TikTok Is On The Fence About The Mayonnaise Ramen Hack
Of all the many comfort dishes around the world, instant ramen noodles are one of the easiest and quickest comfort meals to make, and the customization options are practically endless. Instant noodles are so popular that an estimated 118 billion servings were consumed around the world in 2021, according to the World Instant Noodles Association (WINA). About 44 billion servings of instant noodles were eaten by the residents of China and Hong Kong in 2021, consuming the most servings out of all other countries in the world. With 13.3 billion servings consumed in 2021, Indonesia came in second place, and Vietnam was in third place in 2021 with 8.6 billion servings of instant noodles served.
Interestingly, when looking at the amount of instant ramen noodles eaten per person, it's actually South Korea that comes in first place rather than China, with each South Korean consuming about 75.6 servings per person in 2019, per Statista. Nepal and Indonesia came in second and third place, with 58.4 and 46.8 servings of instant noodles eaten per person in 2019, respectively. It's clear that the world loves instant ramen, and there are a lot of ways that the simple dish can be upgraded to give it that extra oomph. One way has been popularized on TikTok and involves mayonnaise, but not everyone is on board with the recipe hack.
Some think the mayo ramen hack is too heavy
A TikTok user shared their remake of a popular ramen hack, captioned "[T]he 'viral ramen hack' is sus[picious] to say the least." Their version includes Korean Shin ramen, an egg, minced garlic, and mayo. The final three ingredients are mixed together with the ramen seasoning packets, and that mixture is then combined with the leftover water from boiling the ramen noodles. The overall rating was a six out of 10 because the original poster felt that the ramen hack was a bit oily and heavy from the mayo and egg. There were a couple of comments saying they "do not trust mayo" and agreed with the original poster that it was a heavy dish, while others loved the hack and said it was their favorite way to make ramen.
This is a very popular ramen hack on TikTok, so much so that the #mayoramen hashtag has about 20.4 million views as of January 2023. However, this mayo ramen hack didn't originate on TikTok; it was actually supposedly created in December 2020 by Harapeko Grizzly, a Japanese YouTuber. The recipe featured in the TikTok above is basically the same as the original, except that Harapeko Grizzly uses garlic paste and Sapporo Ichiban miso flavor ramen and tops the dish with a soft-boiled egg and green onions. While this ramen hack might not be suited for everyone's taste, it's still a unique twist on the classic comfort dish.