Word of the Moment: Ramen

Back when I lived in my first apartment (the “Deuce-Deuce”), my roommate Dass and I derived a large percentage of our caloric intake from packs of instant ramen noodles. Never more than 10 or 25 cents a pack, we ate every flavor available: chicken, beef and the ambiguously labeled 'seafood.' Eventually, Dass started to get creative. A version with ketchup and a butt-load of black pepper was memorable, to say the least.

These days, I never have more than a single pack of ramen noodles in my pantry. It's an emergency after-hours snack, a reminder of good times and a sign of how much better they've become.  Let's simmer, then, for three to five minutes on the history of the word “ramen.” 

A word which illustrates the complex relationship between not only Japan and America, but Japan and China as well. Along the way, we'll meet the man who created the modern ramen noodle, a Taiwanese-Japanese businessman who once said, "Peace will come to the world when the people have enough to eat."  Fittingly, his famous product is a both a result of Japan's post-WWII privations and a symbol of it's 20^th century prosperity.

There are four competing theories for the etymology of “ramen,” all of which agree that the word originally came to Japanese through China:

1. "la mian" (拉麺) meaning hand-pulled noodles.
2. “lao mian” (老麺) meaning old noodles
3. “lu mian" (鹵麺) meaning noodles cooked in a thick, starchy sauce.
4. “lao mian” (撈麵) meaning stirred noodles in Cantonese

What all these forms have in common is an initial L-sound, which would be rendered in Japanese (which lacks an L-sound) as an R-sound. The second element “mian” means noodle, and became the “-men” in “ra-men.” Since English speakers have an L at their disposal, there was no need to change the first sound when we borrowed #4 as the familiar "lo mein" found on Chinese restaurant menus from Market street to Canal street.

Although these Chinese-style wheat noodles were popular in Japan since at least 1900, they were not actually called “ramen” until the 1950s, prior to which they were simply called “shina soba,” or Chinese noodles.  

Since their introduction, however, ramen noodles in Japan have become beloved and highly regional dishes. 

In the South, “tonkotsu ramen” is made with a rich pork broth, while Okinawan ramen has less broth and more closely resembles the original Chinese dish. And, while I have never heard of any varieties involving ketchup, the ramen made in the north of Japan is made with a assertive base of fermented bean paste called miso.

Despite the air of unchanging ancientness that we tend to cast upon Asian cultures, the ramen noodle is not an age-old tradition. The first instant ramen was not invented until 1958, in part because of the confluence of modern food science and lots of cheap wheat from America that was flowing into Japan. In fact, ramen (not Nintendo or the Walkman) was voted the most important Japanese invention of the 20^th century back in 2000 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1067506.stm).

After WWII, Japan suffered from a shortage of food, in response to which the United States supplied shipments of wheat flour. While the government attempted to encourage people to make bread, a Taiwanese-born Japanese business man, Momofuku Ando decided to produce something more familiar to the Japanese palete, noodles. Specifically, the wheat flour Chinese-style noodles now being called “ramen.”

In 1958 Momofuku unveiled his new product, flash-fried, precooked instant noodles. Later, he would create the innovation of the waterproof cup that would allow the customer to cook their noodles right in the package they came in, as well as founding the Instant Food Industry Association and chairing the Ramen Manufacturers' Association. For his efforts, he received honorary metals from the Japanese government and, perhaps more impressively, his name now adorns the Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum in [where].

Words do not jump from one linguistic bowl to another on their own. They are carried by merchants and soldiers and aid workers. The “ramen” on the package is an English rendering of a Japanese rendering of a Chinese dish brought home by soldiers, became a survival food after military defeat, and made an international success by a Taiwanese-Japanese businessman who once said, "Peace will come to the world when the people have enough to eat."

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The preceding blog post contains ingredients taken from the OED, the Online Etymological Dictionary, and 5000mg of Wikipedia. To prepare, add a cup of boiling water and contents of flavoring packet. Wait 5 minutes. Contents will be hot.