The following is an adaptation of a post to a heated facebook thread that was started with the uncharitable question, (not mine) "By default, do feminists hate ducks?"
The discussion turned to whether the kind of hostile, misandrous feminism that we commonly run across on the internets represents the majority of feminists or the minority and whether it is really feminism at all. The Santa Barbara shooter was mentioned in the context of men's rights, as was the "PATRIARCHY", and generally a good time was had by all. Enter yours truly:
I
think the question of how a movement should deal with their radical
fringe is a really interesting one. Should we hold moderate Muslims
accountable to those who do terrible things in the name of Islam? Is
murderous hostility toward non-Muslims the "true" Islam? I think not.
That
said, what do we think of the Occupy movement? Personally, I fault them
for allowing their message to be hijacked by crazy hobos and black
block anarchists. The "true" Occupy was well-intentioned and had good ideas, they just failed to get the right message to the top of the
heap. That's kind of on them.
So
there does seem to be a degree of culpability. I'd take issue with a
Muslim who refused to emphatically condemn religious terrorism, after
all.
By the same turn,
the feminist movement has a duty (if not to anyone else, then) to
itself to keep its message on point. You can write off misandry as "oh
but men have it so great", but misandry is extremely toxic, and not just
to men. Misandry is toxic to individual women and it is toxic to
feminism. It is the very antithesis of feminism, lurking right under
feminism's protective wing.
This toxic, misandrist brand of "feminism" is worthy
of attention because it has hit the mainstream. It is all over Jezebel, XoJane, Slate, Salon, Daily Kos, etc. It is not some "fringe" thing that can be dismissed with a wave.
Much of what is said passes for honest feminism. The biggest danger is
that the two things, feminism and misandry, become so inextricable from
one another that they cannot be thought of as separate animals,
as the increasingly common refrain of "feminists hate men" illustrates is already happening.
Men
will inevitably bring this issue up more than women. That is because we
are understandably more sensitive to it, because it affects us
directly. Misandry, for men, is an emotional thing. It gets us riled up
the way misogyny used to only get women riled up.
I
don't see a reason to dismiss that sensitivity as "too early". The
pendulum is swinging right now, and misandry will increasingly affect
men in real ways (like in the workplace). When we discuss the power dynamic between women and men we are not talking slaves and
slave owners here. We are talking men and women, hand in hand, and on our
darkest days, icy dagger met with icy dagger. "The Patriarchy" is such
an outmoded, myopic, intrinsically sexist (in both directions) way of
thinking of gender relations it makes me blanch. Do you need to read about Hera torturing
the ill-fated sons of Zeus's mistresses to realize that power has never
been held entirely in the hands of one sex?
It
is for this reason that the true feminism, the always feminism, is the
pursuit of equal rights for both sexes and the fighting of prejudice in
its many forms. To take on misandry masquerading as feminism is just as
central to the ideology as taking on misogyny masquerading as
paternalism, and just as crucial to its success.
End Note: Sorry, I got a little carried away there at the end. Please indulge me.
Thursday, June 5, 2014
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
Back on the Airwaves
Well, that was my longest absence from this blog by far (eight months!). I apologize for the lapse. It got out from under me. I will return with some riveting content shortly, but for now I would just like to say: hello friends, I am back.
Even when I last posted, I hadn't caught you up on the juicy contours of my dating life or the state of American politics, and I certainly hadn't finished annotating and posting backlog playlists made for friends and lovers. I promise this and more if you stay tuned.
Even when I last posted, I hadn't caught you up on the juicy contours of my dating life or the state of American politics, and I certainly hadn't finished annotating and posting backlog playlists made for friends and lovers. I promise this and more if you stay tuned.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Scary Movie Month, Years Five and Six
For newcomers, please read this post
for an explanation of Scary Movie Month, which also includes the movies
from the first three years. Those interested can find the fourth year's
post here.
I'd like to play a little Scary Movie Month catchup today, sharing the last two years of scary movies to get you revved up for this, the spooky seventh annual month of terror.
October 2011:
Godzilla
The original Godzilla turned out to be an unexpected pleasure. I'd never thought of the Godzilla franchise as anything but B movies, but it turns out that the original is as reputable of a franchise kick-off as the best of them. By modern standards it may favor story too much over terror, but it's a good story and a fascinating peek into the post-nuclear Japanese zeitgeist.
