Over the years, I’ve received different apparatus for cooking instant noodles. It started with the Rapid Ramen Cooker, a specially designed tray devised by a college student to make instant noodles easier to cook. More recently, the Ramen Now!, a Keurig-style machine for the kitched which heats from above and below. It got me thinking – I wonder if a company that makes one for commercial use might be interested in sponsoring one of their machines to show everyone. Well, they did. Today I’m going to show you The Touch On EZ Cook Ramyun Machine. This thing is quite fascinating, functional, and efficient. Here’s a video followed by a lot of information.
The Touch On EZ Cook Ramyun Machine – Unboxing & Full Review
So… How does it work will be your first question. Well, there are two designs – one that would connect to your building’s water, or the one they sent me, the motor version. The motor version just needs a water source lower than the machine and pulls it in via a motorized pump. I have a one gallon water jug and there’s a thin tube that goes into the bottom of it.
First thing after you’ve got your water and it’s plugged in, you flip the switch. You’ll hear the motor pulling water into the machine into a boiler. The display flashes while the water is heated. While this is going on, you grab a bowl. The bowls used aren’t your normal garden variety paper bowl, but one specifically made for use here. The Touch On EZ Cook employs induction heating. This was completely new to me – I’d heard of it but never seen it in action. The induction component needs the bowl to have an aluminum surface on the bottom. It uses changing magnetic fields in such a way that produces heat – a lot of it. It’s really quite fascinating – a technology that’s been around nearly 200 years discovered by Faraday. Anyways…
So you put the bowl on the base and put your noodles in there, in this case, Nongshim Shin Ramyun. I’ve tried with other varieties and yes, it works. Once the light stops blinking, the boiler is at temperature and you can go ahead and push one of the buttons on the front. The unit comes preset for Shin at the 1 spot. To edit the other three, you simply hold the menu button, press 2 3 or 4, then push the add time button until you hit the desired time, and same for water (they round robin).
What surprised me is how fast the water boiled. Granted, it is already hot. Once you push the button it dispenses the water, and you can hear the motor sucking more water into the boiler to replace what’s being used. Then you just sit and watch or do whatever. I just got done making a pack of Samyang Ramen with cheese and sliced hot dog. Everything was perfectly cooked. It was zero effort, save putting the water jug in the sink and sticking the tube in.
This device is great – it does what it’s supposed to, it’s snazzy, and it’s fast. This machine is really made for a retail environment, however I can totally see some of you ramyun fanatics out there lusting after these enough that a few might want to purchase one for home use. I should note that no, you can’t just grab any old pot and put it on there to cook. You can however put a smaller induction style pot on and do that, and I think that would make sense for home users. For commercial use, say in a bubble tea shop, a gaming place or a full fledged instant noodle shop, this thing is just great – the learning curve is almost flat, the cooking vessel is the bowl you eat out of, and it accommodates pack style ramyun – or ramen – it’s universally friendly.
My conclusions are that not only is it neat, but it’s getting a lot of use at home. My daughter enjoys non-spicy domestic creamy chicken varietals – it cooks those. My son for his birthday asked for mi goreng – it does that just fine – you just need to drain the water. Finally this weekend, my wife was hoping we could make tteokbokki with it – yep – it’ll cook tteokbokki.
I want to send a huge thank you to The Touch On for sending me the EZ Cook to show you folks. I will be using it quite a bit during my regular reviewing and you’ll see it on upcoming episodes of Instant Noodle Recipe Time. If you’re interested in getting one, check out The Touch On website. They’re nice folks and will be happy to get one to ya!
