R.I.P. Momofuku Ando, Inventor of Instant Ramen Noodles

Travel Blog  •  Jim Benning  •  01.09.07 | 1:31 PM ET

imageOh instant ramen, how we love thee. You feed 100 million people a day, by some estimates. You have served as a worthy and affordable introduction to Japanese food for countless people around the globe. In much of Asia, you are standard dining fare on trains. And now, we learn you were invented by Momofuku Ando in 1958. Sadly, we learn, too, of Ando’s death at the age of 96 near Osaka, Japan. But we agree with everything Lawrence Downes writes in an eloquent tribute in today’s New York Times: “Ramen noodles have earned Mr. Ando an eternal place in the pantheon of human progress. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime. Give him ramen noodles, and you don’t have to teach him anything.” Too true.

Related on World Hum:
* Chinese Noodles Predate Marco Polo

Photo: jayceho, via Flickr. (Creative Commons License.)



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