The Ramen Noodle Diary

First of all, I had no idea there were nearly 1,500 variations of instant ramen in existence on this planet. Second, over the course of around 5 years, the YouTube user tontantin went ahead and reviewed all of them. You can see how far he’s come.

His first video:

Compared to his latest video…

You can tell he found his stride and style somewhere in between while making those 1,500 instant ramen reviews. So let’s see now… Five and a half-ish years. Fifteen hundredish videos. So take the 1,500 videos and divide that by 2,000 days. That gives you .75 ramen reviews per day, or a review every 1.33 days. I hope he visits his doctor often so he can keep doing this.

The Videos

Are you ready to see some of his videos? Although I haven’t seen all 1,452 of his  videos, one pattern I’ve noticed is his strict scoring. I think I’ve seen a 4-star rating once (before today, when I actively went out to search for high-rated ramen), and I somehow doubt there’s a 5-star anywhere in existence out there. It’s the unicorn of instant ramen review scores. Tontantin has high standards when it comes to instant ramen, just like anyone should (seriously, wtf Costco Ramen? Where are your standards?).

It’s hard to pick favorites, but these are some good ones. I’d watch all 1,452, but then there’d probably be five hundred more new videos he’s created in the time it took to watch all the old ones.

Videos are in Japanese, though the instant ramen itself is from various countries. There’s a lot of Japanese instant ramen (of course), but there’s also Korean, Chinese, and even ramen from Poland as well (and many, many more countries too). Before today, did you know Poland made instant ramen? Neither did I. It’s about as good looking as you’d expect.

Not even a Polish sausage in sight. To be fair, though, it’s not really ramen. But still…

Anyways, prepare to get hungry. Although I don’t eat much instant ramen anymore (all done with those days), I can’t deny that some of these look pretty good.

And, just because I love you, here’s some of those mystical 4-star ones. I couldn’t find higher ones, though if you’ve found one, be sure to share them in the comments:

American Instant Ramen, Rated

Let’s see how the good ol’ classic American instant ramen fares… I think it does about as good as you’d expect. Some of these are right up there with all those sushi abominations we Americans make as well… not quite as bad though… not quite… Still, do people eat these? I guess they must…

Even Cup Noodle in America tastes different from Japanese Cup Noodle. Seriously, where are our standards? Apparently Japan just sends us the Cup Noodle Japan dregs or something… or we just have a bad sense of what’s good in cup noodle. Probably a bit of both.

And… I’m pretty sure he was just being polite when he put any stars down at all for some of these.

Obviously, Tontantin has a ton more videos if you’re interested in seeing them. There’s a website (i-ramen.net) and there’s also the YouTube Channel (user: Tontantin). Each video is about a minute long (sometimes less) so you can expect to spend around 1250 minutes watching them all, if you plan to sit through start to finish (possibly in search for the mythical 4.5 star ramen?).

But, before I let you go, I thought I should teach you a thing or two about ramen. To be a true ramen master, you have to learn from the pros:

P.S. If you’re hungry for some sodium and noodles, feel free to let us know about it on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+

For better or worse, instant noodles are one of the most important Japanese culinary creations of the modern day. And Japanese company Nissin leads the world in production of instant ramen. This is the company that not only invented instant noodles, but today sells both Cup Noodles and Top Ramen. The company has its own museum in Osaka, which Erin wrote about way back in the day.

But Nissin, not being content with just one instant ramen museum, decided to open another museum in Yokohama on September 17 this year.

The Yokohama Museum

The Yokohama museum is extremely similar to the Osaka location in a lot of ways. The museum, of course, has the history of Nissin detailed in the museum, displaying products from the company’s past, pictures from early days of the company, and other interesting Nissin tidbits. But of course, a museum dedicated to the history of Nissin sounds pretty boring to most people, so Nissin has made the museum more exciting by adding these cool exhibits:

My Cup Noodle Factory

Probably the coolest part of the museum is the “My Cup Noodle Factory,” where you get to make your very own Cup Noodle from start to finish. You get to design the cup itself, by that I mean you get some markers and a blank cup.

