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Father of Instant Ramen Passes Away
Chained Fei writes "Ando Momofuku, Father of the Instant Ramen, passed away on January 5th at the age of 96. He concocted the idea for Instant Ramen after WWII, hoping to reduce the amount of poor nourishment for soldiers in the field. If not for this great man, many a poor college student and programmer would have starved over the years. From the article: 'In 1971, Nissin introduced the Cup Noodle featuring instant ramen in a waterproof plastic foam container. Dubbed the "Ramen King," Ando is credited with expanding Nissin into the No. 1 company in the industry and was well-known for his dedication to his work ... In 1999, Ando opened the Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, after installing his second son, Koki, as president of the company.'"
Ando was inspired to develop the instant noodle after coming upon a long line of people on a cold night shortly after World War II waiting to buy freshly made ramen at a black market food stall, according to Nissin.
The experience convinced him that "Peace will come to the world when the people have enough to eat," it said.
His body was 96 but he had lost his noodle long before.
There are no karma whores, only moderation johns
He concocted the idea for Instant Ramen after WWII, hoping to reduce the amount of poor nourishment for soldiers in the field.
I'll tell you that soldiers eat this stuff in the field all of the time. I'm in a unit that fields the http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/neRamen noodles are proof of the far reach of the FSM's noodly appendage.
Sodium is not nearly as bad as many people have been lead to believe. Doctors will frequently tell their hypertension patients to cut as much sodium from their diets as possible, but this is because a portion of the population is hypersensitive to sodium, and there is no way to tell whether or not cutting sodium can help their blood pressure until a low sodium diet is tried. If the patient responds well to the low sodium intake, then other more drastic measures like medication can be avoided.
Keep in mind that until the advent of modern preservatives (the most commonly used one is still sodium) and refrigeration/freezing, the primary method of preserving a variety of foods involved salt curing, and many people of long ago had daily intakes of sodium that would be considered astronomical by today's standards, yet managed to find many interesting ways to die that didn't involve stroke or heart attack.
The more you know.
How is that foregoing anything?
I thought instant ramen came from heaven...
That guy needed success so he could move into a good neighbourhood.
It must have been confusing for him in a bad neighbourhood...
random stranger: "Hey, momofuka"
Ando: "how did you know my name"
http://rareformnewmedia.com/
But then again, AFAIC, at this point ramen is still the perfect geek food.
1.) It's hugely high tech. That little fifty cent packet depends on freeze-drying, foil packaging (thank you NASA), fifth or later gen styrofoam if it's in a cup (only recent gens are low in leached plasticizers), chances are you're cooking it in a microwave oven, and on and on. An awful lot of geek skull sweat went into every little pack of noodly goodness.
2.) It's truly imternational. Go for it, tell me again about the evil American cultural hegemony. Ramen is a Chinese food reworked by a Japanese inventor, and increasingly done in south Asian flavors, all sold through American-style distibution.
3.) It's a triumph of free-market capitalism. A better product that succeeded because it is better and getting constantly revised due to low barriers to entry and fierce competition.
4.) It's hackable. Don't want the palm oil? Drain off the water before you eat it and rinse in fresh hot water. Want to add stuff? Folks have been customizing their ramen for thousands of years. Add peanut butter and veggies and it's damn healthy.
5.) It's still cheap. State of the art product for sale so cheap you can buy a case of it for the cost of one meal at, say, Dennys, let alone real food.
Hell, yeah. Ramen. Gimme some more.
Data is the lever, rigor the fulcrum, brains the force that drives it all.
Yes and no. Let's keep in mind that most people unless a few generations back dies too young for us to know how bad their heart disease would have been. They also, on average, exercised far more. Remember, going to take a crap used to mean walking out to the yard and back. Getting your room warm meant building a fire. Traveling quickly meant riding a horse. Stuff we do effortlessly took more exertion for them than many modern folks experience in a routine at the gym.
Data is the lever, rigor the fulcrum, brains the force that drives it all.
Allow me to say, Ando was truly touched by His Noodly Appendage. We have lost a great man. Ramen.
Proof that a great name would always work in captalism.
RIP. Momofuku Ando.
PS: Your noodle are in my stomach.
A delicious blend of flavors will keep this super salad on the top of your list!
Cook noodles according to package directions, but do not add flavor packets. Drain and cool. Cut noodles up slightly. Combine with other salad ingredients in a large bowl. In a small bowl, mix flavor packets, garlic and lemon juice and let stand at least 15 minutes. Add oil and mayonnaise and whisk until smooth. Pour dressing over salad and toss until thoroughly mixed. Garnish with red pepper rings and small grape clusters if desired. Quick and delicious!
