Simply Ramen - Albany, OR (Review)

Never heard of this restaurant?  We hadn't either! Simply Ramen seems to have opened their doors quietly and sneaked onto the restaurant scene in our town!

Of course the minute we heard about it, we had to try it!

Just South of the Queen & Geary intersection at 1800 Geary Street SE, there it is!  It's quaint and unassuming, but don't let its size fool you:  this little noodle restaurant packs a punch!

They are open Tuesday through Sunday from 11:00 to 3:00 for lunch, then again from 4:30 to 8:30 for dinner.

We arrived during the dinner rush and were surprised that it was so busy.  It's been open less than a month and we had only just heard of it.  We couldn't find a website or a Facebook page, just a few Yelp! reviews.

We were seated promptly, brought our menus and drinks.  While the menu is a single laminated card, the plethora of choices you'll find there will amaze you.  Don't assume you'll be making a decision about what to order quickly.  Yes, Ramen seems to be their specialty, but other Asian favorites are available as well.  Things you probably consider to be favorites, such as Chow Mein, Potstickers, Pad Thai, Fried Rice, Chicken Teriyaki.  But mix in some things Albanyites don't see in our town often, like Seaweed Salad, Korean Short Ribs, KimChi Fried Rice, Singaporean Noodles....Miso Soup!  There hasn't been a decent Miso Soup in Albany for .... has there ever?

Miso Soup

Which brings me to the food we ordered.  Yes, we started with Miso Soup!  Miso Soup is something I've always loved and outside of Portland and Eugene....I haven't experienced a great one.  Until now. Ladies and Gentleman!  Albany has finally brought us Miso Soup! Luscious seaweed pieces, abundant tofu, savory broth....Alright, I'll shut up about it but if I can go on and on about my appetizer choice ... imagine the Entrees....

Brownie ordered the House Signature Pad Thai with chicken.  The color was beautiful and for the rest of the meal I wished I could enjoy peanuts with pasta.  The noodles were light and silky and the peanuts were crushed, which gives this dish a nice

Pad Thai w/Chicken

balance in texture.

I chose to try the Singaporean Noodles with beef.  These are stir-fried, curry-flavored rice noodles with just enough heat to tickle your senses. They did get a bit sticky as they sat and cooled, but I hardly cared as flavor is always my priority and that was on point.

Singaporean Noodles w/Beef

We had to try the Ramen as well since the restaurant's name suggests this is their specialty.  And that assumption would be correct!  I tried the Signature Ramen with Chashu Pork (as in:  Pork Belly.  as in:  BACON!)  The noodles were perfect ramen, the pork was flavorful, my egg was
delicious and the broth....oh dear sweet baby whoever-your-chosen-savior-is!  There could not have been more umami flooding my mouth; rich, succulent, buttery... my taste buds were dancing like fools.  If you can't decide on what to order, this would be my suggestion.

Signature Ramen w/Chashu Pork

Brownie's ramen choice was the Blend Chili Spicy Ramen with Chashu Pork and Shrimp Tempura.  Do I have to choose which one I liked better? Because in a spicy mood, this is utter perfection.  Not spicy enough to burn your mouth or make you sweat, but the perfect amount to keep you excited while the underlying richness of the broth soothes your palate.  I would have left the pork out and just got the shrimp with this, it was a perfect pairing.  But ... choose your proteins as you wish!

Blend Chili Spicy Ramen w/Shrimp
Tempura & Chashu Pork

The service in the restaurant is efficient, the staff is very friendly and helpful with the menu, clearing your table...as we watched other patrons leave, the staff was right behind them, cleaning the tables and ready to seat the next customer.

The portions here are large, so be ready to take home leftovers!  But in our opinion, there is no such portion as 'too much.'  Come hungry!  They boxed up our leftover food for us and even let us take home our extra broth and soup; we were thankful, because that stuff is liquid gold!

The space has obviously been remodeled and is clean and fresh, including the bathrooms.  What!?  We have to check those for you too!  The kitchen is open, so you can see them cooking the food and there is nothing to hide. The atmosphere is that of a bustling noodle joint designed to efficiently serve delectable food to as many people in a day as possible.  I appreciate the focus on the food and the casual atmosphere.  I leaned over to my neighbor's tables more than once to ogle their food and ask what it was they were trying.

Overall, we think this restaurant is a breath of fresh air for Albany!  It's been so long since we got any new flavor in this town and we're so happy it's authentic and good quality Asian-inspired!  We need to branch out and bring more food culture!  We love the path this is leading us down, bring us more!

Okay, now the rating.  The part we dislike the most.  We think this restaurant is exactly what it's trying to be and nothing more or less.  Clean, efficient, customer-oriented, excellent food, terrible parking....it has everything a good restaurant should have!  We give Simply Ramen 5 stars on the Brownifer Scale.  You saw that right.  Five.  Nothing wins us over like umami.

If you haven't tried our new favorite Albany dinner stop, then you will soon because everyone will be raving about this little place in no time.  Go enjoy some noodles done right and be sure to tell us how much you loved it.  Because you will!