“…and some sprinkles, and some Oreo bits…”

You get to choose the fillings for your Cup Noodles, which include foods like shrimp, kimchi, asparagus, and cheese. From there, the museum freeze dries and seals your noodles for you to enjoy later at home, or in a bomb shelter in some sort of apocalyptic scenario.

Make Your Own Noodles

The Nissin museum also teaches you how to make your very own ramen noodles. The museum walks you through all the steps, from kneading and rolling the noodles, to cutting them up, steaming them, and ultimately flash frying them to turn them instant ramen. It’s all the taste of the three-minute instant ramen you know and love, with all the effort of making an actual meal!

Former Prime Minister Richard Gere watches child laborers produce ramen.

The museum requires groups to make reservations in advance to make the noodles, but it definitely does sound like an interesting thing to do. After all, how many of us make our own noodles?

Restaurant

The museum also features a restaurant that serves different types of noodles from around the world. You can get everything from phở to rigatoni and anything in between.

Admission to the museum is ¥500, or about US $6.50. It costs a little extra to put together your own cup, make ramen, or grab a bite to eat at the restaurant, but it definitely looks like it’s worth it.

Momofuku Ando

Of course, I can’t talk about Nissin’s newest museum without talking about the company’s founder, Momofuku Ando. Ando was the Thomas Edison of prepackaged dried foods. Born in Taiwan, Ando moved to Japan after World War 2, eventually becoming a Japanese citizen.

Ando started Nissin while perfecting the technology to flash-fry noodles. By flash-frying noodles, he found a way to preserve noodles for people to eat later.

Momofuku Ando: Millionaire, playboy, stand-in Bond villain.

Ando took great pride in his invention. After the war, the Japanese were in desperate need for food. There were famines, and many people literally starved to death in the post-war years. Instant ramen provided an inexpensive and effective way for people to get the calories they needed to live.

But while Ando’s invention was certainly very important after World War 2, what about instant noodles today?

Instant Ramen: Actually Not That Great for You

Turns out instant ramen actually pretty bad for you. There are of course tons of health concerns about instant ramen, everything from its high sodium and fat contents, to being devoid of pretty much every vitamin known to man. And now that Japan’s food supply is much more secure than it was in the Post-War era, instant ramen isn’t as much of a necessity as it used to be.

Have you been to the Osaka Nissin Museum? Have you gotten a chance to visit the new Yokohama location? Let me know down in the comments!

P.S. Love instant ramen? Follow us on Twitter.
P.P.S. More a fan of street ramen? Like us on Facebook.

Irrational Want of the Day? Who am I kidding? I haven’t posted in ages! It sounded catchy, though. Anyway, what you’re really here for the newest utterly random, totally cool microclimate-controlling gadget from Japan, right? Step right this way….

Now, if you’re fanatical about familiar with Cup Noodles and their consumption, chances are you’ve come to anticipate, perhaps even fondly, that burst of MSG-laden steam that greets you as you remove your Cupmen and open the lid, having waited for what seems like forever the requisite three minutes for your noodles to cook. And maybe you’ve thought to yourself, “This is nice. Scratch that, this is GREAT!” Maybe you wish that first muggy moment would never end—and if you do, who’s to judge? Not the guy that came up with the idea for Cup Shitsuki (カップ湿器 or Cup Humidifier), that’s for sure.

The Cup Shitsuki is much like any other Cup Noodle variety, minus the noodles.

And the toppings. And the soup.

To use the Cup Shitsuki, all you need to do is fill it with water and turn it on. After a few moments, the cup will, using microvibrations rather than heat—eliminating the risk of you accidentally scalding yourself trying to to take a sip of what looks like a very inviting cup of instant ramen sitting on your desk—begin to emit a steady stream of fine mist, making the air in workspace/bedroom/basement instantly more comfortable.

The Cup Shitsuki comes complete with a UV Germicidal Light (紫外線殺菌灯 or I’m-not-even-going-to-pretend-to-be-able-to-pronounce-that-kanji) to prevent bacteria from growing in the humidifier, since every Cup Noodle enthusiast’s top priority is health, right?

