HousingPANIC EXCLUSIVE: Interview with publisher of the Ramen Noodles Blog

As a service to American Home Mortgage's former workers, and especially our out-of-work realtor and Desperate Homedebtor readers, this EXCLUSIVE HousingPANIC interview with Ed over at ramenramenramen:

HP: You're blog is wildly popular with ramen-eating-realtors looking for new ideas. Did you ever think ramen interest would soar while housing prices crashed?

RAMEN: Haha, I would've never linked ramen interest with housing prices, but now that you've written about it, I guess it makes sense. But besides the cheapie billion-packs-for-a-dollar kinds of ramen, there're also a lot of "upscale"instant ramen, usually found in Japanese/Asian stores that sell for $3 to over $5 bucks a bowl!

HP: Some realtors don't care about flavor, they just need the cheapest ramen they can find. What do you recommend?

RAMEN: The best choices are probably the familiar Top Ramen http://www.nissinfoods.com/topramen/ and Maruchan, which doesn't appear to have an English web site, but I know they have a large factory in Southern California because I happen to pass by it often! I think even Wal-Mart has their own private label brand of instant noodles. Other places to buy cheap instant noodles is in Chinese, Vietnamese, or Korean supermarkets.

Another web site that might be fun for your "ramen-eating-realtor" readers is "the Official Ramen Homepage" http://www.mattfischer.com/ramen/ which has tons of creative recipes using instant noodles. You can save money *and* have a good meal at the same time!

HP: For the realtor that does (pigs fly) sell a house, and wants to splurge on a ramen-feast, what tips could you offer?

RAMEN: If you go to a Japanese supermarket, you'll often find a good selection of "bowl" noodles (instant noodles in a styrofoam bowl. These are really popular in Japan, and some of them are really fancy. There are even bowl noodles modeled after the ramen in popular ramen houses across Japan!

Here's and old favorite http://www.ramenramenramen.net/2005/02/07/ramen-rating-15/ As you can see, some of these bowl ramen come with lots of ingredients, and even meat!

The meat in this bowl ramen was particularly good (and thick too! some bowl ramen have paper-thin slices of meat): http://www.ramenramenramen.net/?p=13

I just tried this one a few weeks ago. The list of ingredients is almost gourmet and ranges from green onions, ginger, and bamboo, to judas ear mushrooms! http://www.ramenramenramen.net/2007/07/13/ramen-rating-seabura-tonkotsu-ramen/

Or better yet, I recommend everyone who enjoys noodles to patronize a local ramen house. If all you've ever had was instant ramen, you'll be amazed at the difference!

HP: I see you sell a "ramen lapel pin" - do you think realtors will be allowed to wear this along with their Century21 or Re/Max lapel pins?

I don't see why not! Who knows, it might even be a good conversation starter that'll lead to a sale!

AN URGENT MESSAGE FOR ORANGE COUNTY REALTORS, MORTGAGE BROKERS AND HOMEDEBTORS

Local stores are running out of Ramen noodles!!!

Hurry - buy Ramen now while you still can. They're not making more Ramen you know. If you don't buy Ramen now, you may not be able to afford Ramen in the future.

Blown Mortgage has the scoop

For Keith: Any Correlation Between OC Ramen Sales and Latest Mortgage News?

A long day for your blogger here at BlownMortgage - how about a little levity? For our friends over at Housing Panic:

I just took the below photo tonight at my neighborhood Pavilions. I live in the heart of Orange County. Any correlation between the run on Ramen and the recent events in the mortgage industry? I mean our whole county is based on lending the folly of real estate according to Slate - there has to be something to it … RIGHT???!?!

And this from the Slate article on why the run on Ramen:

It's not entirely surprising that Irvine is a center of reckless real estate lending and borrowing. It's a classic industry cluster of the type seen in areas that lack natural resources. Detroit's auto manufacturers encouraged the local growth of auto parts suppliers, companies that finance auto purchases and publications that cover the auto industry.

In Silicon Valley in the 1990s, the people who created dot-com companies were co-located with the venture capitalists who funded them, the investment bankers and brokers who helped take them public and with many of the investors who got killed when the NASDAQ tanked. Irvine may have built up a diversified economy, but it remains a company town -- one whose fortunes are highly leveraged to the highly leveraged real estate industry.

For our realtor troll friends: HousingPANIC welcomes ramenramenramen.net to the blog

For our ramen-eating realtor troll friends, I've added the Ramen Blog to the HP blogroll. You'll find all kinds of (I guess) delicious ramen recipes, ramen reviews, current ramen issues and events, and a general all-things-ramen celebration.

We here at HP want to help you, now that your former discredited profession has imploded. Life is too short for Chicken Flavored Ramen every night. Spice it up - there's so much more out there. And good luck with the job search.

Bon Appetite!

One neat thing about Shimadaya’s ramen is that there are three flavor packets! There’s a packet of soup base, a packet of seasoning oil, and a pack of spices. Those of you who enjoy reading ingredients will find that there’s both chicken extract and chicken extract powder, two kinds of fat (the seasoning oil is basically a mixture of chicken fat and pork fat), and two helpings of MSG (in the soup base as well as in the “spices”). Yum!

Ladies and gentlemen, as predicted, I give you Google Housing (Beta)

Oh, man, is this could change the world... My only question for Google is what the hell is taking so long? Could this be more in their sweet spot?

Goodbye ramen eating real estate clerks. Goodbye zillow.com (who Google will buy anyway) . Goodbye Century 21. Goodbye "Mega-Producer" Russ Shaw. Goodbye Re/Max. Goodbye 6%. Goodbye MLS.

And hello Google Housing!

Hello REALTOR disintermediation. Hello efficiency. And hello world - Google Housing will destroy realtors and estate agents around the globe (finally!)

Note - this is only a beta - but should give you a sense of what's to come. Want a tip? Don't be against Google.

Anyone who posts as an ANON is a wimp

It's so easy to click "other" then type in any name you'd like. You don't have to register, just call yourself something. You can be ANON, just call yourself something....

I allow ANONs, because I think it's important for REIC whistleblowers to be able to have their say without being tracked down by the NAR, but at least make up a user name. MickeyMouse2 is fine. Ilovedavidlereah is cool.

ANON is for wimps. Imhavingdavidlereahslovechild23 is funny, and then we can converse

(UPDATE - THIS THREAD ALSO IS A CONTEST FOR THE FUNNIEST / MOST CREATIVE NAME. I'M THE FINAL JUDGE. WINNER WINS A PACKAGE OF CHICKEN FLAVORED RAMEN - YUMMY!)