Taryn Manning’s “Ramen is the New Ramen” Recipe

Blanket Call by Taryn Manning

Orange is the New Black’s Taryn Manning, excerpted from Clifton Collins and Gustavo “Goose” Alvarez’s Prison Ramen. (In case you needed a serious food recommendation while you binge on Season 4.)

It was 4:00 a.m. in the Valley. I was on my way home from a party, looking forward to fixing up some Ramen, when I saw the lights flashing behind me. That’s when my trip started going south. D.U.I. was quickly assessed. By the time I got booked and sent to County, I had missed blanket call by 5 minutes. I was in a very short dress, freezing, mad, and still kind of drunk. All these other girls were under blankets. All I could see were piles of women with the blankets pulled all the way over their heads. They all looked so comfortable, like they were at a big slumber party. Still, I was freaked out, and I started thinking, Oh my God, who’s under there? Are they going to hurt me? And to top it off, it was freezing. So I politely called out to the cops, “Excuse me? Excuse me!” Then this voice, one of the guards or one of the women, barked out, “SHUT UP! You missed blanket call, so you are going to freeze. Get used to it!” I can still hear that voice yelling at me while I was shivering, my dreams of Ramen so very far away.