Last Saturday, my daily browse of Boing Boing brought us the sad news of the death of Momofuku Ando, the inventor of instant ramen and personal savior of many a broke college student. He was a ripe old 96, which has got to say something for the greatness of ramen, and because we here at Belly Timber salute ramen’s greatness by buying it by the case, we couldn’t let this passing go unnoticed.

There’s a bit of advice I’ve seen on more than one personal finance blog. It goes something like this: Don’t ditch your broke college student lifestyle the minute you get out of college; ditch it when you’re absolutely certain you can pay off all your student loans.

Now some advisors to the young and in debt suggest a year of living like a student, others suggest five. Some even say keep it up till the loans are gone — which scares the heck out of me, let me tell you. I got out of college ages ago; Chopper’s been out of culinary school for just two years: does this mean we must continue to live like broke students till I’m old and gray?

(Eh, I’m used to it.)

But, back to the noodles. The thing about ramen is that it can be boring. (What’s for dinner? Starch and a flavor packet, again?) The other thing about ramen is that it doesn’t need to be boring, even if you’re living like a broke college student.

For our tribute, we didn’t so much as concoct a recipe, as raid the fridge and create our very own faux phở. (How faux is our phở? So faux, the noodles aren’t even rice.) No lemon grass, no strips of beef, just what we had on hand, college student style, in honor of Momofuku Ando who once said “Peace will come to the world when the people have enough to eat.” Amen to that.

Now, for the details:

Ramen, we’ve discovered, can be had at our local WinCo for just $1.98 a case. That’s 24 packages, so it figures out to a mere 8.25 cents per package.

Most of the remaining ingredients came from our local Asian market, and that too saved us a bundle. Not only is their produce super-cheap, but you can find extreme deals on other items as well. We snagged a bag — not a tiny jar but a big bag — of gari (pickled ginger) for dollars less than the equivalent amount in the “ethnic aisles” of a Fred Meyer or a Safeway.

Here’s the breakdown:

Note that all fractions of cents were rounded up in an effort to allow for the smidge of soy sauce we added at the end. (If we’d had lime juice handy, we would have added a smidge of that as well. Lime juice is a great way to punch up a bowl of faux phở.)

Our three bowls (at just $1.30 a bowl) were huge, by the way. So huge even Chopper couldn’t finish his and had to stow it back in the fridge for later.

I should also note that without our two splurgy items — the sausages and the tempeh — our faux phở comes to just 53 cents a bowl, and it’s still mighty tasty, and still proof that broke college students need not live on starch alone! (Or Cheetos and PBR for that matter, but that’s another story for another time.)

So, Momofuku Ando, for your tasty, portable, dirt cheap, and versatile contribution to the culinary world, we at Belly Timber salute you and say so long, and thanks for all the noodles!

This past weekend I was strolling the aisles of our local supermarket. Because we live on an island, it sometimes gets difficult to find quality foods at decent prices, but Saturday was a glorious exception.

First, I found one of my favorite main items in the meat case — oxtail — cheap! $1.49 a pound, and it was the good stuff too — from Misty Isle Farms, near Seattle — so I got two packs. Total so far: $6.50

Then I remembered that I also had a pound of dried fava beans in my pantry at home that I had purchased at a farmer’s market during a previous trip off island. I also remembered that we had onions, carrots, and garlic left unused from another meal preparation.

At this point, my brain gears began to turn and I bolted off to the produce section. I was in luck. A major sale on produce items was happening that day. I found asparagus for $1.09 a pound, and red bell peppers at 2 for 88 cents. Top it all off with rutabagas at 69 cents a pound and I was set for veggies.

The only other thing I needed was a “flavorful liquid,” and to my surprise I found quart containers of my favorite brand of stock, also on sale at $1.99 each

Total for the day: $11.35.

Total for the entire meal, not including a $10 bottle of wine (on sale), but estimating the cost of items already on hand: ~$16.00

Which leads me to this…

Mrs D sez:

We snagged the Israeli Zahtar at World Merchants spice, herb, and tea shop just below Pike Place Market in Seattle. Zahtar’s a spice blend that’s used in Middle Eastern and North African cooking. It’s got multitudes of variations, but this particular blend is made with toasted sesame seeds, Syrian sumac, and Moroccan thyme. It’s subtle and herbaceous, but even the light touch of it in the sautéed veggies gave this part of our meal a distinct and delicious Middle Eastern flavor.