Welcome to Albany, Simply Ramen!

Jerk Chicken Ramen

Last summer when we were camping, we came up with our Camping Ramen but we've wondered ever since....how would we make it if we were at home?  Not to mention, how could we make it healthier?  I'm the soup lady in our house so last night, I did it!

It turned out great!  Anxious to have it for lunch today and see how those flavors transformed overnight.  My one hiccup was that we were out of Jerk Seasoning for our chicken.  Oops!  So much for relying on memory!  But I powered through and we made our own, just click the link above if you're interested in doing the same or can't find a Jerk seasoning where you shop.  We always use a wet rub when we marinate our jerk meat.

Keep in mind that my spice measurements are just your jumping-off point!  You'll want to add or subtract depending on the flavors you prefer and how you like your soups to taste!

Enough blabbering, here is what I did:

Ingredients:

• 6 packets Ramen Noodles(throw those evil spice packets OUT) or Six bunches of the noodles shown here (found them at Costco)
• Two containers of broth (I use vegetable because ..MSG)
• 2 Zucchini
• 3 Large Carrots
• 4-5 medium Mushrooms (I used Cremini)
• 1 Large Onion (we used a yellow onion)
• Olive Oil (or preferred cooking oil)
• 1 Tablespoon dried basil (dried or fresh - your choice)
• 2 teaspoons Poultry Seasoning
• Salt to taste
• Black Pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon Garlic Powder (use fresh minced if you prefer)
• 1/2 teaspoon Smoked Paprika (if you have it)
• Jerk Chicken, cooked

Directions:

• Chop onion and carrots, put in a soup pot with cooking oil to coat, add basil, poultry seasoning, salt, pepper, garlic powder and smoked paprika, stir to combine.  Cook on medium heat until onions are soft.
• Add broth and add about 6-8 cups of water, depending on the size of your pot (if you don't have a soup pot and are making this in a standard 5-quart stock pot that comes with cookware sets - I would suggest cutting this recipe by 1/2)
• Bring to a boil and let simmer for 20 minutes
• While water is simmering, chop your zucchini and mushrooms
• Taste broth and adjust your seasonings so that the flavor is right where you want it (I may have added a pinch of jalepeno salt, a dash of truffle oil, put in more salt, a pinch of cumin for flavor ... just kept going until it was where I liked it.  Keep in mind when you throw in the Jerk Chicken - a lot of flavor will come in at that point, so don't over due the spice factor!)
• Add zucchini and mushrooms to the pot and stir, bringing to a boil again
• When water boils, add your noodles and stir.
• When noodles are nearly finished, turn the heat down to low and chop your jerk chicken, adding to the pot.
• When everything is well combined and hot - scoop and serve!

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Camping Ramen Noodles

If you've never been camping with 5 kids ... then you don't know our pain.  This weekend we only had 4 out of 5 and luckily, we have a camp stove.  This trip, we brought hot dogs to roast, of course and sandwich fixin's to make sure we were prepared.  But we always make camp spaghetti and I am just sick of the idea truthfully.  So this year, I had read a blog someone posted about their own family tradition of making Curry Ramen Noodles when they go camping and how the tradition got started.  I thought:  Ramen!  What a perfectly awesome camping idea!  Plus, it's inexpensive and with 4 kids ... you get the idea. 

I can't in good conscious feed our kids merely noodles, but they argue over which cooked vegetables are edible.  So we opted for raw veggies!  Brownie cut up three bell peppers and put them on a plate with some raw carrots and heirloom cherry tomatoes.  The kids munched on (and nearly finished) those while I concocted the noodles with what we'd brought.

What we brought was very little.  I am allergic to MSG.  The packets in Ramen Noodles with all those salty spices? They get tossed. Knowing how they make me feel, I can't put that into our kids' bodies.  I had brought some vegetable broth leftover from making our Jambalaya with us and a handful of jars from the spice cupboard, knowing the spice packets would be useless to me.  There must be others out there who can't stand those packets, so I will share. At home, I will sometimes use cumin or curry or wherever my intuition leads me, but ... in the spirit of camping I kept it simple.  My skeleton recipe for camping Ramen with no spice packets? Here ya go:

Ingredients:

6 packets Ramen Noodles
Water
Broth (doesn't matter what kind - I have to use specific brands and usually vegetable to avoid MSG)
Garlic Powder
Salt
Pepper
Poultry Seasoning
Chives (dried from our garden)
Dried Basil

Directions:

Boil water and broth, add noodles, add everything else until the taste is just right for you.  You know how to make Ramen! :-)

Once the kids were fed and full, we still had noodles left for us.  I stirred in a little more water, chopped up the rest of the Jerk Chicken from our Jamexican Tacos that I'd put in the cooler on our way out of town, threw it in and warmed the noodles up again.  Yes!  This may be a new favorite. Did I mention we're packing Jerk Chicken with us no matter where we go now form now on?  Yup.

We even had enough noodles leftover to store in the used chicken container to heat up for breakfast!  I will never camp without Ramen (and 1/2 my spice cupboard) again!