Sunday, January 7, 2007

In Memoriam of Momofuko Ando

Today's Sunday paper has a 200 word obituary for Momofuku Ando who died at age 96. His claim to fame? He invented Ramen noodles which is credited with keeping many college students alive during lean financial times. Andy's bags are packed and he did find some room for Ramen noodles.
Andy is allowed 100 pounds in his two pieces of luggage and fell short of that weight. That is why he added the Ramen and some Lipton Chicken Noodle Soup. These foods also sustained him when he was a picky eater as a child. I am not sure I did my job well as his mom keeping him in junk food when he was a kid but our firstborn was also a picky eater and at age 40+ I didn't have it in me to have food fights anymore.
If he is accepted he will return from Europe in May and leave for China two weeks later. He wants to experience the culture and said he expects to "eat outside of his comfort zone". He told a funny story told by another SJU student who lived in China last summer. Not wanting to offend, he ate what was served. One meal was a bowl of broth with a whole chicken foot. He ate is all. His Chinese hosts did not eat the foot.
I remember getting email accounts my nephew Peter sent while in China on business. He also wanted to eat like the locals and once had a large bullfrog in his broth. Peter, did everyone else there eat that amphibian? Peter wrote of many other culinary delights such as wine with a dead snake in the bottle. That makes the Tequila worm more tolerable. Better to drink the wine without seeing the container it camefrom. I told Andy if he goes to China to eat slow and glance at to see what the Chinese are actually consuming. I just might sneak some Lipton Chicken Noodle Soup in his luggage on that trip too. Official sie for Ramen which includes recipes you probably don't want to collect ://mattfischer.com/ramen/

1 comment:

Mary said...

There's an inventor or Ramen noodles? Who knew? Sayonara Mr. Momofuko Ando.