Incredible Ramen Facts

The ubiquitous ramen we all lived on in college (also sometimes called gakusei ryori or "student cuisine" in Japan) was invented in 1958 by Nissin Foods founder Momofuku Ando. Now 89, Momofuku was in his late 40s when he had the brainstorm of feeding the post-war masses with instant noodles.
"I think this guy should get together with Joey Buttafuoco and open a collection agency. You get a dunning letter from Momofuku & Buttafuoco, you know you're going to put a check in the return mail," says Ed Zotti, whose name probably means "pervert" in Japanese.
Nissin Foods still brings in 300 billion yen ($2.7 billion U.S.) a year with their original "Top Ramen" noodles. Add all the competing ramen clones made in Japan, Korea, Europe, the U.S., China, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia and you have an estimated annual world market of $10 billion U.S. Pretty good for a product with a wholesale price of twelve and a half cents.
Instant ramen wasn't a big hit right away. In fact when it was first introduced in Japan, it was considered a luxury item, six times more expensive than the homemade noodles available in Japanese grocery stores. Wouldn't you hate to be the guy who said, "This will never sell"? Momofuku's ramen arrived on the east coast of the U.S. in 1972 as "Oodles of Noodles." The next year came "Nissin Cup Noodles" in the convenient styrofoam cup, and soon hundreds of knock-offs.
The Chinese were eating noodles almost two thousand years ago. Some time later they were imported by the Japanese along with Buddhism and a few other handy ideas. "Ramen" is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese characters lo mein, which means "boiled noodles." Ramen was popularized in Japan by a 17th century samurai named Mito Komon.
Ramen noodles unfortunately are not very good for you. Each package contains about 1560 mg of sodium. To remove the water and form them into blocks, they are deep fried in palm oil which is about the most saturated fat there is.
720 different varieties/flavors of ramen are available. For what it's worth, the average Japanese eats about 45 packages a year .

Editors Note: Not Everybody Loves Ramen.

The news article above was reprinted without consent as it was plagiarized from an unknown source on the internet by some illegal aliens.

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