Sponsored message
Audience-funded nonprofit news
radio tower icon laist logo
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Subscribe
  • Listen Now Playing Listen
Take Two

Hans Lienesch, the Ramen Rater, on what makes a perfect bowl of instant ramen

Visitors order their own cup noodle at the Instant Ramen Museum on April 8, 2008 in Osaka, Japan. It has been fifty years since Momofuku Ando, founder of Nissin Food Products Co., Ltd. first invented instant noodle "Chicken Ramen".
Visitors order their own cup noodle at the Instant Ramen Museum on April 8, 2008 in Osaka, Japan. It has been fifty years since Momofuku Ando, founder of Nissin Food Products Co., Ltd. first invented instant noodle "Chicken Ramen".
(
Junko Kimura/Getty Images
)

Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.

Get LA News Updates Daily

We brief you on what you need to know about L.A. today.
A row of graphics payment types: Visa, MasterCard, Apple Pay and PayPal, and  below a lock with Secure Payment text to the right
Listen 6:38
Hans Lienesch, the Ramen Rater, on what makes a perfect bowl of instant ramen

What do you think of when someone says, "instant ramen?" A quick meal on the run or bliss in a bowl? Crunchy noodles that soften after a few minutes of cooking? The garish packaging?

Whatever it is, odds are you probably don't think of instant ramen as high cuisine. Hans Lienesch, better known as the Ramen Rater disagrees.

He's tried and reviewed more than 1,100 different types of instant ramen from around the world, and has catalogued their intricacies, strengths and flaws on his website.

Lienesch joins the show to give us the lowdown on which brands are the best are which you can pass by in the ramen aisle.