I suppose it was some time in August when I first heard about it. Debuting at Smorgasburg Flea Market in Brooklyn, the Ramen Burger hit the scene and foodies and food blogs went wild, spurring a sudden demand for a burger patty between two fried slabs of ramen. Making it coast-to-coast official, the Ramen Burger has now debuted “officially” in LA furthering the food world’s desire for this bizarre, yet tasty culinary treat.

And what kind of foodie would I be if I didn’t give these a whirl myself? Seeing since Knoxville lacks an eatery willing to make these (very much like the also-recent culinary trend the Cronut) I had to do it myself.

Simple enough, right?

The directions for making these ramen buns are rather simple: I boiled a pack of ramen, sans-season pack** for three minutes, then drained and put into a bowl with a single beaten egg. The next part was a little tricky: After mixing the noodles in with the egg, I took out half and dropped it into a small frying pan lined with plastic wrap. The pan helped shape the ramen into a circular bun and I mashed it down while a frying pan with a small bit of EVOO warmed over medium heat. Once hot, I opened the plastic wrap and dumped the bun-shaped bunch of noodles and they began frying immediately This also required a little more re-shaping once it hit the pan as the noodles went a little crazy. After about two minutes, flip. Two more minutes – remove and drop your other “bun” in. Simple.

**I’ll say here that next time I will use a flavor pack as the bun turned out to be sort of bland.

I had made some burgers on Friday night and had 2 patties left over for lunch on Saturday so I re-heated them and topped them with swiss cheese. I also got out a small handful of spinach and sliced a tomato to top this baby. In an attempt to not be too plain, I fried up a pan of bacon for the bottom of the burger, followed by an over-easy fried egg to top it.

And this, my friends, is what you get:

http://instagram.com/p/eSeiTkL2Wb/

When eaten with all of the other items, the ramen buns are super tasty. A little more effort than just using a burger bun but it’s pretty cool to see a food you may or may not have stopped eating (because you’re an adult now) come back into your meal plan in such a creative way. My burgers were juicy, veggies were fresh, bacon crisp and egg gooey.

Certainly worth your time and effort – if nothing else just to say you did it.

I’ll leave you with Foodbeast’s 22 Filthy Photos of Ramen Burger Food Porn. Enjoy!

And also Follow me on Twitter @JustinTFirefly