All kidding aside, this is a pretty nifty idea, you have to admit. Plus, it’s (optionally) USB-powered! I love crazy USB gadgets. At 5,980 円 (approximately $72 USD), though, all that niftiness doesn’t come cheap. Would any of you be willing to shell out the cash?

P.S. If you thought “WANT” You should follow Tofugu on Twitter, here.

This post was written by Erin, surprisingly enough.

Source: JTT Online Shop and Gigazine

Going to Japan is all about having adventures.  Be they accidental adventures, such as getting too drunk and passing out on the last train of the night and ending up in the middle of nowhere, or purposeful ones like hiking in the temple-ridden hills of Kyoto, you MUST find a way to go out, get lost, and off the beaten track.  Japan is less than the size of California, but because of its long rich history, every region has its own special claims to fame.  That means that there are TONS of adventures to be had outside the main tourist traps, and this is the first of a series of articles to get you on your way.

This article is all about Shikoku (四国: Four Countries/Prefectures), the smallest of the four main islands of Japan.  If you want to get off the beaten track, this should definitely be one of your top priorities.  Most Japanese people associate this place as the ultimate inaka (田舎: rural) destination.  In the Tokyo area, it is highly unlikely that you will ever experience total silence or darkness, but Shikoku is one place in Japan you’ll find it.  In order for you to get the full experience in Shikoku, I’ll be covering the best local foods, dialects, festivals, and finally some AMAZING adventures you can take.

Shikoku’s Food

Repeat after me:

“I LOVE RAMEN I LOVE RAMEN I LOVE RAMEN I LOVE RAMEN I LOVE RAMEN I LOVE RAMEN!!!”

While you’re in Shikoku, you’re going to be crying tears of joy for having tasted this intense bowl of flavor and weeping big wet tears of sorrow when you get back to the states and find out that you probably wont find it ANYWHERE.  It truly is the heroin of Japanese cuisine.  If you don’t know anything about Japanese ramen, much less ramen in Shikoku, you’re probably thinking “Psh!  If I’m going to go have adventures, why would I want to fuel up with Top Ramen?!”  The answer is, because it is absolutely nothing like anything you will ever find in a Costco.  Here is why:

For those of you who are on top of your TextFugu lessons, you’ll notice on the back of this bowl is written:

“徳島ラーメンが一番 (Tokushima ramenga ichiban)” meaning “TOKUSHIMA RAMEN IS THE BEST!!!”

Tokushima ramen is the pride and joy of Tokushima prefecture in Shikoku.  One of the ramen shops in Tokushima City actually opened a museum in 1999 dedicated to the awesomeness that is Tokushima ramen.  The things that make this ramen so magical are the soup, made from a pork and soy sauce base that is thicker than most other types, the thicker noodles, and a raw egg on top to add to that thick delicious texture and flavor.  You may need a nap after eating this baby rather than jumping right into adventuring!

While ramen should be your primary source of sustenance while in Shikoku, the Udon there is arguably preferred among locals.  Sanuki-udon, found in Kagawa Prefecture, is the most famous for the texture and shape of the noodles and also was supposedly the first region in Japan to adopt the dish from China.

Shikoku Dialects

Japanese = a language mostly limited to the islands of Japan.  Tokushima-ben = a Japanese dialect limited to one prefecture in Shikoku, the rural island in Japan.  You + Tokushima-ben = not being understood by hardly ANYONE ON EARTH.