The Dead Zone
Christopher Walken stars in this psychological thriller about a school teacher with psychic powers that allow him to foresee the future of the people he touches. It's a solid movie, and the election theme that wraps it up makes it particularly seasonally-appropriate.
Creepshow
From the first few minutes it is clear that this movie is absolutely essential-- four scary Halloween stories told well. What more could you ask for? This is a perfect movie for October.
Fright Night
This is a solid 80's family horror movie. It's fun and charming and interesting. In a way, it's a send-up of classic Halloween season television programming just like Creepshow.
The Return to Oz
This is a remarkably dark Disney fable. It isn't going to give you nightmares quite the way Alice in Wonderland did, but it succeeds in feeling like the cracked, corrupted successor of The Wizard of Oz. The fact that this Dorothy is so much younger makes it more real. I found myself wondering at the fucked-up-ness of the very premise-- that a little girl keeps being transported to this alternate world to solve its problems. This doesn't strike the rich chords that the first movie did, but it's an imaginative, symbolically rich children's coming of age story that will go toe-to-toe with anything this side of Disney's golden age or Miazaki.
The Blair Witch Project
This was not an especially pleasant movie to watch, though that could be said of many excellent horror films. Unfortunately, this is also one of those movies whose influence dwarfed the movie itself. It's a good movie to be sure, but what made it revolutionary is no longer revolutionary and that takes something important away. Yet, it is a good movie and worth watching for the enormous influence it had on American film-- big and small screen both.
The Night of the Hunter
This is one of those movies that doesn't fit into any set of expectations, but which would blow any expectations I could have had. It was made in the 50's and is set during the Great Depression. The story is about a preacher who marries a woman with kids for her money, kills her and hunts the children. The themes of good and evil are black and white, but delivered with delicacy and thought.
Labyrinth
A classic coming-of-age fable, complete with puzzles, faith trials, new friends and being whisked back to real life at the end, this movie is of course enhanced by Jim Henson and David Bowie's presence. Honestly, the only thing I found genuinely exciting was all the goblins in the movie. Too few movies feature goblins.
Dracula
Like most dramatic movies of the era, the original Dracula has the feel of a play-- there is a sense of dramatic staging. The movie is excellent, and I can't find much to say about it that hasn't already been said, including that it suffers slightly when compared against the first two Frankensteins.
October 2012:
Gremlins
Gremlins is a perverse premise for a horror film perversely set amidst the backdrop of a classic down-and-out Christmas tale. They start out so cute! There's some goofy filler sequences with the gremlins trashing a bar, but this is undeniably a classic.
Army of Darkness
It may have been watching this with Sarah, who "gets" camp and B movie appeal, but this final installment was the most fun I had with the Evil Dead trilogy. Bruce Campbell is a pip as always, delivering some profoundly stupid lines with enough earnest enthusiasm to make you double take-- was that actually a cool thing to say? I think I should probably re-watch the first two of the trilogy, as I may appreciate what I didn't the first time in.
The Devil's Backbone
This Guillermo del Toro bears a strong resemblance to his Pan's Labyrinth. It's a ghost story, and an investigation of what a ghost is. Like Labyrinth, it's set during the Spanish Civil War and also strikes the theme of an adolescent-- this time a boy-- first encountering the harsh realities of the adult world. Unlike it, there is none of the fairy tale imagery or tones of familial love. This is a darker, more desolate movie. As with Pan's Labyrinth, it was a movie I more respected than enjoyed.
Hellboy
I chose this partly because Guillermo del Toro directed it, even though it wasn't a perfect fit for Scary Movie Month. The script was pretty terrible-- any "serious" dialogue or monologue was pure nonsense and there's no explanation why they're eventually able to kill the resurrecting hellhound. Ironically, this is the only movie that gave me a nightmare. Karl Ruprecht Kroenen was fantastically creepy in conception (a conception entirely of del Toro's by the way) and the ineffable Jeffrey Tambor's brief presence added a lot.
Something Wicked This Way Comes
This was based on a Ray Bradbury novel, and it bears certain similarities to the one Bradbury novel I've read through-- Dandelion Wine. It's a story set in a small town about strange things happening. It ends up being a reflection on life and on hope's dark side-- how it can eat people from the inside out and the only way to confront this danger is to come to terms with who we are. The movie is just as windswept and wonderful as the October imagery that pervades it.
