Latest / Ridiculous History / Instant Noodles Changed The World, Part Two: Going Global

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Instant Noodles Changed The World, Part Two: Going Global · Ridiculous History

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Ridiculous history is a production of I heart radio. Welcome
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: back to the show, ridiculous historians. Thank you, as always,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: so much for tuning in. This is part two of
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: a two part series, because we just love instant noodles
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: that much. No offense super producer, Max Williams. I'm gonna
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: say you and noodles are in in my top ten,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: but I can't say where you each are because we
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: work together. Okay, uh, sure and sweet let's get right
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: into it. It's noodle time. It's fast forward. It's the
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: mid nineteen sixties. Japanese sales of Chicken Ramen and uh
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: a couple of spinoff products you made, I have started
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: to decline because the market is saturated. There are so
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: many dried noodles out, so many variations of ramen that
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: are regionally specific. It's kind of like podcasting, but more delicious. Yeah,
• 1:27
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• 1:30
  Speaker 1: for one of the most delicious podcasts of them all.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: You know, we've got to remember too, that much earlier
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: than this, when the decline of Ramen was starting to
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: take place, on top ramen Um, we were already seeing
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: sort of Americanized Chinese cuisine. You know, we thought we
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: did a whole episode on like the China, the Chop
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  Speaker 1: Suey houses uh, in California, and then that moved, you know,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: into New York and all of that stuff. And this
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  Speaker 1: was like in the early nineteen hundreds. So we already
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  Speaker 1: know there is a craving or at least like sort
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: of an inherent awareness and and, uh, understanding. And again,
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  Speaker 1: a lot of this is very Americanized and sort of
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  Speaker 1: served two Americans, you know, on their terms, uh, in
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: order for some of these, you know, immigrant families to
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: survive and to establish, you know, businesses. But I think
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: and o must have known that to a degree. But
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  Speaker 1: the side of the US was ready for his products.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Mm Hmmm, yeah, he said, why not? I know the game. Again,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: quite a brilliant, insightful guy. So he takes lessons from
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: things like Suki Yaki, which is beef and vegetables cooked
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: in a hot pot. U S audiences love this because
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: they feel like it seems new, interesting and exotic, but
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  Speaker 1: it does so while still kind of conforming two what
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: you would call the American Palette, right. Uh. So, like
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: you said, he travels to the US and sixties six
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: to promote chicken ramen and he says, holy smokes, these
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: guys are bananas. Look at them. They're breaking up the
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: packs of my noodles in the pieces and they're put
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: them in cups and pouring, just pouring the boiling water
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: over it. Why? Why aren't they do what? Why didn't
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  Speaker 1: I think of this? Uh? And he he realizes that
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: this isn't a spin on his invention out of necessity,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: because you need bowls and chopsticks to cook instant Raman
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  Speaker 1: the way it's originally designed, and that's pretty much everywhere
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  Speaker 1: in a Japanese home or in a work kitchen, but
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  Speaker 1: not so much in western nations. There you would be,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: especially in the sixties. You're much less likely to just
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: have bowls and chopsticks laying around so you can consume
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: your ramen after you cook it in the pot. So
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: now Um Momafuku is onto his next big breakthrough, which,
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: you know, was inspired by this kind of seat of
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  Speaker 1: the pants American way of consuming, you know, this product
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  Speaker 1: that was meant to be prepared a completely different way.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: So he decided he was going to make the packaging
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: part of the the experience, you know, essentially and and
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: so in nineteen seventy one cup noodle was born. His company,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: by the way, was called Nissan Instant Cook I don't
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: think we mentioned that. Yeah, yeah, founded on September onet nineteen. Uh,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: kind of around the same time. He had been convicted
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: of tax evasion, but we'll skip over that part. You know,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: geniuses can't be expected to operate like the rest of us,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: although they are by the government anyhow. So Cup noodles,
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: big deal. We all know about this. The packaging is
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: like much the same. Um, nineteen seventy one, it actually
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: initially used a paper package but Um, they decided to
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: use poly style Marene because it was, I guess, cheaper
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: and again, probably they didn't really know better at the time. Uh, now,
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: certainly that's become less uh palatable, for lack of a
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: better term. Um, there's tons of cup noodles out there
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  Speaker 1: and I think most of them are paper because obviously
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: polystyrene is bad news for the environment because it just,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: you know, doesn't want to biodegrade. Yeah, yeah, and that's
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: the experience I have whenever I see Styrofoam or polystyrene.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: It's just it's weird. You're reading out of a cup
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  Speaker 1: of noodles and you look at the packaging and you
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  Speaker 1: think this thing is gonna be here thousands and thousands
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  Speaker 1: of years after and gone, you know, and the taste
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: of the broth will only be a memory. But yes,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: they you're right, and that's the studental. We do see
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: this transition away from foam eventually. But in the heyday
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: of Styrofoam, polystyrene and other materials, uh this Cup noodle
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: becomes ubiquitous. And there's there's another funny story about this invention.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: So you know, you got the little packet with the
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: freeze dried veggies and stuff. Right, little noodle have it
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  Speaker 1: pre mixed, though it depends on which one you get.
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  Speaker 1: I think the Official Cup neodle has a pre mix,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: so it looks like more of a full mill. But again,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: I eat. I have a lot of noodles in this pantry.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: It's it's fucking crazy. If you go to uh an
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  Speaker 1: Asian market, you know, if you if you're lucky enough
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  Speaker 1: to have a really good one in your town, I
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: mean the dried noodle section is a cave of wonders.
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  Speaker 1: There's so, so many. We have a couple here, one
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: called Um UH super h smart that's fantastic. And then
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: also the Buford highway farmers market, one of my exactly.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: I've actually not been to that one, but pregot a
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: farmer's market is a an absolute embarrassment of riches when
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  Speaker 1: it comes to doodles. And one thing I will say,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: and we'll get to that here too, Japanese marketing is
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  Speaker 1: so good. My kid even points out like, man, I
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: just want to buy this. I don't even know what
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  Speaker 1: it is. I don't want to buy it because of
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: the little cartoon character on the packet. And they're just
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: so much better at making arresting image rich, you know,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: character kind of driven products, and that's no exception with
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: the first design of the Cup noodle. Gotta Catch Him, uh.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: I always catch all the noodles UF. Yeah, one thing, Um,
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  Speaker 1: it really stood out to me in my travels in Japan.
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  Speaker 1: It was the the regional mascots that so many towns
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  Speaker 1: have that are associated with specific festivals and stuff. They're
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: doing it right, uh. And also talking about that with
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: the guy who was not officially Yakuza. That was pretty
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: interesting too. I'll have to save that story for Babe.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: A live show, Um, I don't remember. Talked about Max
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: we'll think, you know, Um, but maybe we save it.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: I don't want to pull focus here from Momo Fucuando,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: because he's doing such cool stuff. Uh. Funny thing about
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: the design of the Cup of noodle, the Cup noodle,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: I should say, is that there's a cool moment in
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: his story. has another epiphany. He's on a Trans Pacific flight.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: Now we don't know whether or not this flight landed
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: in Hawaii, you know, to refuel or something, and then
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: completed a second leg to Japan or whether it was
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: a straight shot, but at some point he got some
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: macadamia nuts on the plane and he peeled back the
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: lid and he said, Oh yeah, I should just I
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: should do that for the cup of noodles. And then, uh,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: that's why, you know, whenever you you make them, you
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: put the water in and then you try to at
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: least put the lid sort of loosely back on, you know. Uh. So, yeah, right, right,
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  Speaker 1: the steam M okay. So let's talk about this logo.
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  Speaker 1: There's a little bit of psychology evolved here, because because
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  Speaker 1: they want to promote cup noodle as a premium thing, right,
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  Speaker 1: that's right, and and it was. I mean it had
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  Speaker 1: that pullback lid that you describe, which was kind of
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  Speaker 1: a bespoke feature, mentioning, you know, the branding and the
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  Speaker 1: marketing for all these kinds of things. They went nuts.
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  Speaker 1: He hired this master marketer named Otaka Takeishi, who had
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  Speaker 1: designed the logo for the Osaka Nineteen Seventy World Fair.
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  Speaker 1: He wanted to design the Cup to appear really like
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  Speaker 1: trendy and and cutting edge and to also appeal specifically
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  Speaker 1: to an American audience. So he had the text in
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  Speaker 1: this really cool verse sixties kind of inspired, almost psychedelic
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  Speaker 1: Font Um, and then the Japanese text was a good
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  Speaker 1: bit smaller, and then it had these insignias that were
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  Speaker 1: these kind of gold bands that were meant to evoke
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  Speaker 1: images that the Japanese folks at least would understand, relating
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  Speaker 1: to finery, you know, fine dining, expensive dinner plates and such.
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  Speaker 1: The Cup included just about the same amount of material,
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  Speaker 1: you know, of actual noodles and and uh and spice
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  Speaker 1: as the packets, but was four times more expensive. Therefore,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: you know, if you want to make something seem luxurious,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: just charge more money for it. Um, but you know, yeah,
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: but again, it was you were paying for the convenience
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: you were paying for the innovation. It was almost like
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: there was a bit of a gimmick to it. Oh yeah, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: again dipping dots. I'm still mystified by that. But I'm
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: a sucker for him, you know. I'm a sucker for
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: packaging and novelty and and stuff that seems cool and special,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: and this is a common human characteristic. Ando knows this.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: That's why, to get back to the hasting events, what
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  Speaker 1: he decides to do with Cup noodle is teach people
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  Speaker 1: how to eat it, and he wants to target people
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  Speaker 1: in the coolest part of town. So perhaps most famously,
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  Speaker 1: November one nine, he's in the Tokyo gains shopping district
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  Speaker 1: and he tries to find the young, hip up and
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  Speaker 1: comers strolling a street called pedestrian paradise and you know,
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  Speaker 1: let me sell this to you, because you're cool. Here's
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: the cool noodle and here's how to eat it. In
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: four hours they sell more than twenty thousand units of
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: Cup noodle. And then he also pitches this through his
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: company Nisson. Also pitches it to people who are on
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: the move. Right it's so convenient. It's like what they
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: would call a walking Taco right, you got the Little
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: Cup and you can you can just walk, you can
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  Speaker 1: even maybe slurp it a little noisily like soup, and
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  Speaker 1: you don't have to sit down right like you would
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: at a restaurant. And then they get a weird pr boost,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: the kind of the kind of event one cannot predict.
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  Speaker 1: There is a hostage crisis that occurs called the Asama
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: Sanso incident, and during this incident the media shows police
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: officers who are eating cup noodle to stay warm. This
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: is not paid product placement. They're just saying, you know,
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: look at the authorities who happened to like cup noodle.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Sales explode. You can't buy that kind of publicity. That's right.
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  Speaker 1: This is also kind of coinciding with advancements in retail experiences,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: because in Japan you had convenience stores kind of starting
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: to open in nineteen sixty nine Um, which became a
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: really portant place to be able to buy crup noodles.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: In fact, it also went on to be one of
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: the very first products sold in vending machines in Japan
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: around nineteen seventy one, and we know that. You know,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: Japan is a country it gets kind of borderline obsessed
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: with vending machines. You can get just about anything that
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: you could think of in vending machines and this was
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  Speaker 1: one of the very first products. Because I've always kind
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  Speaker 1: of thought of postwar Japan as having this fascination with
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: kind of Futurism, Um, in terms of technology, in terms
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  Speaker 1: of being able to kind of rebuild themselves from the
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: ground up as sort of a society of the future, Um,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: which is interesting because it obviously also has so many
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: echoes of the past, you know, such an old civilization
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: and culture, but yet so many things, especially in like
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: the you know, cultural kind of Mecca like Tokyo, are
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: just mega, Mega, you know, kind of futurized. Yeah, agreed.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: Just to give you a sense, the convenience stores in
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: Japan these days are streets ahead of the US and honestly,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: streets out of Europe. You know what I might have
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: to say it. They might be the world's best convenience stores. Honestly,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: no Ding on Bucky's, but if there is a bucky's
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: convenience store in Japan, it may be the best convenience
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: store in the world. You can get your mail done,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: you can get insurance, a lot of the stores have
