Momofuku Ando, inventor of instant noodles, died last Friday at age 96, leaving students reflecting on the role of the inexpensive, sodium-rich meal in their lives.
Julian Klosowiak, a junior in McCormick, summed up why the noodles are so popular among the college crowd.
“They’re instant, you have them at home and they taste good,” he said.
Ando developed the instant noodle product, commonly called Ramen, to feed the Japanese people during food shortages after World War II. He then founded the Nissin Food Products Co. in 1948, where he marketed his instant noodles. The product grew from there and has become an essential part of worldwide cuisine. In fact, it is estimated that 85.7 billion Ramen meals are consumed worldwide.
Even though the cheap, easy-to-make packages have become part of the college lexicon, even meriting an entry on urbandictionary.com (with the particularly enlightening definition “Ramen is the shit. Obviously.”), the U.S. only ranks 4th in worldwide consumption.
Ramen, available in 15 flavors from Cajun chicken to Oriental (the only vegetarian option) and picante shrimp, is also popular because of its low cost. Packets are available for $0.49 and cups for $0.99 at the C-Store and the packets only cost between $0.10 and $0.12 at Walmart in late 2006.
The miniscule cost attributes to the high consumption. According to the Instant Ramen website, the average woman eats 2.4 packages per month, while the average man eats 3.1 packages (the site also helpfully informs that this breaks down to 122 and 158 meters of noodles, respectively).
The cheap production, easy transportation and storage and quick preparation also makes Ramen a common product for disaster relief and aid work. They have been supplied to victims of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and to countries in need of food. This chart chronicles Ramen’s history of help.
Still, many criticize Ramen for being unhealthy. There’s an urban legend that a college student who ate only Ramen for a year contracted scurvy and died. The food is also high in MSG and a generous amount of sodium. WCAS junior Dimitri Papagiannopoulos said he tries to avoid Ramen for this reason.
“I try to eat healthy and they’re really salty,” he said. “Still, I think I would eat them after a night of going out.”
However, medicinenet.com says that the packets are only harmful to those allergic to MSG or on a low-sodium diet. And, bear in mind that Ando lived 96 years on a diet that one would assume contained a good deal of Ramen. In fact, he even ate Chicken Ramen for lunch the day before his death.
Papagiannopoulos said he was surprised at Ando’s long life, given Ramen’s unhealthy reputation.
“It must do the body good,” he said. “I should get started eating it.”
Fredrick Chen, a senior in McCormick, said that Ramen was a staple of his freshman year. He also remarked that Ramen must be healthier than he thought, if Ando lived almost a century.
“Honestly, I’m surprised it took him so long to die,” Chen said.
Health risks aside, the Japanese are understandably proud of their instant noodle fame. In a poll by the Fuji Research Institute Corporation, Ramen was voted the number one “Made in Japan” product, topping the technological (headphone stereos and cameras), cultural (Akira Kurosawa) and the unnecessary (karaoke and pocket monsters).
Erin Arbaugh, a junior in Medill, who admits to being “one of the few college students” to not eat Ramen, said she was surprised Ramen topped that list.
“That’s silly,” she said. “I think they’ve done better things.”
Even though instant noodles are such a college icon, it’s easy to forget their long history. Jackie Triplett, lead cashier at the 1835 Hinman dining hall, said she loved Ramen when they first came out.
“I used to eat them with hot sauce, butter, salt and pepper,” she said. “It’s cheap and it fills you up. Now that’s a meal.”
Fun Ramen links:
The Momofuko Ando museum (not in English, but still fun to look at)
Homepage for “The Book of Ramen,” which contains recipes, cartoons and fun facts.
Amazon’s listing for “101 Things to Do with Ramen”
The Instant Ramen homepage