Ramon Bomb (Justin Fowler) | Dartmouth Folklore Archive

Title: Ramon Bomb

General Information about Item:

Informant Data:

Kyu Kim is a male Dartmouth student in the class of 2018. He was born in Korea and raised in the northern Virginia/ Washington DC area. During his time at Dartmouth, Kyu enjoys playing the bassoon in the orchestra. In his time away from Dartmouth, Kyu has hiked part of the Appalachian Trail (AT). His plans after Dartmouth include working as a consultant.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context: Backpackers are often limited in their food options. Because of this they are forced to focus on foods that are easy to cook. Often times these foods are high in sodium and non-perishable. This allows for people to not have to carry super heavy food items around as they navigate the trails they hike.
Social Context: This specific recipe was mentioned when the interviewee was asked about food recipes. Backpackers often share food recipes with one another. Often, the recipes shared are interesting and easy to make but use very simple ingredients because of the limited options in food items backpackers usually have on them.

Item:

The ramon bomb is an easy to cook food. Under normal non-hiking options this recipe is not highly recommended but when there are limited options in terms of nonperishable foods this is a recipe a hiker may use. For this recipe you add water to a jet boil or any type of mechanism that heats water. You then put a package of ramen in the boiling water and also add dehydrated mashed potatoes. The combination of ramen and mashed potatoes contains a lot of sodium which can be a bit much in taste but the sodium is good for avoiding cramps while on the hiking trail.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Transcript:

“One of the meals I decided to try was called the Ramon bomb. I heard it was super easy to make and was not in a part of the trail where I could get a warm or decent meal. So, I decided to try it. Never tried it again after the one time…It’s pretty easy to make so, you boil some water, cook a package of ramen and add dehydrated mashed potatoes to it. You mix them up and basically have a sodium rich food you can eat. The sodium based food was good for avoiding cramps while hiking the trail (AT).”

Informant’s Comments:

Highly would not recommend eating it if better options are available. Not a huge fan.

Collector’s Comments:

I found this recipe to be very interesting. Not only was the recipe relatively simple to follow but it definitely had a lot of salt (sodium). I would not exactly recommend it (I tried it once for fun). But if there were no other easily accessible food options I would consider eating the Ramon Bomb.

Collector’s Name: Justin Fowler

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