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: little stamps for each store. If you like to collect stamps,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: you buy all kinds of food. It's amazing and there
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: and they never close. Uh. So Cup noodle makes sense
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: for this. And Yeah, also the UH the toilets are
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: from the future, as is the vending machine culture. The
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: Cup Noodle Museum, which we mentioned briefly, is still around
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: and you can see the history of this ingenious invention.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: You can also make your own personalized cup noodle, which,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: I know this is Lamy, guys, but that's part of
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: the recent I want to visit because all the popular,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: all the popular members of the Global Cultural Pantheon in
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: Japan have their own cup noodle by this point. You know, Yoda,
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: San Brio, Hello Kitty, all of them, of course. Course. Yeah.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: So I feel like a ridiculous history. Cup Noodle is
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: is the next move for us. Oh Man, wouldn't that
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: be fun? That's a great idea, but I mean, you know,
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: so you've got those established characters that have all these like,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: you know, intellectual property kind of partnerships with like different brands,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: but then you also have these brands that kind of
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: create their own characters, sort of like you know, I
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: guess the closest equivalent we might have is like sereal
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: mascots that that aren't even, like, nearly as prominent as
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: they used to be, but you know they're like the
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: lucky charms, lepricaan or whatever, the pills, very doughboy. Sure,
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: like the toucan Sam and all of that stuff, but
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: we don't lean into that stuff nearly as much as
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: as as Japanese marketers do. So I think Um and
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: that's one reason why it's so fun to walk through those,
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: Uh those Raman Isles at the at the the Asian markets,
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: just to see all of the different packaging and branding.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: And chances are there are very little differences between the
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: flavor of some of them. They're all gonna be pretty generic.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: And then, of course they're you know, they're ones that
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: you would be your go to, you find to be
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: your favorites, but it's sort of like shopping for craft
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: beer or wine. Sometimes you pick the one that has
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: the coolest label. Yeah, and there are, you know, there
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: are people who are gonna say no, Dot, I am
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: only a top ramen person or I am only a
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: chap getty person. I try them all personally. I I'm
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: a sucker for kids. You know, I like feeling like
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: I've I've bought a process, the whole thing like. I
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: like the ones that are almost like barrels. They're the
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: really big cup of noodle things that come with a
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: resyllable plastic lid. They've got oil in addition to a
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: soup base and dried veggies or whatever, and then some
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: of them also have this really cool little fold out spork.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: Have you guys seen these things? They're they're on like
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: a hinge. If you haven't, I've got I've got some
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: and I need to push these. I'm pushing the noodles. Guys.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: I need more room in my Pantry, so I'm going
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: to bring you some of these. You don't have to Tryumph,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: but it's fun to have him. It's fun to have him.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: Just in case that sounds awesome, Ben you'll tell you
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: what my favorite is. Uh Still. Um is a company
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: called Nong Shim. Uh makes a line of ramen noodles
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: you can get in a cup or in a packet
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: called Shin Black Uh, and it's pretty spicy. Um really
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: has that bone broadly. There's like a powder that comes
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: with it's like white and it really does add that
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: kind of creamy ou mommy kind of vibe. I wanted
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: to ask you, though, but I just know this. This
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: the name of this product, or I guess the company
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: is called Nong Shim and the Ramen is called Shin.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: And if I remember correctly, I don't know that we
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: even went into this, but in the earliest days when
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: Raman was associated with China, and I believe the word
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: was she na Um, but it was. It was sort
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: of phased out because it's considered offensive. Um. It was
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: considered like a pejorative Um. Again, it was described in
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: the mental flaws article as an archaic Japanese word for
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: China and then it was paired with Soba. So I
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: wonder if this is do you think this Shin in,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: the Raman that I like is in some way a
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: call back to that? Or is it is it something
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: completely different? Yeah, Nang Shim is South Korean. So it
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: was founded in sixty five. It was created by a
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: guy named Shin Chun Ho, who whose brother founded. His brother,
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: Shin Kilco, founded the Latte Corporation, and Latte is like