If you’ve been studying Japanese already, chances are you are probably learning the Tokyo dialect.  Going to Shikoku is about as different as going from New York City to Birmingham, Alabama.  The real famous alternative dialect in Japan is of course Kansai-ben, found in Osaka and Kyoto, and Tokushima-ben is really not that different since it’s only a super long bridge away.  If you get to talking to some local people though, there will absolutely be times when you’re like 『徳島弁が全く分からないからゆっくり話してください。』 Meaning “I really don’t understand Tokushima-ben so please speak slowly.”  Here’s a sample conversation you might encounter:

A.  えっとぶりだ！(ettoburida!)　＝　久しぶりだ！(hisashiburida!)     “It’s been a while!”

A.  うちんくにいぬる？(uchinkuni inuru?)　＝　私の家に帰る？(watashino ieni modoru?)   “Do you want to go back to my house?”

B.  おまはんくそんなごついかえ…(omahannku sonnagotsuikae…)　＝　あなたの家はそんなにすごいでしょうか。”I wonder if your house is really that amazing…”

A.  こんまいけどきー！ (konnmaikedokii)　＝　小さいけど来てください！(chiisaikedo kitekudasai!) “It’s small but please come!”

As you can see, Tokushima-ben can get pretty ridiculous, but this is what you can expect if you head down to Shikoku.

Shikoku Festivals

The Awa-odori (阿波踊り:dance of Awa) is the place to be if you want to get your traditional Japanese groove on.  They’ve been partying like it’s 1999 every summer since 1585!  They may have about a 400 year head start, but that does not mean that you should not go party with them.  This harvest festival, a part of obon celebration (kind of like memorial day weekend), prides itself on two very important historical activities: drinking too much and dancing in silly clothes.  The basic moves of the dance are put your hands above your head, palms facing inward, and step forward to the beat moving left hand forward with the right foot and the opposite.  The dance is traditionally done in tightly bound kimonos and big straw hats in the sweltering heat so it the steps in the dance are very tiny.  No one goes very far very quickly, but it’s definitely not about the destination in this case.  The Awa-odori is truly a dance invented by the drunk, so if you go there and you can’t quite get the moves right, have a few more sips of sake, put your hands in the air, walk around a little, and you’ll fit right in! Here’s a video to motivate you to grab your dancing shoes:

The main event in Tokushima City runs from August 12th to 15th and is the largest dance festival in Japan with around 1.3 million viewers, but people are dancing all over the island that time of year so there are plenty of chances for you to practice!  Remember the wise words of the Awa-odori song: 『 踊る阿呆に見る阿呆、同じ阿呆なら踊らな損々』(odoru ahoni miru aho, onaji ahonara odorana sonson) “It’s a fool who dances and a fool who watches.  So if we’re both fools, you might as well have fun dancing!”

Shikoku Adventure

One of the most hardcore things you can do while in Japan is to walk the 88 temples of Shikoku.  Legend has it that Kobo Daishi, a famous Buddhist monk and scholar, was the first to visit all of these temples.  They say his spirit will accompany you if you chose to accept this pilgrimage.  If you really do choose to walk the entire route at once, it will take you around 5 to 7 weeks.  Visiting beautiful old rural temples, befriending the ghost of a famous monk, and taking a really long trek through mountains in the rain and heat, while people will even stop sometimes to give you gifts of encouragement!  What more could you ask for?  Locals are usually a little more sensible and visit the 88 temples over the course of a few years via car, so if you too want to get the enriching spiritual experience without the agonizing blisters on your feet, see about renting a car or moped, or getting friends who will take you.  If you want to do it, though, this is how you’d go about it.

If you’re looking to REALLY get off the beaten track, the Iya Valley (祖谷渓谷), also in Tokushima prefecture, is one of the three hidden regions (三大秘境) in Japan.  It is so remote that defeated warriors retreated to the region to hide out.  You can still visit several vine bridges that were originally set up to ensnare pursuing enemies!  If you are in to outdoor adventuring, Iya valley is home to great hiking and there is world class rafting in the nearby Oboke valley (大歩危).

These are just a couple of adventure ideas, but Shikoku is full of places off the beaten track.  You just need to get out there and explore!  If you get tired of roughing it, stop into Matsuyama, Ehime to relax at the famous Dougo Onsen, the oldest hot spring bathhouse in Japan!

Transportation In Shikoku:

From personal experience, Shikoku is not an easy place to travel in as far as finding public transportation.  Unlike on Honshu, you probably won’t be able to get to EVERYTHING you want to see via train.  That’s part of the fun though!  They’ve definitely got enough rail to get you to the major cities, and there are public busses in a lot of towns, but better yet, go make friends to have adventures with!

