“From Desperation to Innovation: How Instant Ramen Became a Lifeline in a World on the Edge 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.”
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