Re-Animator
I guess I wasn't sure whether to expect more Frankenstein or Night of the Living Dead, but this movie is absolutely original. A med student has developed a "reagent" that can bring the dead back to life-- imperfectly. The only thing more disturbing than the evident agony of the newly-undead is the magnetic temptation to use the reagent. The movie is tempered by plenty of dry, pitch-perfect humor that leavens the mood but only intensifies the philosophical themes lurking beneath.
An American Werewolf in London
In a similar vein of fun, kind of bizarre 80's horror movies to Re-Animator, this one is more explicitly colorful and goofy. The black humor is great, the American-in-England angle is done tastefully and you genuinely care about the characters.
The Bird With the Crystal Plumage
This Dario Argento film is supposedly a quintessential Italian Giallo-- a mix of film noir-style detectives and stalking, bloody horror, with some European sexiness to top it off. The movie was all of those things and gorgeously, flawlessly executed.
Jaws
This classic has been in my scary movie month queue for a while now, and it more than lived up to the hype. The first half of the movie is thoughtful, subtly creative and genuinely scary. Without every coming across as "artsy" or "serious" there are reflections on responsibility, parenthood, and insider/outsider mentalities. The second half is more balls-to-the-walls terror, but the entire movie is remarkably well crafted and executed. I'm sure the shark they used looks ridiculous in person, but the movie's special effects were well-done. This is my pick of the month.
I'd like to play a little Scary Movie Month catchup today, sharing the last two years of scary movies to get you revved up for this, the spooky seventh annual month of terror.
October 2011:
Godzilla
The original Godzilla turned out to be an unexpected pleasure. I'd never thought of the Godzilla franchise as anything but B movies, but it turns out that the original is as reputable of a franchise kick-off as the best of them. By modern standards it may favor story too much over terror, but it's a good story and a fascinating peek into the post-nuclear Japanese zeitgeist.
The Dead Zone
Christopher Walken stars in this psychological thriller about a school teacher with psychic powers that allow him to foresee the future of the people he touches. It's a solid movie, and the election theme that wraps it up makes it particularly seasonally-appropriate.
Creepshow
From the first few minutes it is clear that this movie is absolutely essential-- four scary Halloween stories told well. What more could you ask for? This is a perfect movie for October.
Fright Night
This is a solid 80's family horror movie. It's fun and charming and interesting. In a way, it's a send-up of classic Halloween season television programming just like Creepshow.
The Return to Oz
This is a remarkably dark Disney fable. It isn't going to give you nightmares quite the way Alice in Wonderland did, but it succeeds in feeling like the cracked, corrupted successor of The Wizard of Oz. The fact that this Dorothy is so much younger makes it more real. I found myself wondering at the fucked-up-ness of the very premise-- that a little girl keeps being transported to this alternate world to solve its problems. This doesn't strike the rich chords that the first movie did, but it's an imaginative, symbolically rich children's coming of age story that will go toe-to-toe with anything this side of Disney's golden age or Miazaki.
The Blair Witch Project
This was not an especially pleasant movie to watch, though that could be said of many excellent horror films. Unfortunately, this is also one of those movies whose influence dwarfed the movie itself. It's a good movie to be sure, but what made it revolutionary is no longer revolutionary and that takes something important away. Yet, it is a good movie and worth watching for the enormous influence it had on American film-- big and small screen both.
The Night of the Hunter
This is one of those movies that doesn't fit into any set of expectations, but which would blow any expectations I could have had. It was made in the 50's and is set during the Great Depression. The story is about a preacher who marries a woman with kids for her money, kills her and hunts the children. The themes of good and evil are black and white, but delivered with delicacy and thought.
Labyrinth
A classic coming-of-age fable, complete with puzzles, faith trials, new friends and being whisked back to real life at the end, this movie is of course enhanced by Jim Henson and David Bowie's presence. Honestly, the only thing I found genuinely exciting was all the goblins in the movie. Too few movies feature goblins.
Dracula
Like most dramatic movies of the era, the original Dracula has the feel of a play-- there is a sense of dramatic staging. The movie is excellent, and I can't find much to say about it that hasn't already been said, including that it suffers slightly when compared against the first two Frankensteins.
October 2012:
Gremlins
Gremlins is a perverse premise for a horror film perversely set amidst the backdrop of a classic down-and-out Christmas tale. They start out so cute! There's some goofy filler sequences with the gremlins trashing a bar, but this is undeniably a classic.
