don’t eat chicken stock, and when I go out to eat I never order soup out of fear of meat stock. But, when I go out, I will order just about anything else and assume that they are using gelatin free sour cream, not cooking in lard and not using chicken stock to flavor it. If they do do any of the above, I would rather not know.
We have to choose our battles. You will find some things that you are willing to slip up on, and some things to be a hard ass about. But, the workability of an ethical decision is sometimes more important than consistance. If it lets you live your life in a comfortable way, don’t worry about it.
For the record, I will only eat Top Ramen Oriental Noodle ramen. And plenty of it.