いろいろな地域を探検してみてください！(iroirona chiikiwo tanken shitemite kudasai) “GO EXPLORE!”

The bowl and noodles were constructed out of carbon nanotubes–tiny cylinders made of latticed carbon molecules–in Nakao’s lab in 2006, but were only unveiled today after being entered in a microphotography contest. Measuring a measly 1,016 nanometers (or 1/25,000 of an inch), the bowl is theoretically small enough for even some bacteria to use–the average E. coli being around 2,000 nanometers long–assuming they like the taste of graphite, that is. Maybe the addition of some carbon chāshū or menma would make it more enticing?

Anyway, here’s what the inventor had to say about his creation:

“We believe it’s the world’s smallest ramen bowl, with the smallest portion of noodles inside, though they are not edible,” Nakao said.

The hardest part was to keep the noodles from rising upright from the bowl “like alfalfa sprouts,” he said. “The achievement was mostly for fun.”

So, though Nakao probably won’t be winning a Nobel Prize for this feat, you have to admit, it’s pretty cool. In my mind, it’s right up there with the world’s smallest guitar, toilet, and smiley face. And, hey, if the price of wheat continues to rise, tiny bowls of ramen may become a lot more prevalent, hm?

More nanocoolness: Nanotechnology Now and the EIPBN Micrograph Contest
Source: The Honolulu Advertiser

]]> http://www.tofugu.com/2008/05/30/worlds-smallest-bowl-of-ramen/feed/ 42 http://www.tofugu.com/2007/11/04/customizable-cup-noodles/ http://www.tofugu.com/2007/11/04/customizable-cup-noodles/#comments Mon, 05 Nov 2007 00:21:33 +0000 Erin http://www.tofugu.com/2007/11/04/customizable-cup-noodles/

Come lunchtime sophomore year of high school, all the cool kids were eating Cup Noodles. I wasn’t cool, unfortunately, but I loved them as well—with an instant ramen in my hands, I looked very much like that kid in the picture up there: excited, elated, and full of MSG-goodness.

Towards the end of the school year, though, the novelty of eating freeze-dried foodstuffs was wearing off, and that urban legend about the guy with the waxy stomach started going around, so Cup Noodles went the way of Twinkies and Spaghetti O’s—I just kind of stopped eating them, and eventually I forgot them all together. That is, of course, until I discovered the Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum, which has rekindled my love of all things Nissin.

Located in northern Osaka, the museum’s main galleries chronicle instant ramen’s rise to glory, from it’s creation in 1958* to its eventual space debut in 2005. Now, I’m sure that’s all very interesting stuff—but that’s not what I’d be going to Osaka for. Nope, I’d be going to get myself a spot in line at the museum’s “Cup Noodle Factory” for a customized cup or two of the good stuff.

Upon arriving at the attraction, you’d start the journey for the perfect ramen by transforming a humble styrofoam cup into a work of art. You’d then pass that off to a helpful factory employee who would stick the noodles into it upside-down (for some reason, this is very, very important). After that comes the most mouth-watering part: getting to choose the little freeze-dried extras.

First comes the soup; original, seafood, curry, or salt-based. Then comes the agonizing decision of which 4 of the 12 available toppings to add to your cup. You can choose from shrimp (エビ), egg (卵), green onion (ネギ), asparagus (アスパラ), corn (コーン), kimchi (キムチ), pork (豚肉), chicken cutlet (チキンカツ), cheese (チーズ), fish cake (ナルト), imitation crab (カニカマ), and garlic chips (がリックチップ). While some of those might seem a bit strange (ex: cheese) they’re all very popular add-ins—I’ve been told cheese and curry are great together, though I’ve never tested out this claim.

