“From Desperation to Innovation: How Instant Ramen Became a Lifeline in a World on the Edge of Starvation”
Ah, instant ramen! What other meal can we credit for saving students during finals, fueling late-night study sessions, and comforting those who just got dumped? It’s affordable, tasty, and practically a culinary miracle delivered in a styrofoam cup. With around 290 million servings enjoyed daily across the globe, you might be surprised to discover that the origins of this beloved noodle dish are steeped in a dark time of hardship. Though we often find it in dorm rooms and fast-paced offices, instant ramen’s journey starts in post-war Japan, where innovation was born from starvation. Dive into the intriguing history behind this global phenomenon and meet the visionary who transformed a simple meal into a multi-billion dollar industry—serving not just hunger, but hope. Curious about how a black market bow of ramen pivoted into a kitchen staple enjoyed in space? You won’t want to miss this! LEARN MORE.
Ah, instant ramen: friend to starving students and broke individuals everywhere. A convenient and delicious source of cheap calories, it is the perfect meal for getting through exam season or stretching a dollar until the next paycheque arrives. Available in a dizzying array of styles and flavours, instant ramen is enjoyed all around the world, with an estimated 290 million servings being consumed every single day. But while associated today with college dorms, businesspeople on the go, or convenient late-night snacks, the origins of this noodley treat are surprisingly dark, going back to a time when Japan teetered on the brink of starvation.
Ramen first appeared in Japan around the late 19th or early 20th Century, being copied from similar noodle dishesintroduced by Chinese immigrants. These noodles, however, were produced in the traditional manner and took considerable time to prepare. The instant noodles we know and love today, which are deep-fried and require only minutes of immersion in boiling water to prepare, are a more recent invention, emerging in the wake of the Second World War.
Unsurprisingly to anyone who has ever cracked a history book, the War was devastating for Japan, with American firebombing raids destroying vast swaths of cities like Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka, among other better known catastrophes… In the early period of American occupation, Japan suffered widespread food shortages, pushing many Japanese citizens to the brink of starvation. With strict rationing and prohibitions against selling street foot in place, black markets for food popped up all across the country, mostly run by the Yakuza – the Japanese mafia. In response, the American occupying forces distributed large stocks of surplus wheat, encouraging citizens to use the flour to bake bread. But this distinctly western solution to Japan’s food crisis did not sit well with one man, who would go on to revolutionize the global food market.
Momofuku Ando was born in 1910 on the island of Formosa – today Taiwan. After moving to Osaka, Japan, in 1933, Ando pursued a number of business ventures, including a salt company named Nissin. According to his biography, immediately after the war Ando was wandering through the ruins of Osaka when he came across a group of people shivering in the cold as they lined up for a bowl of black-market ramen: “The faces of the people who were slurping warm ramen looked happy. The Japanese really like noodles. Looking at the line in front of the stall, Ando got a feeling that there was a big demand hiding there.”
This sight had a profound impact on Ando, supposedly inspiring his famous motto: “Peace prevails when food suffices.”
However, Ando was confused by the government’s policy of promoting bread production. During a chance encounter with Kunidaro Arimoto of the health ministry, he argued: “With bread, you need toppings or side dishes. But the Japanese are eating it only with tea. It is not good for their nutritional balance. In the East, there is a long tradition of eating noodles. Why not also promote noodles, which the Japanese already enjoy, as a flour-based food?”
In response to this criticism, Kunidaro supposedly replied: “Well, why don’t you solve this problem?”. Whether that conversation really happened exactly like that or not, this is precisely what Ando did.
Ten years later, Ando purchased second-hand noodle-making equipment and set up a food laboratory in his backyard shed. Over several months he experimented with various combinations of ingredients and cooking techniques to create the ideal postwar food for the masses, which he determined must be a) tasty, b) non-perishable, c) capable of being prepared in less than 3 minutes, d) inexpensive, and e) safe and healthy. Reportedly inspired by his wife frying tempura vegetables, Ando discovered that flash-frying cooked noodles not only dehydrated them – rendering them shelf-stable – but also opened up tiny voids in their surface, allowing water to better penetrate and more quickly cook the noodles. Eventually, Ando perfected the process for cutting, pressing, and frying noodles into small blocks, which could be mixed with boiling water and a packet of dehydrated soup stock to create a tasty meal within minutes. For the first version of the product, Ando chose chicken stock, since it seemed hearty, nutritious, and distinctly American.
