instant ramen
More than 100 billion servings of instant ramen are consumed worldwide.
The first one was born in a small shed in the backyard of Momofuku Ando's home in Ikeda City, Osaka Prefecture, the founder of Nissin Food Products.
The world's first instant ramen, "Chicken Ramen," was released in 1958. It was a groundbreaking product made by seasoning steamed noodles, deep-frying them, and then drying them.
Chicken Ramen, which boasted that it could be eaten in two minutes after pouring hot water over it, was called "Magic Ramen." When it was released, it cost 35 yen per serving. At a time when a noodle bowl cost 6 yen, it was a time when sales exploded as people saw it as "delicious and convenient." It coincided with an era in which dual-income households and nuclear families were on the rise, and it was also the time when supermarkets were appearing in Japan, so it was sold in large quantities using a Western-style distribution system.
Furthermore, Momofuku Ando believed that in order to popularize instant ramen around the world, it was necessary to overcome the barriers of eating habits, and so he pooled his various wisdom and innovative ideas to invent the world's first cup noodles, "Cup Noodles." Launched in 1971, Cup Noodles was a completely new type of instant ramen, with noodles stored in a styrofoam paper cup-shaped container and topped with freeze-dried toppings. The container served three functions: as packaging when sold in stores, as a cooking utensil when the user pours hot water into it, and as tableware when eating, making it a processed food product that truly embodied a new concept.
It spread to Asia, America, and Europe, and instant ramen, which originated in Osaka, has become a global food. Safe, easy to use, hygienic, long-lasting, inexpensive, and delicious, instant ramen can be said to be a food revolutionary.
Recently, a completely new made-to-order cup noodle called "Momofuku Noodle" has been released exclusively at the Hankyu Umeda Main Store, with the concept of "loads of vegetables." You can customize the rich soup and cute toppings to your liking, and it has become a hot topic as it makes a perfect souvenir.
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