When I was 7, I dreamed of becoming the next Rachel Ray. Dutifully watching the Cooking Channel every time I visited my grandmother (who had cable television), I imagined myself one day in the distant future, skillfully combining ingredients and producing swoon-worthy flavors à la Gordon Ramsay.
Until then, I could make Ramen. At 7, my culinary abilities were primitive: I could boil water and stir things. But to prepare the comforting instant noodles, that was all that I needed.
In the food world, instant noodles are often snobbishly decried as the un-food, indigestible — for college students only. Studies have claimed that the noodles and accompanying flavoring packets contain sodium, MSG, BPA and other chemicals harmful to consumers’ health. Critics have pointed out that the wax residue on the styrofoam cups may cause a danger to noodle eaters. Some say Ramen may even cause cancer and death.
It’s time to recognize Ramen as the unsung hero of instant food.
Japanese inventor Momofuku Ando created the world’s first instant noodles in 1958 in a shed behind his home. Nicknamed “Mr. Noodles” by the New York Times in 2007, Ando created a product that has since blossomed into a multi-billion dollar industry. Today, suppliers deliver 91.6 billion servings of instant noodles around the world each year.
“The instant noodle spread eventually to every corner of the world,” renowned Ramen taster Hans Lienesch told me by email. “Today it can be used as a vehicle to transport local tastes to hungry palates: tom yum in Thailand, masala in India, even borscht in Poland.”
Mexicans savor their Ramen with shrimp, lime, and habanero. According to National Public Radio, Papua New Guineans use the noodles in several rituals, including one honoring the dead.
Since their creation, instant noodles have revolutionized the home easy-to-fix food industry. In 2014, China alone consumed more than 44 billion packets of Ramen, according to the World Instant Noodles Association. In 2005, Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi became the first man to eat Ramen in space.
According to Yuko Shozawa, Secretariat of the World Instant Noodles Association, the cheap cost of the noodles’ production also makes them a viable solution to world hunger.
“Instant noodles are the answer to food crisis,” Shozawa told me by email. “For one thing, wheat, which is the primary raw material of instant noodles, needs much less water and original calories compared with farm animal meat.”
After a typhoon struck the Philippines in 2013, the WINA donated 300,000 servings of instant noodles to victims. Because of its long shelf-life and versatility, Ramen is also a staple food for poor families from China to India to Brazil.
“In many developing countries, vitamins and protein are added so those who subsist primarily on instant noodles get a little more than just wheat flour,” Lienesch said. “In the years to come, [as] the global population continually increases, the instant noodle will be employed more and more to keep bellies full.”
Of course, noodles are not as healthy as other foods. But there are a multitude of options for preparing Ramen in more nutritious ways than straight out of the package.
Pitch the sodium-laden sauce packet, and fix noodles with eggs, hard boiled or poached. Add kale, peas, radishes, or carrots for some color. Toss in chicken or ham.
In the past few years, the American “foodie” culture has had a fling with the instant noodle, bringing it temporarily into the spotlight. Ramen burgers popped up in specialty cuisine outlets. Ramen bars became popular, serving endless combinations of flavors.
“The instant noodle has been something that evokes emotional responses,” Lienesch said. “Some people think ‘Oh, I used to eat them when I was poor,’ while others will think, ‘this is something I enjoyed before I immigrated to the United States.’”
A bowl of Ramen is a beautiful thing. It’s high time we recognize the half-century of helpfulness that instant noodles have contributed to societies the world over.