Unsung hero?

As people traverse through the first stages of life, it is all about learning new things. In fact, the first 18 years of our lives are specifically set aside as a stage of perpetual learning to prepare for the upcoming stages which make up the majority of our lives. Thus, it is wise to pay attention during this entry stage. But as we near the last few years of this stage, we are suddenly confronted from all angles with the statement of "Go to college, get an education and make something of yourself", as if it is subtly implied that in these 18 years of study we have not yet "made something" of ourselves and that we have not yet been educated. Therefore, if this does not qualify as an education, then it would be reasonable to assume that in college you receive an equal or more amount of information in the time that you are there, which is typically 4 years. So, essentially, you are cramming more than the equivalent of 18 years of instruction into 4 years. So, how is this possible when the your first 18 years were hard enough to complete? Let alone doing it in less than a quarter of the time.
The simple answer is Ramen Noodles.
These little cubes of joy pack a lot of food, good taste, and quick preparation all in one minute package. It is actually rather astounding, the combination of good traits and the lack of bad that have been packed together in one package. And with the extremely low price tag of around $0.30 per package it is possible to have a whole weeks worth of lunches for under $2.00. Clearly a bargain. And the time and frustration it saves is astounding. To create a whole meal takes only a few minutes and minimal effort. It most likely saves hundreds of hours of a college student's precious little time.
This under-appreciated necessity is exactly that, both under appreciated and a necessity. How does this happen? How can we forget all that Ramen has done for us? This is why I have decided to do a quick recap on Ramen history for the sake of remembrance.

Ehem...

The overall inception of Raman Noodles began in China's history. This is where the thin noodles came to be. The China men called them "Lamen". The origin for this name is officially unknown, although there is speculation. One speculation consists of the fact that, in Chinese, the "men" in "Lamen" has the meaning of dough made of wheat flower. And "La" is a verb which means to pull or to stretch. Therefore, you end up with "stretched dough", which is appropriate. Another suggest the fact that in China they were called "Lo-Mein", which means boiled noodles. These, in turn, would be pronounced differently in Japan with the result as "Ramen".
Around the year 1900 the noodles were introduced to Japan. When the noodles were brought in, the noodles became known as the now fameous household name, "Ramen". Between 1900 and 1910 Raman noodles grew from a no name to a rather popular food. So much so, that 1910 was marked by the first opening of a dedicated ramen noodle restaurant. After this, it was common to see "ramen stands" out in the road where people would line up and wait for their ramen soup. A fast food stand, if you will.
In the post WWII years there was massive food shortages in Japan. A man by the name of Momofuku Ando recognized this and also noted the very long lines of people at these ramen stands who were waiting to get a small bit of food. Consumed with the urge to address this problem, he decided that there must be a way to mass distribute the ramen that these stands sold. Thus, in 1948 he built an extremely small workshop in his back yard in which he installed his cooking equipment. There he spent many sleepless nights and days laboring at his task, attempting to find the perfect combination of ingredients and cooking techniques required to be able to dry store ramen noodles while, at the same time, allowing for good tasting noodles after cooking them. This eventually turned out to be a much more complicated task than he perceived.
The stepping stone to completion eventually came to him by means of his wife. While having dinner with his family, he noticed his wife deep-frying battered vegetables in oil. He realized that deep-frying his flavored ramen noodles could be the possible answer in removing moisture and helping to prevent spoilage. With a simple idea, minimal facilities, and 10 years after he was first inspired, Ando went on to create his first product, "Chicken Ramen" in 1958, the original instant ramen that was nicknamed "Magic Noodle".
Ando went on to found a company called "Nissin Foods" in which he began mass producing his instant and tasty Chicken Ramen. Initial sales for Chicken Ramen were low because of it's inflated price over regular noodles in the Japanese market (about 6 times more). Eventually the noodles began to catch on in Japan and was became loved by the Japanese people. This led to a decrease of price, new ramen flavors, and the growing of Nissin Foods.
Becoming so popular in Japan, Nissin Foods naturally began expanding its international market in neighboring countries. By 1970 Nissin Foods developed a branch in the United States was named "Nissin Foods (U.S.A)" located in Gardena California where they began production dedicated to the US. People in the US caught on extremely quickly to the cheap and convenient noodles.
Ando, in his travels to the United States, noticed that most Americans tended place their noodles in a cup and pour separately boiled water in to cook it. Therefore in 1971, Ando put two and two together and made the natural, yet still genius, move of creating the product, "Cup Noodle" (NOTE, this name is commonly misinterpreted as "Cup of Noodles"). In this way Nissin Foods continued to grow in its United States operation until demand grew enough that in 1978 they created another plant in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
In this same manner, Nissin Foods factories continued to spread to different countries and regions including Hong Kong, Korea, Indonesia, Europe, Singapore, and many others.
So great had Ramen Noodle become that in 1999 The Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum was established in Ikeda City, Osaka in honor of Ando and his creation. The museum contains many attractions, such as a life sized recreation of Ando's workshop where he worked, ramen noodle workshops where a person can observe and participate in the creation of one's own noodles, life sized recreations of ramen stands that would be typical of populated Japanese streets, original bowls used by Ando himself, etc.
By the year 2003, the aggregated sales of the brand, Cup Noodle, alone had reached 20 billion servings.


And there is Ramen Noodles in a nutshell. It has done more to get us through school than any crappy high school graduation speech has done, or will do to us, ever.

We salute you.


EDIT: I got sick of writing last night, so I forgot to put up a few links.
*This is the website of the official ramen museum in Osaka, Japan. Note the broken english.

*From the HowMuchIsInside team, the feature presentation, Ramen Noodles. A very interesting read.

*WorldRamen.net is a website dedicated to the ramen food, ramen culture, ramen recipies, ramen shops around the world, and, basically, everything ramen.

*An exceptional photo walk through of the ramen museum in Japan.