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: that's interesting, Choe Corporation. So I wonder if this is
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: like his his signature recipe or something like that, because
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: it's the Shin Black, you know, line of Raman. You
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: get the one that comes in the plastic bowl too.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: If you tried that one. I have had that one
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: before and it's funny too. In in Korea, obviously ramen
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: is it's also huge problem, but it's spelled a little different.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: It spelled with a why. It's spelled like Ram Yon
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: r a m y you in Um. And then there's,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: you know, lots of different Korean spins on it as well. Uh,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: there's so many. Come with me and you'll be in
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: a world of something that rhymes with noodles. Uh. So,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: I gotta Tell You, I'm not gonna lie. I hope
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: I have something in the cabinet. I know you're sitting
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: on a wealth that I'm very jealous, but I'm really
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: craving some ramen now after this, in this episode. Yeah,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: and I gotta again. I'm pushing. I'm pushing the RAMEN.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: I gotta Make Room for my other other survival foods.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: I have so much. I'm gonna you know what, I'm
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: gonna send you guys a picture after we record, and
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: I think this might end up being a two party,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: because we're both very excited about ramen. And this story
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: is not done. You might be hearing this and say, Hey,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: I thought it was Cup oh noodles. Why are you got?
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: Why do you guys keep saying cup noodles? Well, that's
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: because the name Cup oh noodles was phased out. Originally
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: it was just meant as a pitch to American audiences,
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: you know, in Canada and the US and uh later Mexico,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: his the US three. It's renamed cup noodles in nineteen
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: three and just you know what, one thing that bugs
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: me about cup noodles in the US, just like kick cats,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: there are fewer flavors. Japanese culture runs the Kit cat game.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: It is. If you go to you know that some
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: of these markets that we're talking about you can you
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: can sample a lot of them, but they're really expensive.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: They're quite expensive because of this shipping, you know. Uh,
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: and this is why are our good friends a savor
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: are Japanese kit cat rich. Every time I hang out
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: with our Pals Lauren and Annie, they're trying to push
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: kick cats on me of all ends of weird flavors.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: Some are just like some are just like clearly the
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: result of synaesthesia or translation. Like well, have you ever
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: had an ocean dream Kit Kat? Because I have had.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: I don't know what it tastes like. It's got a
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: little salt to it. I like the I think I
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: had a Wasabi one when ye yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: those are good. And then and they don't then also,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: like I mean the Japanese. They don't mess around when
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: it comes to flavor. You know, there's no like, oh,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: we're gonna, we're gonna dumb this down. You know, there's
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: no we're gonna soften this for like a less, you know,
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Daring Palette. I mean if you you can rest assured
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: that if something says spicy, it's probably gonna Knock you
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: on your butt. Yeah, agreed. And now you can see
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: that cup noodle, still made by Nisan, is global, is ubiquitous.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: It's made in eighty countries and territories and, just like McDonald's,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: you'll see local variant flavors. You're in India, you can
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: eat missala flavored cup noodle. You're in Germany mushroom flavor.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: Those are just two examples. Let us know your favorite.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: Oh Gosh, this is gonna be like doing that live
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: show in philly where at the end I asked what
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: the best cheese steak place was. That was the dumbest
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: thing to ask people in Philadelphia. We're I anticipate we're
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: gonna hear a lot of stories about the ramen and noodles.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: So it turns out our Guy Ando, you, you could
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: comfortably say that is his company, has revolutionized food, whether
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: you call it snack food or just convenience food. He's
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: revolutionized it around the world. But he doesn't stop at
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: the at the borders of Earth. Oh boy. Okay, is
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: this about like sending noodles into space? Ben, it is,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: it is. UH, he he made space noodles. Okay, oh well, yeah,
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: I mean we love freeze dried things in space. Yeah, because, uh,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: like the astronaut ice cream is again about like shelf
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: stability and uh yeah, I just I can't imagine how
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: you would boil water. It would have to be some
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: sort of very self contained thing. or You'd have like
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: weird globs of of boiling water shooting at you all
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: ball in zero g's, right, yeah, that's why. So this
