BILLINGS — While a record-breaking cold snap kept many Montanans indoors over the weekend, some brave ones ventured into the outdoors to experiment with a frozen noodle social media trend.
The trend involves taking hot ramen into the outdoors and allowing the cold temperatures to freeze it with a fork or chopsticks floating above the bowl.
The recent burst of Montanans participating in the trend started with Red Lodge resident Emma Sukowaski. She and her husband did the experiment and captured a picture.
"I had seen it done before so I remember being like, 'Next time it gets cold, I would like to try the ramen one,'" Sukowaski said. "I had never done it myself, so it was cool to see how it played out."
When her friend posted her photo onto the Facebook page called "The 406 !" it immediately went viral with over 8,000 reactions and close to 2,000 shares.
"It was so fast," Sukowaski said of the freezing noodles. "As soon as I brought it outside, the noodles started to crystallize pretty much and get icy. It was wild to watch, but I never thought it'd blow up that much on Facebook."
Sukowaski said it only took six minutes for the noodles to solidify with the fork above the bowl. Her Facebook post quickly showed that she wasn't alone in participating in the trend.
Missoula resident Chelsea Lenchuk said she froze the noodles with her son as a fun way to get outside.
"We were just so cooped up this weekend that we thought it'd be fun for him to do and he was all for it," said Lenchuk.
Lenchuk was among the many who saw Sukowaski's post and quickly commented on the thread, sharing photos from her experience.
"I saw her post and I was like, 'Well, I might as well add to the conversation here,'" Lenchuk said. "It was fun to see all of us in the same boat."
There were comments from all over the state. Kalispell, Gardiner, Helena, Butte and Bozeman were among those listed with photos of their efforts.
Helena resident Seth Carkeek said he noticed the noodles all over his Facebook and that he wanted to put a spin on what they'd done.
"I did see some of the noodles somewhere and I thought that was kind of cool," Carkeek said. "Honestly, I wanted to try something different."
Carkeek wound up using toilet paper, unraveling it and freezing the layers just enough so that half of the roll was supported in mid-air. He said it was his way of embracing the cold.
"It was just kind of a way to make light of it and turn the lemons into lemonade," Carkeek said.
Carkeek wasn't the only Montanan pushing the envelope. East Helena resident Jennifer Hedges froze two pairs of pants in her yard with the help of her two children.
"I thought about it and I hadn't seen anyone do this on Facebook, so I figured I'd see if it was cold enough," Hedges said. "It turns into this laughing fest and everyone is super happy and sort of forgets that it's so freezing cold we don't want to go outside."
All agreed that the trend served as a nice distraction from the treacherous cold and even gave them something to look forward to during the next cold snap.
"Try to come up with something new to freeze next time it gets cold," Carkeek said. "That's probably what I'll be doing."