Army of Darkness
It may have been watching this with Sarah, who "gets" camp and B movie appeal, but this final installment was the most fun I had with the Evil Dead trilogy. Bruce Campbell is a pip as always, delivering some profoundly stupid lines with enough earnest enthusiasm to make you double take-- was that actually a cool thing to say? I think I should probably re-watch the first two of the trilogy, as I may appreciate what I didn't the first time in.
The Devil's Backbone
This Guillermo del Toro bears a strong resemblance to his Pan's Labyrinth. It's a ghost story, and an investigation of what a ghost is. Like Labyrinth, it's set during the Spanish Civil War and also strikes the theme of an adolescent-- this time a boy-- first encountering the harsh realities of the adult world. Unlike it, there is none of the fairy tale imagery or tones of familial love. This is a darker, more desolate movie. As with Pan's Labyrinth, it was a movie I more respected than enjoyed.
Hellboy
I chose this partly because Guillermo del Toro directed it, even though it wasn't a perfect fit for Scary Movie Month. The script was pretty terrible-- any "serious" dialogue or monologue was pure nonsense and there's no explanation why they're eventually able to kill the resurrecting hellhound. Ironically, this is the only movie that gave me a nightmare. Karl Ruprecht Kroenen was fantastically creepy in conception (a conception entirely of del Toro's by the way) and the ineffable Jeffrey Tambor's brief presence added a lot.
Something Wicked This Way Comes
This was based on a Ray Bradbury novel, and it bears certain similarities to the one Bradbury novel I've read through-- Dandelion Wine. It's a story set in a small town about strange things happening. It ends up being a reflection on life and on hope's dark side-- how it can eat people from the inside out and the only way to confront this danger is to come to terms with who we are. The movie is just as windswept and wonderful as the October imagery that pervades it.
Re-Animator
I guess I wasn't sure whether to expect more Frankenstein or Night of the Living Dead, but this movie is absolutely original. A med student has developed a "reagent" that can bring the dead back to life-- imperfectly. The only thing more disturbing than the evident agony of the newly-undead is the magnetic temptation to use the reagent. The movie is tempered by plenty of dry, pitch-perfect humor that leavens the mood but only intensifies the philosophical themes lurking beneath.
An American Werewolf in London
In a similar vein of fun, kind of bizarre 80's horror movies to Re-Animator, this one is more explicitly colorful and goofy. The black humor is great, the American-in-England angle is done tastefully and you genuinely care about the characters.
The Bird With the Crystal Plumage
This Dario Argento film is supposedly a quintessential Italian Giallo-- a mix of film noir-style detectives and stalking, bloody horror, with some European sexiness to top it off. The movie was all of those things and gorgeously, flawlessly executed.
Jaws
This classic has been in my scary movie month queue for a while now, and it more than lived up to the hype. The first half of the movie is thoughtful, subtly creative and genuinely scary. Without every coming across as "artsy" or "serious" there are reflections on responsibility, parenthood, and insider/outsider mentalities. The second half is more balls-to-the-walls terror, but the entire movie is remarkably well crafted and executed. I'm sure the shark they used looks ridiculous in person, but the movie's special effects were well-done. This is my pick of the month.
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Playlists: Jack 1
Jack is a person of discerning tastes, but for reasons that he will happily explain to you, he mostly just listens to radio pop and neoclassical shred metal. For all of Jack's intimate understanding of SciFi, he has no schooling in punk. This has put me in the strange position of explaining punk to him. This series tackles punk in the very broadest sense-- one sure to ruffle the feathers of any "actual" punks out there.
The "punk vs. metal" dichotomy dates to the 80's, when the two camps were at each other's throats, no matter how similar thrash and hardcore began to sound. That false dichotomy died its final death with Pearl Jam, but I've resurrected it as a lense through which to view rock. Metal and punk represent two illustrious rock traditions-- the former grounded in virtuosity and artistic ambition and the latter grounded in anti-beauty and self-conscious simplicity. Much of the rock canon can be casually divided down these lines. For this reason I've subtitled the Jack series "Phooey on your Metal... let's listen to some Punk!"
The Jack series was composed as a single five hour ride through various manifestations of "punk" that was subsequently cut into four CD-length playlists, each with their own distinctive character. This the first of these is the most abrasive, most coherent, and the least representative. It tackles the complex between noise rock, math rock and emo that forms the core of post-hardcore (punk), with an emphasis on emo. Emo deserves a post and a playlist of its own a la my old radio show The Odyssey, but for now please rest assured that this playlist hardly constitutes what most people think of as "emo". This is a playlist of intricate, furious, guitar rock.
Playable playlist
http://grooveshark.com/playlist/Jack+Punk+1/81909679
Official tracklist
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ye5seas58jtk0on/Jack1playlist.xls
The "punk vs. metal" dichotomy dates to the 80's, when the two camps were at each other's throats, no matter how similar thrash and hardcore began to sound. That false dichotomy died its final death with Pearl Jam, but I've resurrected it as a lense through which to view rock. Metal and punk represent two illustrious rock traditions-- the former grounded in virtuosity and artistic ambition and the latter grounded in anti-beauty and self-conscious simplicity. Much of the rock canon can be casually divided down these lines. For this reason I've subtitled the Jack series "Phooey on your Metal... let's listen to some Punk!"
The Jack series was composed as a single five hour ride through various manifestations of "punk" that was subsequently cut into four CD-length playlists, each with their own distinctive character. This the first of these is the most abrasive, most coherent, and the least representative. It tackles the complex between noise rock, math rock and emo that forms the core of post-hardcore (punk), with an emphasis on emo. Emo deserves a post and a playlist of its own a la my old radio show The Odyssey, but for now please rest assured that this playlist hardly constitutes what most people think of as "emo". This is a playlist of intricate, furious, guitar rock.
Playable playlist
http://grooveshark.com/playlist/Jack+Punk+1/81909679
Official tracklist
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ye5seas58jtk0on/Jack1playlist.xls
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Playlists: Sarah 2
In the intervening couple of months between when I gave her the first playlist and when, with her encouragement, I presented her with the second, Sarah had listened to the first playlist all of once-- and even that time only incompletely. She said the feelings were too strong and when she got to the "sad song" (Sweet Avenue) she had to stop listening to keep from being overcome.
This second playlist is more relaxed than the first, as heralded by the opening salvo, "Congratulations". Gone is the anguish of Jill's presence in the tracklisting and the wistfulness of the previous has solidified into a sort of hypnotic romanticism, perhaps best embodied by "Back To Your Heart". Sure, there is a consciousness of vulnerability, as with "When the Levee Breaks", and there is the poignancy of "Across the Sea", but at its core this playlist is about reveling in that surreal moment of love, without expectation or fear.
Playable playlist
http://grooveshark.com/playlist/For+Sarah+2/81911055
I'd like to note that the Grooveshark playlists have some minor differences with the original, because not quite every song is available on Grooveshark. You can find the official tracklist here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/yhdqadjt4bag6ht/Sarah2playlist.xls
This second playlist is more relaxed than the first, as heralded by the opening salvo, "Congratulations". Gone is the anguish of Jill's presence in the tracklisting and the wistfulness of the previous has solidified into a sort of hypnotic romanticism, perhaps best embodied by "Back To Your Heart". Sure, there is a consciousness of vulnerability, as with "When the Levee Breaks", and there is the poignancy of "Across the Sea", but at its core this playlist is about reveling in that surreal moment of love, without expectation or fear.
Playable playlist
http://grooveshark.com/playlist/For+Sarah+2/81911055
I'd like to note that the Grooveshark playlists have some minor differences with the original, because not quite every song is available on Grooveshark. You can find the official tracklist here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/yhdqadjt4bag6ht/Sarah2playlist.xls
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Playlists: Sarah 1
It wasn't until the beginning of this year that I learned that you could
make publicly sharable playlists on Grooveshark. Once that had happened,
it was just a matter of time before I began to post playlists here. I
intend to make a series of posts with my old archived playlists, with a
brief depiction of the rationale that went into making each, and this
will be the first.
I've decided to start this series with the first mix-cd playlist I made for Sarah, back on Valentine's day 2011, aka "Sarah 1". The making of this happened to coincide with when I got my first mp3 player, which meant a minor explosion of musical exploration for me at the time. This mix makes a pretty good spread of my musical tastes, with the exception of my most abrasive ones. As such, I feel it is a nice starting point for the series.
The mix is wistful throughout. Sarah's taste in older music helped inform the two most retro songs in the mix ("32 20" and "Our Car Club"), but the songs certainly also convey an ebullience of complex feelings that continues through the mix. A number of the songs were actually chosen with Jill in mind and are either serious love songs our outright breakup songs. "Sick of Goodbyes", "Outtasite" and especially "Weird Fishes" best represent this strain. Sarah knows this, which is why I am comfortable saying it here. Of course, the greater share of songs, when they are wistful, are utterly swept up in the moment, like "Ocean", "Sweet Avenue", "Strange Ones" and, of course, "Just Like Heaven". I spent many a wee hour of the morning walking home from Sarah's house, mp3 player plugged in, savoring happy thoughts. Frankly, this mix cd was composed in a state of new love's swirling bliss, and I think it shows. The rhythms are irrepressibly upbeat, and the singing is fervent. Even a seeming breakup song like "Fire for Awhile" practically drips with the seductive tender haze of new love.
Playable playlist
http://grooveshark.com/playlist/For+Sarah+1/81910856
Official tracklist
https://www.dropbox.com/s/r0u7rvh5l1qt2vt/Sarah1playlist.xls
If this all sounds pretty personal, that's because it is. Please enjoy this little piece of my life.
I've decided to start this series with the first mix-cd playlist I made for Sarah, back on Valentine's day 2011, aka "Sarah 1". The making of this happened to coincide with when I got my first mp3 player, which meant a minor explosion of musical exploration for me at the time. This mix makes a pretty good spread of my musical tastes, with the exception of my most abrasive ones. As such, I feel it is a nice starting point for the series.
The mix is wistful throughout. Sarah's taste in older music helped inform the two most retro songs in the mix ("32 20" and "Our Car Club"), but the songs certainly also convey an ebullience of complex feelings that continues through the mix. A number of the songs were actually chosen with Jill in mind and are either serious love songs our outright breakup songs. "Sick of Goodbyes", "Outtasite" and especially "Weird Fishes" best represent this strain. Sarah knows this, which is why I am comfortable saying it here. Of course, the greater share of songs, when they are wistful, are utterly swept up in the moment, like "Ocean", "Sweet Avenue", "Strange Ones" and, of course, "Just Like Heaven". I spent many a wee hour of the morning walking home from Sarah's house, mp3 player plugged in, savoring happy thoughts. Frankly, this mix cd was composed in a state of new love's swirling bliss, and I think it shows. The rhythms are irrepressibly upbeat, and the singing is fervent. Even a seeming breakup song like "Fire for Awhile" practically drips with the seductive tender haze of new love.
Playable playlist
http://grooveshark.com/playlist/For+Sarah+1/81910856
Official tracklist
https://www.dropbox.com/s/r0u7rvh5l1qt2vt/Sarah1playlist.xls
If this all sounds pretty personal, that's because it is. Please enjoy this little piece of my life.
Monday, May 27, 2013
The Ramen Project
On my first trip to the Manila Oriental Market in Excelsior last year, I discovered something wonderful-- an entire store aisle devoted to instant noodles. The store offered an impenetrably diverse array of ramens, with flavors I'd never run across, like "cuttlefish" and "pickled cabbage fish". Sarah and I first just tried the ones that sounded best to us and tried to keep mental track of our favorites. It wasn't until I was on my own that I decided to take a more systematic approach to dealing with the intimidating breadth of options. By then it had become apparent that memory alone would not be sufficient to map out the best and worst of instant noodles. At the suggestion of a coworker (Laura Ray), The Ramen Project was born. This post is its ultimate fruit. I bought one of each of about two-thirds of the aisle's offered instant noodle varieties (the poor girl at the checkout looked ready to kill me) and began to work my way through the pile one lunch at a time at work, saving the packaging with brief post-it reviews affixed. After months of careful study, the results are in.
The survey covers 39 flavors of instant noodles, all single-serving with one exception. Prices mostly ranged from 39 cents to 79 cents, with a couple of standouts costing over a dollar. Ramen noodles are generally fried in saturated vegetable fat like palm oil and the broth typically includes flavor-enhancers MSG, Disodium 5'-Inosylate, and Disodium 5'-Guanylate (which is actually a component of DNA/RNA, interestingly). The artificial meat flavor is non-vegetarian, which means it includes animal products and isn't fully "artificial" in the classic sense, but only a couple of brands included such luxuries as straight-up crab meat or beef extract and forwent synthetic flavor enhancers. There's nothing really dangerous or unhealthy about synthetic flavor enhancers, but as a rule I tried not to consume ramen more than once per 48-hour period, as the calories are pretty genuinely empty and it would have made me feel "off". Noodle packages typically included 2-3 packets inside them in addition to the bare noodles, usually powdered broth, garlic or soy-infused palm oil, and freeze dried garnish. The survey includes "glass" noodles, rice noodles and noodles intended to be served without broth, in addition to the more classic ramen noodles.