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: is he called it space ram or space Roblem, short
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: for Romen. This was made especially for a Japanese astronaut,
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Soichi NOGUCCI. UH, in the discovery flight in two thousand five.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: It's edible as zero gravity. And the differences, remember we
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: said the broth is a big deal, right, the same
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: is true in space. The broth is a pairly thick
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: enough to not sort of drift away like a liquid
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: wood in zero gravity, and because it has smaller noodles,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: you can cook it without boiling water, averting a space disaster.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: That that you you also predicted right, channeling Momofuku Ando here,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: and this guy dedicates his life to this. As a
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: matter of fact, the day before he passes away he
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: is in the Nissan factory in Osaka because he gives
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: an annual speech every New Year's even after he retired
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: in two thousand five. He didn't fall from the rail
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: into the boiling that and turn himself into a cup
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: of noodle. Did he been? No, no, he established that,
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: but I had to bring it back up. No, no,
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: he did. He didn't go. He see comics with it. UH,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: he had. He didn't. Really interesting and it's a book
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: I want to read. So every year there's a true story, folks.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Every year he would go to uh this factory and
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: he would, as they put it in in Gizmoto, he
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: would articulate his thoughts on Ramen and eventually ramen became
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: the basis for this deep inspiring philosophy about the nature
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: of life. And at his funeral someone made a book
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: of his collected speeches and all the people at the
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: funeral got one. And when we say all, we're talking
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: about quite a few people. Six thousand, five hundred people
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: are at Ando's funeral and he has a quote like,
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: just to give us a sense of how philosophical this became.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: One of his quotes was the fundamental misunderstanding of humanity
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: is believing we can achieve all our desires without limitation.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: Cup Noodle. He didn't say cup noodle at the end.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: That was just me adding that I feel. I feel
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: like that would actually be a bad advertisement for cup noodle.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: Oh No, doubt. Um, and I'll tell you. Back to
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: David Chang, UM, celebrity chef, podcaster, TV presenter, Pretty Ubiquitous Guy. Um,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: he apparently actually did not name his line after Momo
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: Fuku himself. Momo means peach in Japanese and Fuku means lucky.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: Uh definitely a connection there because he also has his hat.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Used to have a delivery only restaurant called Ando Um.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: So He's obviously very much aware of of the guy
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: and what Chang has done, of course, is, you know,
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: elevated that that fifty Cent Cup of noodle to something
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: that he can reasonably charge. Respectably charged fourteen dollars for
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: he uses in this interview and NPR. He says we
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: use Berkshire Pork from Iowa, local Greens, Seasonal Greens that change,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: bamboo shoots and Nori. But he also acknowledges that the
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: you know, regular old cup noodles or the you know,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: the innovation that Hodo himself came up with, still nothing
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: quite like it. There's something too that uh, you know,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: two thousand milligrams of sodium. Uh Maybe, uh, I don't know,
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: adds a little open to it. Who knows? It's good stuff, though,
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: whether you have the bespoke kind or the more Um,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: you know, fast food version. And if you are lucky
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: enough to live by a food stall where you get
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: fresh Ramen, then obviously Momofuku Ando is not not upset
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: with you, he's not cross with you. I'm bringing back cross.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: I'm saying people are being crossed. Let's see if it works.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: Uh He in fact hoo himself says, Hey, you know,
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: it's not exactly fresh ramen taste wise maybe it's not
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: as good. It's its own unique thing. But I also
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: want to feed people. I want to sustain human life
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: through the most difficult of times, like I encountered in
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: the aftermath of World War Two. so by that metric
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: he's profoundly successful. As of two thousand and eight, global
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: consumption of instant ramen was ninety four billion packages per year,
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: which is an average of fourteen bulls per person. And
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: I think that's part of what Momo Fuco Ando was
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: talking about when he said things like mankind is noodle kind. Here, here,
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: and just to add, you know, one last thing. I mean,
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: obviously Momofuku himself passed away, Um, not terribly, terribly long ago.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: He was ninety six years old. He passed away in,
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: I believe, two thousand seven, from when that NPR piece
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: that I was quoting David Chang from came out. That
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: was actually a remembrance of him. Um, when when he passed,
