Slashdot Log In
Father of Instant Ramen Passes Away
Posted by
Zonk
on Sun Jan 07, 2007 05:21 AM
from the a-sad-day-for-noodles dept.
from the a-sad-day-for-noodles dept.
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.'"
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
RIP (Score:5, Interesting)
The experience convinced him that "Peace will come to the world when the people have enough to eat," it said.
Ode to ramen (Score:5, Interesting)
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 [wikipedia.org] 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.
Parent
Re:Ode to ramen (Score:5, Informative)
These often don't come with any flavouring as well, so you may have to do a bit of cooking if you don't have extra flavour packets around.
You could fry in olive oil and black pepper + a bit of chopped parsley, then add a fried egg. Yes you're adding oil back again, but good olive oil is worth it
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I live in LA... (Score:5, Funny)
That's a novel definition of the word "lucky"...
Parent
Soldiers Love It! (Score:5, Interesting)
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/neRe: (Score:3, Interesting)
I can't stand the stuff. It's oily and salty and plain nasty. I'd rather cook something fresh than eat the freeze-dried instant carbohydrate disaster that is instant ramen.
Truly a Miracle (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Truly a Miracle (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
There must be a mistake... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:There must be a mistake... (Score:5, Funny)
Ra-men, brother.
Parent
What a heart warming story (Score:5, Funny)
It must have been confusing for him in a bad neighbourhood...
random stranger: "Hey, momofuka"
Ando: "how did you know my name"
Ramen. (Score:5, Funny)
Momofuku Ando (Score:3, Funny)
RIP. Momofuku Ando.
PS: Your noodle are in my stomach.
Top Ramen Spinach Salad Supreme (Score:3, Informative)
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
Mr. Ando reportedly ate tons of the stuff (Score:5, Funny)
Honoring him (Score:5, Funny)
Chris Mattern
Re:Ate much ramen? (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Parent
Sodium is still bad news (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:Sodium is still bad news (Score:5, Interesting)
And mortality rates of the mothers. It wasn't at all uncommon for a man to go through two or three wives. Childbirth was extremely risky. That's why infant mortality and deaths due to child birth are the still the two primary indicators of healty care quality.
On the more generic picture, while fewer people get eaten by bears these days, more of them fall asleep at the wheel. Familiarty breeds contempt, but contempt does not imply that the activity is actually safe. With a bit of practice you can fall asleep at the reins and you will end up . .
And the biggest saver of lives in modern times isn't avoidence of certain risk factors. If you crunch the numbers from the raw data you find that the theoretical maximum possible effect of this is really, quite, quite small. So small as to be at the borderline of precision of measurment.
What keeps larger numbers of us who manage to make it to 21 alive to see 75 is really a very small number of things:
Knowledge of germs
Antipyretics
Aspirin; sanitation; antibiotics and vaccines. The simple, basic stuff is responsible for 99.99% of increased adult lifespans.
Most of our more advanced medical practices, chemotherepy, heart surgery, etc., often solve accute problems, but on closer examination have little to no effect on longer term morbidity rates.
And unless you are hypertensive; neither does avoiding salt.
And remember; everyone born more than 125 years ago is already dead. You are going to join them. Get used to the idea. It might help you live.
KFG
Parent
I don't think Genghis would'a done it... (Score:3, Funny)
wait. That's 'trying to get on at Apple.'
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Oh noes! (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:A Hero (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Parent
Re:Ramen and MSG (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Parent