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