Momofuku Ando’s 105th Birthday

March 5th, 2015 would have been Momofuku Ando’s 105th birthday! Google has honored the inventor of the instant noodle by putting up these alternate logos – I will explain them below.

This is a animation of the birth of the instant noodle. Ando spent hours and days and weeks trying to figure out how to make the instant noodle. He watched his wife making tempura one day and it hit him; frying. When you fry a cooked noodle, it extrudes the water and leaves tiny holes. When re-introduced to hot water, they spring back to life!

To be honest, I was a little unclear on this one at first. It has been said that after research, it was found that 1 minute wasn’t enough time to get the appetite going and 5 minutes too long. 3 minutes is the ipso-facto standard steeping time for instant noodles.

In 1971, the Nissin Cup Noodle was born. Ando saw businessmen on a flight putting chunks of instant noodle in foam cups usually used for coffee with some hot water. He decided a product made this way would be convenient for people. The research began. The noodle block is suspended in the cup midway to allow hot water to permeate the noodles above and below!

Outer space?! Yep! Ando’s crowning achievement was ‘Space Ram’ – an instant noodle astronauts could enjoy in outer space.

If you’d like to see some special reviews, check out Nissin Chikin Ramen – it’s exactly the same as it was when released in 1958. I also did a special video review of the Nissin Emergency Cup Noodle this year for The Ramen Rater’s 4th Annual Momofuku Ando Day! Happy Birthday Mr. Ando – you changed my life!

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