After everything has been added, your Cup Noodle is then sealed, shrink-wrapped, and packaged. All that’s left to do is find the closest available source of hot water and enjoy. If you’re curious, here are a few pictures of the process and results from Flickr, as well as a neat video:

The Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum

Address: 8-25 Masumi-cho, Ikeda, Osaka
Phone: +81-072-752-0825
Hours: 9:30am to 4pm
Holidays: Tuesdays and New Year’s Holidays
Admission: Free for the main museum, 300 円 to 500 円 for the ramen-making exhibits

* The museum’s namesake, having passed away earlier this year, is fondly remembered as “the King of Instant Ramen”. As the story goes, walking one night in post-WWII Japan (where food shortages were rampant), Ando came upon a line of people waiting to buy fresh ramen from a black-market stall. Peace will come to the world when people have enough to eat, he thought to himself. Soon after, Nissin Chicken Ramen, the predecessor of modern-day Cup Noodles, was born.

For this, Time Magazine called him a hero, saying:

His instant-noodle recipe included not only flour, palm oil and MSG, but—metaphorically, at least—a sprinkling of hope, too. After all, it is that midnight bowl of noodles that so many count on to keep going a little longer, a little later, in pursuit of the Asian dream.

Fujitaka, a Kyoto-based vending machine manufacturer came up with the idea of serving people ramen out of the can. The Japanese people can’t stop making things better. First they took American VCRs and turned them into transformers; now they are taking those old-fashioned, third-world country Styrofoam ‘Cup Noodles’ and turning them canned and futuristic. That’s right, no water necessary. All your cans are belong to us. It’s the perfect still lives with mom 40 year old’s disaster relief food.

The trick, according to Mainichi News, is using konnyaku to make the noodles. This way, the noodles don’t get soggy and you can enjoy your not-soggy ramen under a pile of rubble after that earthquake hits (without a hotpot!). According to the picture above, you can even get them out of the vending machine hot! This has made them so popular that the company is barely able to keep up with demand. Now that’s ridiculous.

The story behind this ramen gets a bit stranger:

Yu Yamada got the idea for marketing canned ramen after serving as a volunteer in the wake of the 2004 Niigata earthquake, when he took cans of noodles to those forced to live in evacuation areas following the temblor.

“It was surprising to see how delighted everybody was by the noodles. I just couldn’t forget the joyous looks on people’s faces,” Yamada tells Sunday Mainichi.

The question burning on everyone’s mind here is “when will I see these cans here in the States/Europe/wherever?” I personally have no idea. If you’ve seen canned ramen around shoot a comment and let us know where you got it (internet is okay, too, I guess). I imagine we won’t be seeing ready-to-eat ramen until Fujitaka gets their supply problems figured out. Until then, you’ll have to stick with your Styrofoam cups and boiling water. What a tough life you have.

Tampopo‘s central story is that of a widowed mother (the movie’s namesake) who wants to become a true ramen chef at the restaurant her husband left her. Guided by a cowboy trucker named Goro, her shop eventually becomes the most popular in her neighborhood. Accompanying the main narrative are a handful of quirky little vignettes, all having to do with food and the way people enjoy or interact with it. While it sounds strange, the movie is, honestly, one of my favorites; it’s entertaining, whimsical, and, most of all, extremely sincere.

Now, sadly, Hollywood is $#@!ing it all up D:

The Ramen Girl is a remake/rip-off of Tampopo centering around an American girl, Abby (Brittany Murphy), stranded in Tokyo after being dumped by her boyfriend. Looking for a fresh start, she “convinces herself that her true path in life is to become a ramen chef” and begins training under “Ramen Master” Maezumi, played, coincidentally, by the same man who was Goro in the original movie (Toshiyuki Nishida).

As it is now, I’m having a hard time believing that this movie will be worth comparing to the original in the end. What possible improvement could you bring to Tampopo short of packaging a plane ticket to Japan in with the DVD? It’s going to be that Kill Bill scene with Sonny Chiba and Uma Thurman all over again—speaking Japanese phonetically, bonding with the old asian man, etc—except this time it won’t be a bearable 10 minutes, it’ll be a migraine-inducing hour and a half!

I’m freaking out here, but… who knows, maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised? I mean, I have to see this, despite my doubts about the content. Oh, and sorry to those of you for whom this post is meaningless, having not seen Tampopo in the first place. Like I said, I highly recommend it.