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: and then in two thousand and seven, Um. But you know,
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: we know one of the important legacies that he brought
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: to the world of Ramen was that flair for advertising
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: and for aativity and kind of innovation. and Um, if
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: anyone has a little bit of time to kill going
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: down some Internet rabbit hole, there's a fantastic tradition in
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: Japan of hiring American celebrities to kind of Shill for
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: their products. Um, there's a really great website called Japander
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: dot com that organizes a lot of these like in
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: alphabetical order, and you can find ones from Arnold Schwarzenegger
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: kind of pitching this like energy drink, to Nicholas cage
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: shilling from his Pachinko brand. And actually, James Brown was
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: hired to sing a song about Miso Flavored Cup noodles
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: to the tune of one of his most popular songs,
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: get on up Um, in a an ad that aired
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: in nineteen nine two. It's true, and you can see
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: those advertisements in Japan today. I do want to know
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: it is currently kind of difficult to visit Japan unless
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: you are a spouse of a national, your Japanese national
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: and yourself, or you go with its work group. But
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: do go when you get a chance to experience and
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: tell tell us, at least tell me if you get
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: the Cup Noodle Museum. I'm so excited to visit there
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: one day. We have some other stuff we didn't get to,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: which is the things like the secret to springy noodles.
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: There's some very compelling science behind it. But, as you
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: can hear, the leaf blower guy found out we were recording.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: So that's our que, that's our time. We hope you,
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: leafblower man. I know, I know, it's like just if
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: you want to be on the show, just send us
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: an email. We love guest leaflower man, but uh, with
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: that in mind, and no shade, no shade to the
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: leaf blower man. Uh. We hope you enjoyed this two
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: part series on the history of instant noodles. Check out
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: stuff of genius as well. Let us know your faith
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: favors of varieties of noodles. I don't know if this
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: says too much about our backgrounds here, but I'm pretty
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: sure that all three of us have our own spin
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: on like what you do, like how you spice up
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: your Robin. I like the little sesame oil in there,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: just a touch. You know, it's amazing. Uh. So we
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: want to hear your your recipe ideas. We also want
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: to give a big, big thanks to Mr Max Williams.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: Max Max, I almost didn't think you're gonna come back
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: from vacation. Man, was it? Was it tough to return?
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean I was drinking before the
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: recording that. I think I'm on mountain time now. I
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: have progressed from Pacific to mountain. Yeah, I mean, I
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: didn't want to come back, but you know, I just
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: couldn't stand being away from me all any longer. Sweet,
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: we missed you too, buddy. Yeah, and UH. We also
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: want to thank our guest producer, try Harrison of ridiculous neoze,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: who jumped in. Uh, and thanks, of course, to Alex Williams,
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: who composed this track. Thanks to MOMOFOCO and O for sure. Gosh,
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: we've got some new noodles. After this, I'm going up
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: to the to the kitchen and just ransacking the pantry.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: There must be at least one UH errant pack of
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: of of noodles in there. Yeah, Nol same here. I'M
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: gonna go over to Ben's house and start ranch sacking
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: his pantry and I'm gonna I'm gonna send you that
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: picture guys, that's where I'm going. I'm gonna send you.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: It's egregious how many noodles I have. I don't want
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: to overhype it, but it's a lot. It's a lot,
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: uh and no, thank you in advance for taking some
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: of these, some of these noodles, off my hands. It's funny,
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: I just realized all three of us, and perhaps Youtube
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: listening at home. All three of us just sort of
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: consider instant noodles a staple product at a kitchen. Right,
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: we're all just assuming there's some. They're right. I mean,
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: like I said, if there's not, I'm gonna be very upset.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: But I have no doubt that least one has kind
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: of fallen in the cracks and I am going to
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: find it. Mind you. But Ben Please bring me all
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: of your of your of your noodles that need a home.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: Consider me your noodle repository. I will send you nudes.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: There we go. We'll see you next time. Folks, for
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: more podcasts for my heart radio, visit the I heart
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: radio APP apple podcast or wherever you listen to your
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: favorite shows.