Hungry for Ramen

Oh my. I’m getting so hungry looking at these pictures of ramen. Pardon my drool... Wait, where was I? If you’re like most people, then you know what I mean. I have waited in lines for some yummy ramen. It turns out that lines are part of ramen culture.¹ I especially like tonkotsu ramen (made with pork bone broth) with its nice rich flavor. It's so good and creamy. Trust me. You should try it if you haven't before.

For many college students in the U.S. ramen was a staple of late night study sessions. Besides eating these as late night snacks, average Americans are eating them as meals as more and more ramen restaurants are popping up around the nation. A few articles have discussed how it's not just a West and East coast thing anymore with restaurants popping up in Chicago² and Phoenix³. You'll find many books on ramen on Amazon including one titled, "The Untold History of Ramen: How Political Crisis in Japan Spawned a Global Food Craze" Who knew there was such vibrant history of the popularization of such a seemingly simple and ubiquitous bowl of noodle?

Have you heard about the "Ramen Adventure Tour" being held in the U.S. by a Japanese band named Shonen Knife? Shonen Knife is a three woman band who has been around for 35 years and even toured with Nirvana in the 1990s. This past spring they held a tour across the nation playing their alternative-rock music and eating ramen in the various cities.

Ramen's popularity has gone beyond college dorms and restaurants and into prisons. In fact, it's "now more popular than cigarettes as U.S. prison currency" according to an article published last year.

If you get a chance to go to Japan to eat ramen, then you'll often find ramen restaurants with a vending machine where you can order your choice of ramen through the machine. Many ramen restaurants will refill your noodles for a small cost. I've been to a few locations of a chain of restaurants in Japan called Ichiran which serves tonkotsu ramen in sectioned off seating areas at a counter. A U.S. branch of the chain recently opened last year in New York City.

Ramen is delicious, but don't eat too much of it or too often especially for the instant variety. A 2014 study conducted in South Korea with over 10,000 people by researchers from Harvard and other institutions "showed a 68% higher risk of metabolic syndrome" for women who ate instant ramen twice weekly or more. The high sodium and preservative content are some of the main reasons behind the bad health effects.⁴ However, ramen at restaurants usually serve fresh noodles and ingredients. Restaurant ramen still contains high levels of sodium,⁵ so moderation is key.

Quick facts:

• Ramen is delicious.⁶
• 100 billion units of instant ramen were sold worldwide in 2012.⁷
• 44 billion units were sold to China alone in 2012.⁷
• Instant ramen was considered a luxury food item when first released in Japan in 1958.⁸
• There are nearly 51 meters worth of noodles on average in one packet.⁸

I’ll end with a video about ramen: