According to Reuters, a 10 year old girl in Bhaktapur, Nepal has been named a "living goddess" or "kumari" according to Hindu tradition. The girl, named Sajani Shakya, was selected by priests to serve as an incarnation of Kali, the Hindu goddess of power. She will remain in this "divine" role until menstruation, after which, she retires and rejoins her family.

Sajani has been the subject of international headlines this month after she visited the United States to promote a British-made film about her life. Some religious authorities threatened to strip her of her "living goddess" title because she left Nepal. A final decision on her status is still being debated.

Nevertheless, Sajani lives a relatively normal life with her siblings and parents. An interview with her mother discovered that this little goddess, while forbidden to eat chicken, eggs, or pork, likes to eat biscuits and instant noodles.

The image of the cake of instant noodles comes from a "Cheesy Ramen Recipe" from eatsgame.com.

Instant noodles are a variety of Japanese ramen that are pre-cooked and deep fried before packing into the familiar shaped cakes and dried. They are prepared by soaking in boiling water for 3 to 5 minutes. They usually come with a flavor packet that is used to produce an accompanying soup.

Instant noodles are accordingly inexpensive and have near replaced Kraft dinner as a food staple for University and College students. In fact, instant noodles have developed into a pseudo-cuisine of its own with hundreds of recipes for preparing it.

Several years ago, Matt Fischer created what would become the instant noodle homepage under his domain name, mattfischer.com. On this site, he hosted almost 400 recipes for instant noodles. Currently, he runs a blog entitled "The Official Ramen Homepage."

Though, perhaps not food for the gods, here's my contribution to instant noodle cuisine: curried instant noodles with beef and Chinese greens. Like a lot of my recent recipes, I'm going to forward the technique for making this dish. Vary the ingredients according to your tastes.

Firstly, cook a pack of instant noodles according to the instructions, discarding the soup mix/flavor pack. This usually entails boiling the cake of noodles until they separate and are soft (approximately 5 minutes). Strain and set aside. Do not rinse with cold water. Take a non-stick frying pan and stir fry seasoned strips of beef in 2-3 tablespoons of vegetable oil at medium heat until coloured. Remove and set aside. Add chopped Chinese greens like yu choy to the pan and fry blanche the vegetables in 2 more tablespoons of vegetable oil at medium heat. Remove and set aside. Add the cooked instant into the pan. There should be enough oil remaining to lubricate the pan. Add back the beef and vegetables. Then, add 2 teaspoons of prepared curry sauce mixed with 1 heaping teaspoon of corn starch and 2 teaspoons of water. I use Lee Kum Kee brand Polynesian Curry Sauce. It adds a lovely coconut flavor. When the sauce thickens to coat everything, remove the mixture from the pan and serve. Sometimes, I also break an egg into the noodles and scramble them into the noodles before I add back the meat or vegetable. This step is completely optional.



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