Hot soup. Quick. Fast. Light. It is just the thing for post holiday recovery.You know what ramen is - those cello packet, sometimes cardboard containers, of instant, "oriental" style noodle soup. Although ramen comes in many flavors: chicken, "oriental", mushroom, beef, or shrimp, each flavor, give or take a change in the hue of the broth, is pretty similar to each other. Ramen is remarkably cheap - three or four for a buck is the going rate, sometimes better: salty broth and noodles - slightly better than spam for my quarter, and so-available you can find it in drugstores, bookstores, sometimes at the cash in hardware stores. It is EVERYWHERE. In fact, there is there is an official ramen website home page, among many other sites to satisfy ramen's cult following and capitalize on rampant ramen recipe swapping. It is both pre and post millennium food.  College students do everything with it but smoke it; lots of people eat the noodles as a snack food - like chips, and crunch on the dry, unreconstituted noodles. What can you do with something instant to give it a bit a flair and a heap more nutrition - alot more in a little time - just have some ingredients in your fridge next time the ramen craving hits you. With just a few added components, you can transform a 25 cent commercial pantry item into Real Food, a meal almost, much the same way that folklore's "Three Stone Soup" became a banquet for a whole village. Remember that tale? You don't? Oh, never mind. Just try the ramen. This "recipe" is not written in stone. Change or add anything you wish. Keep the inspirational feel and the tofu - THAT is another worthwhile trend. This is so quick and so satisfying, you will kick yourself with joy - but don’t. Oh, yes, of course, if you are special and have batches of homemade chicken stock in the freezer, that would substitute even nicer. Oversized, ceramic bowls from Pier I or a neighborhood potter would be nice here…just make sure you use deep bowls - this is a lot of shlurpy soup.