Ingredients:
* 2 packages Chicken Flavor Top Ramen
* 8 cups spinach leaves, torn
* 1-1/2 cups turkey or chicken, cooked and diced
* 1 cup red or green grapes, halved
* 1 cup red pepper, slivered
* 1/2 cup cashews, chopped
* 1/2 cup gorgonzola or blue cheese, crumbled
Dressing:
* 2 Flavor packets from Chicken Flavor Top Ramen
* 4 cloves garlic, minced
* Juice from 1 small lemon
* 1/3 cup olive oil
* 1/4 cup light mayonnaise
Serves 2
In Memoriam.
Over to my pantry I stroll, to pull out my long unopened pack of Nissin Top Ramen. I shall make a bowl to mark this tragic day.
Cheers, Slashdot.
Boot Windows, Linux, and ESX over the network for free.
No, really, he did sponsor the publication of a book called (using Romaji) Insutanto Ra-men No Himitsu, or the Secrets of Instant Ramen. I read it back in 1998. It was pretty clear that the company had helped sponsor it, though it was published as part of a very popular series of children's books. The 'secrets' series are educational manga (comic books) for kids, and include such classics as the Secrets of Bread (the food) and the Secrets of Fish (the animals) and the Secrets of Earthquakes. The Secrets of Instant Ramen was actually a pretty good one, though it was a bit too slanted in featuring Ando-san's life story so prominently. It really was a moving struggle for him to invent the first instant ramen, and there were many battles after that...
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
and yet lived to be 96 years old. Maybe there is hope for me yet :P
Monstar L
I believe we should each observe three minutes of silence in memory of him. Some of you may even have a timer for that.
Chris Mattern
First, you would have gotten a call from one of his 'people'. Then after many forms and interviews with more lower mid-level 'managers', and lots and lots of waiting in tiny little rooms you might catch a glimpse of Khan but after they were finished, he wouldn't even ever know your name. And God help you if you get trapped in an elevator with him afterwards...
wait. That's 'trying to get on at Apple.'
Cake or Death? Cake Please!
not only that, cup ramen has 920mg of sodium. 200mg is considered too much, but 920mg is more then 50% of your daily maximum intake. If you have even two of those a day, you are giving yourself way too much sodium.... waaaaay too much sodium... but heck, it tastes good! its just like those Stouffer's microwaveable dinners.They have some ridiculous amount of sodium. My aunt started having one of those to eat every day and died within two years. That stuff kills, man. Still tastes good though :)
There's a cool little ramen restaurant in NYC, down in the village (10th street and 1st Ave, if memory serves) named "Momofuku's." It's a pretty good spot. I ate there a few times last year. The wait time is ridiculously long and it's always crowded, but it's worth it. They have some damn good ramen.
This may defeat of purpose of cheap Raman noodles, but Wyler may still sell Instant Bouillion and Seasoning Shakers. The old jar I have in my cupboard indicates NO MSG added. Of course, it does contain partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oil, so using it instead of the included packets doesn't make you take a detour on Heart Attack Highway...
When I was in high school, a Japanese exchange student told me that many Japanese teens heat up Nissin Cup Noodles, let it sit in cold water for a couple minutes, then drill a hole at the bottom of the cup and use it as a poor man's FleshLight (not worksafe). Quoth him, "I feels like real thing, man."
There are a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we're downriver from the bread factory.
Just for the sake of consistency...if "gaijin" is acceptable, is "jap" acceptable? Both can be condescending depending on who you ask (and where you ask I suppose). Otherwise, the preferred term is "gaikokujin."
On a less serious note, great info. I'm a local around there and will have to hit those places up.
If you are lucky enough to live in LA
That's a novel definition of the word "lucky"...
I have exactly that problem, to the extent of needing to avoid foods that contain natural MSG (soy, algae) or produce small amounts of MSG as a processing byproduct (high-fructose corn syrup, autolyzed/hydrolyzed yeast extract, any hydrogenated oil, etc).
It's funny, in light of the anti-organics rant nearby, but the only ramen I have ever found that I can eat was at Whole Foods. They sell a brand of organic instant ramen (yes, really) that has no explicit MSG in any of it, and even has a few flavors with no soy as well. (The garlic & pepper flavor is very good, as is the ginger lemongrass.)
I can't recall the brand name, as I'm out right now, but will get more soon and try to follow up with it here.
"Yakisoba Noodles" are not Soba noodles. They are actually Chinese noodles. The Japanese dish Yakisoba is sort of their answer to Chow Mein. Soba would not survive being stir-fried after boiling. Believe me, I know my Japanese food.
"Yakisoba (, Yakisoba?), literally "fried noodles", is a dish often sold at festivals in Japan. It originates from Chinese chow mein, but has been integrated into Japanese cuisine like ramen. Even though soba is part of the word, yakisoba noodles are not made from buckwheat, but are similar to ramen noodles and made from wheat flour."
For further enlightenment:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakisoba
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.