By Alma Wendy Yu

There are days we do not want to spend more than 10 minutes cooking in the kitchen. After a long day, we want something quick and still filling. In these times, we drag ourselves to the cupboards in search of pantry conveniences such as canned goods, instant noodles, and jarred sauces to reduce our cooking-time exponentially and proceed to eating-time immediately.
My number one guilty pleasure is a good bowl of instant noodles. I grew up looking forward to Sundays when my mom wouldn’t usually cook a lot for dinner, and open packs of Maggi Instant Noodles instead. Back in the day, there were only a few brands found in the shelves of our local supermarket. Maggi was one of them. Today, we can find all sorts of brands from different countries like Korea, China, Singapore, Thailand, and Japan. The noodle-enthusiasts make it a point to taste every single flavor there is and it has become a huge thing on social media. 
You’ll see a lot of “glammed up” instant noodle recipes, spicy noodle challenges, or simply an ASMR vlog of a lazy dinner. In other words, people like the convenience and the blank canvas for creativity that a humble pack of instant noodles can offer to the table. 
With only noodles, flavor packet, and a few dehydrated vegetables, one can be creative with it without having to spend too much time preparing it. The most common addition is an egg. This could be soft-boiled, hard boiled, or stirred into the soup for those beautiful threads of eggs. Change that up a bit and make an omelette instead. Using your favorite instant noodles (soup or dried), you can make Omusoba or Omelette-Soba, or noodles wrapped in an omelette. The flavor packet can be turned into a sauce that you can pour over the omelette for a saucy finish.

Instant Noodle Omusoba
Ingredients:
1 pack instant noodles (your choice)
1 clove garlic (or more), chopped
Oil, as needed (or use the oil from your packet of noodles if it has)
Chopped spring onion for garnish
1 tsp. cornstarch
2 eggs, beaten

Method:
1. In a pot, bring water to a boil. Cook your noodles and dehydrated vegetables.
2. Once cooked, remove from water and transfer to a bowl. Do not discard cooking water.
3. In a non-stick pan, heat up oil and sauté chopped garlic until slightly browned.
4. Toss in your cooked noodles and half of the seasoning packet.
5. Transfer back to the bowl.
6. On the same pan, put a bit of oil, and pour in the beaten eggs. Swirl the pan and mix vigorously to form soft curds. Let the bottom set. Season with salt.
7. When the eggs are almost cooked, place the noodles on the top-half of the omelette.
8. Fold the bottom-half of the omelette towards the top-half to cover the noodles.
9. Flip over to a plate.
10. To prepare the sauce, empty the remaining sauce packet into the pan, add about half a ladle of cooking water from #2. Stir to combine. Heat up over medium heat until boiling.
11. Dissolve cornstarch in a bit of water and pour into the sauce to thicken. You can adjust the consistency of the sauce by adding more water if it’s too thick, and reducing it if too thin.
12. Pour the sauce over the omusoba and garnish with chopped spring onions.

It seems to have a lot of steps, but trust me it shouldn’t take a long time to prepare. Give this a try for your next lazy-night dinner.