I've condensed this to the "discoveries" or "best-of", but you can find the complete unedited reviews here. Below are the highlights:
Both Thai brands (ZoZo/Wai Wai and MAMA) were consistently excellent, and the general sour/tom yum genre is pretty solid.
-ZoZo/Wai Wai Sour Soup Flavour Instant Noodles- Good. Spicy, delicious and simple.
-MAMA Shrimp Creamy Tom Yum Flavour- Creamy, delicious, appropriately spicy, and with good texture. This is probably my favorite Tom Yum of the lot. Note that my coworker Jeri's favorite ramen is the non-creamy variant, but I prefered this by a slight margin.
Vietnamese company Vina Acecook has a few brand name titles, including Hao Hao, which was uniformly mediocre, and Daily, which had its moments (see below). Vietnamese brand Vifon was ok, but I wasn't especially fond of the mealy texture of their rice noodles and they didn't quite rise above "good" anyways.
-Daily Beef Ball Flavour- Surprisingly delicious, with complex spicy herbal seasoning.
Both soup type ramens from Filipino brand Lucky Me! were excellent, but the chow meins (served without broth) tended to be rancid for whatever reason. It wasn't the only brand for which I ran across a rancid one, but these were pretty consistently rancid. Otherwise the chow meins were quite good, but I'm only featuring the soups.
-Lucky Me! La Paz Batchoy (La Paz Style)- Fancy! Four packets, including one with little balls of textured soy protein. Rich and garlicky broth.
-Lucky Me! Bulalo (Bone Marrow Soup)- Smells fantastically savory. Great flavor, salty.
Indonesian brand IndoMie's chow meins were excellent and it is the brand I'd recommend for the chow mein style. The process of straining the water from them was a bit tricky to do at work with nothing but a microwave, a fork, and long sweater sleeves to insulate my hands, but the results were great. Note that these and the Lucky Me! chow meins are Sarah's favorite instant noodles.
-Mi Goreng BBQ Chicken- Absolutely delicious.
-Mi Goreng- Excellent, sweet and peppery.
-Soto Mie Flavour- Sesame and chili flavor. Delicious as always.
Unif is a pretty gigantic brand out of Taiwan, with a lot of different packaging configurations. It's offerings range from outright "meh" to quite good.
-Unif Tung-I Chah Chiang Flavor- I believe this is seaweed flavor. Dark, savory and surprisingly unsalty (relatively speaking) soy sauce-derived broth. Would pair well with Californian hops, esp Simcoe or Citra.
-Unif Tung-I Instant Bean Vermicelli Mushroom Flavor (Bean Thread)- Good, interesting nutty mushroom flavor.
As I am sure will surprise no one, the Japanese brands were the most expensive, nutritionally substantial and reliably delicious. I decided that udon took a bit too long to cook to be practical for work.
-Tonkotsu Artificial Pork Flavor- The "nondaily creamer" milk solids make it pretty chill. Nice and garlicky and sesame-y.
-Shin Ramyun Noodle Soup "Gourmet Spicy"- Totally excellent in flavor and texture. Pleasantly spicy, but otherwise fairly normal.
Honestly, the most promising (and as-yet unexplored) frontier in ramen at this point for me is the multi-serving packages. These tend be on the higher end of the price range per serving, include some of the most unusual flavors and the quality has so far been remarkable. Only one multi-serving noodle was included in this survey, and it certainly makes the list. The brand is unclear but it was manufactured by Sichuan Baijia Food Co., Ltd.
-Artificial Pickled Cabbage Fish Flavor Instant Sweet Potato Thread- Unique and utterly delicious. Cabbage and beans and sour and spicy oh my! Note this is vegan and rather oily, with chewy clear noodles
Below is the full array of recommended noodles. Hopefully this will prove useful to everyone who has access to an asian grocery store. It's a great way to keep your lunches at work cheap and interesting.
The survey covers 39 flavors of instant noodles, all single-serving with one exception. Prices mostly ranged from 39 cents to 79 cents, with a couple of standouts costing over a dollar. Ramen noodles are generally fried in saturated vegetable fat like palm oil and the broth typically includes flavor-enhancers MSG, Disodium 5'-Inosylate, and Disodium 5'-Guanylate (which is actually a component of DNA/RNA, interestingly). The artificial meat flavor is non-vegetarian, which means it includes animal products and isn't fully "artificial" in the classic sense, but only a couple of brands included such luxuries as straight-up crab meat or beef extract and forwent synthetic flavor enhancers. There's nothing really dangerous or unhealthy about synthetic flavor enhancers, but as a rule I tried not to consume ramen more than once per 48-hour period, as the calories are pretty genuinely empty and it would have made me feel "off". Noodle packages typically included 2-3 packets inside them in addition to the bare noodles, usually powdered broth, garlic or soy-infused palm oil, and freeze dried garnish. The survey includes "glass" noodles, rice noodles and noodles intended to be served without broth, in addition to the more classic ramen noodles.
I've condensed this to the "discoveries" or "best-of", but you can find the complete unedited reviews here. Below are the highlights:
Both Thai brands (ZoZo/Wai Wai and MAMA) were consistently excellent, and the general sour/tom yum genre is pretty solid.
-ZoZo/Wai Wai Sour Soup Flavour Instant Noodles- Good. Spicy, delicious and simple.
-MAMA Shrimp Creamy Tom Yum Flavour- Creamy, delicious, appropriately spicy, and with good texture. This is probably my favorite Tom Yum of the lot. Note that my coworker Jeri's favorite ramen is the non-creamy variant, but I prefered this by a slight margin.
Vietnamese company Vina Acecook has a few brand name titles, including Hao Hao, which was uniformly mediocre, and Daily, which had its moments (see below). Vietnamese brand Vifon was ok, but I wasn't especially fond of the mealy texture of their rice noodles and they didn't quite rise above "good" anyways.
-Daily Beef Ball Flavour- Surprisingly delicious, with complex spicy herbal seasoning.
Both soup type ramens from Filipino brand Lucky Me! were excellent, but the chow meins (served without broth) tended to be rancid for whatever reason. It wasn't the only brand for which I ran across a rancid one, but these were pretty consistently rancid. Otherwise the chow meins were quite good, but I'm only featuring the soups.
-Lucky Me! La Paz Batchoy (La Paz Style)- Fancy! Four packets, including one with little balls of textured soy protein. Rich and garlicky broth.
-Lucky Me! Bulalo (Bone Marrow Soup)- Smells fantastically savory. Great flavor, salty.
Indonesian brand IndoMie's chow meins were excellent and it is the brand I'd recommend for the chow mein style. The process of straining the water from them was a bit tricky to do at work with nothing but a microwave, a fork, and long sweater sleeves to insulate my hands, but the results were great. Note that these and the Lucky Me! chow meins are Sarah's favorite instant noodles.
-Mi Goreng BBQ Chicken- Absolutely delicious.
-Mi Goreng- Excellent, sweet and peppery.
-Soto Mie Flavour- Sesame and chili flavor. Delicious as always.
Unif is a pretty gigantic brand out of Taiwan, with a lot of different packaging configurations. It's offerings range from outright "meh" to quite good.
-Unif Tung-I Chah Chiang Flavor- I believe this is seaweed flavor. Dark, savory and surprisingly unsalty (relatively speaking) soy sauce-derived broth. Would pair well with Californian hops, esp Simcoe or Citra.
-Unif Tung-I Instant Bean Vermicelli Mushroom Flavor (Bean Thread)- Good, interesting nutty mushroom flavor.
As I am sure will surprise no one, the Japanese brands were the most expensive, nutritionally substantial and reliably delicious. I decided that udon took a bit too long to cook to be practical for work.
-Tonkotsu Artificial Pork Flavor- The "nondaily creamer" milk solids make it pretty chill. Nice and garlicky and sesame-y.
-Shin Ramyun Noodle Soup "Gourmet Spicy"- Totally excellent in flavor and texture. Pleasantly spicy, but otherwise fairly normal.
Honestly, the most promising (and as-yet unexplored) frontier in ramen at this point for me is the multi-serving packages. These tend be on the higher end of the price range per serving, include some of the most unusual flavors and the quality has so far been remarkable. Only one multi-serving noodle was included in this survey, and it certainly makes the list. The brand is unclear but it was manufactured by Sichuan Baijia Food Co., Ltd.
-Artificial Pickled Cabbage Fish Flavor Instant Sweet Potato Thread- Unique and utterly delicious. Cabbage and beans and sour and spicy oh my! Note this is vegan and rather oily, with chewy clear noodles
Below is the full array of recommended noodles. Hopefully this will prove useful to everyone who has access to an asian grocery store. It's a great way to keep your lunches at work cheap and interesting.
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