Food History: Ramen

if the first thing you picture when you hear ramen is this you can think Momofuku Ando and world war ii and the Yakuza crime syndicate let's begin in August 1945 Japan had just announced its surrender to the Allies Ananda was walking through war-torn Osaka the Allied forces aerial bombing had wrought destruction on the city the factory in office buildings Ando had constructed as a business venture were no longer standing and on that fateful day amidst the ravaged city he walked by a strange scene someone had set up a makeshift ramen stand among the debris people were lined up waiting for a bowl apparently this image stuck with the business man thirteen years later he perfected his formula for instant ramen and debuted to the world hi I'm Justin Dodd welcome to food history ramen is so much more than the food that gets you through rent week the Japanese dish traditionally consists of wheat noodles broth and infinitely mutable seasoning base called tar a and optional toppings there's almost no limit to the styles and ingredients that can comfortably sit under the ramen banner to trace the history of ramen let's jump back to around 400 AD when the first Chinese immigrants arrived in Japan in the ensuing centuries a fascinating often fraught relationship developed between the two powers with cross-cultural exchange flowing in both directions either directly or indirectly Chinese immigrants introduced the Japanese to the art of paper making the Chinese calendar Buddhism along with new kinds of food one of the ingredients that was eventually imported to Japan from China was the wheat noodle lamian and to understand its significance we need to discuss pH unlike many of the noodles diners were familiar with le'me on noodles are made with alkaline mineral water what does that mean no one knows what's up people do now common sign pH is generally measured from zero to 14 with pure water considered to have a neutral pH of 7 by the way this is probably a good time to point out that although I do wear glasses I'm not a scientist and that this somewhat simplified description of pH is squarely what our fact checker called the good enough zone of explanation with that out of the way when we say water is neutral we're really saying there are an equal number of hydroxide ions o h- and hydronium ions h3o positive reacting with one another we can represent two of those opposite ions existing in equilibrium as two atoms of the more familiar h2o pH is calculated based on the concentration of those positively charged hydronium ions anything with the pH under seven indicating a higher concentration of hydronium ions is considered acidic basic substances on the other hand shift the equilibrium towards hydroxide ions and are labeled pH is over seven so where does alkalinity come into play basically get it basic substances that can dissolve in water are called alkalis so all alkalis are bases but not all bases are alkalized this solubility or ability to dissolve in water is critical when it comes to cooking these charged ions are small mobile and quick to react with larger more complicated molecules in the words of food scientist Harold McGee this means that the building blocks of food fat proteins and carbohydrates often behave differently as we change the ph of their environments digression alert this is how ceviche is made mmm the acidic usually citrus based marinade surrounds raw fish with hydronium ions which interact with the strings of amino acids that make up proteins the proteins can then be unfolded from their original States a process known as denaturing the effect is for the raw fish to be essentially cooked by the acidic marinade pretty cool when it comes to alkalize in the culinary arts we're usually talking about baking soda and baking it's used to balance acidic flavors and to interact with acidic ingredients to create co2 bubbles that acid-base reaction is kind of like a science fair volcano and helps dough's and batters to rise alkalis are also used in the making of tortillas as we discussed in our episode on nachos and in lutefisk shout out to YouTube commenters etter is better who suggested making an episode on lutefisk and to Frank Albie who suggested ramen if you have a topic you'd like to see us discuss in a future episode let us know in the comments when it comes to ramen alkalis are in some ways acting more like the acidic ceviche marinade than they are the baking soda found in cookies it's not a perfectly well known process but we do know that alkalis can denature proteins just as acids can in Chinese cuisine for example seafood is sometimes soaked in an alkaline brine containing baking soda or egg whites before cooking it gives shrimp a firmer almost crunchy texture and when an alkaline substance is added to a noodle recipe it apparently affects the way glutens interact in the dough more water is absorbed into the flour more starches break down and the result is a springy chewy noodle that's less likely to dissolve in a bowl of hot broth the chemical reaction between the alkaline solution and the dough also gives ramen its signature yellow hue but the first Chinese noodles serve in Japan weren't called ramen at all they were known as sheena soba Shiina is an archaic Japanese word for China and so Bo was a catch-all term for any noodles found in Japan at the time though it usually referred to buckwheat noodles because of its offensive connotations the word sheena eventually fell out of use and was eventually replaced by ramen which likely came about from the japanese pronunciation of the chinese term lamia the word lamian comes from La which means pulled and Mian which means noodles though there are many stories surrounding the origins of modern ramen the one that's most widely accepted by experts comes from the early 20th century it's believed that a noodle shop called Rui Rui Ken popularized the dish when it opened in Tokyo Japan in 1910 the Chinese cooks there served their wheat noodles in a salty broth and topped them with roasted pork fish cake and nori these ingredients are still considered classic ramen toppings today no room in the budget for a fish cake guys around the same time Japan was becoming more industrialized the country's growing urban working class needed something cheap and filling to fuel their workdays and robbing filled that need its assent to worldwide fame entered a new stage during the Allied occupation of Japan after World War two the post-war period brought on significant food shortages and Street food vendors were outlawed in order to conserve rations a policy that began during the war the only way to get ramen which was something people bought from food stalls rather than made at home was to find it on the black market illegal food vendors were a common presence in Japan throughout World War two and it became more vital than ever in the post-war period when government rations were often weeks late through either legitimate shortages from decreased agricultural production or simple mismanagement of resources thousands of vendors were arrested for selling ramen after the war most of whom were under the direction of the Japanese organised crime syndicate known as the Yakuza ramen really became mainstream in 1958 courtesy of our friend from earlier Momofuku Ando inspired by his decade old memories of that makeshift ramen stand he believed the cheap working-class meal was a perfect fit for Japanese pantries all Ando had to do was transform the noodle bowl into something that could sit on a shelf for months and be ready to eat in minutes he started by simply dehydrating noodles but they didn't cook fast enough for his liking after months of experimentation he discovered flash frying frying dehydrated noodles evaporates the water droplets trapped inside them and creates tiny perforations this method solved two problems less water in the noodles men were less likely to go bad and all those holes meant they rehydrated faster when boiled he added chicken flavoring to create his masterpiece on dough's chicken ramen is often called the first product of its kind but that may not be true in his book the untold history of rama in which we've drawn on several times throughout this video by the way George salt points out that a company called Matsuda Sankyo actually debuted with salt calls an identical product three years earlier under the name aji cyka cyka men or flavored Chinese noodles they never received a patent though and stopped making the product after a few months of weak sales where that company failed Ando thrived later Ando would reflect on his decision to use chicken flavor realizing by using chicken soup instant ramen managed to circumvent religious taboos when it was introduced in different countries hindus may not eat beef and muslims may not eat pork but there's not a single culture religion or country that forbids the eating of chicken though his goal was to make ramen noodles accessible to everyone his first product wasn't as cheap to make as he had hoped anyone who lived on instant ramen through college may be surprised to hear that it was considered a bit of a splurge item when it debuted in Japan at 35 yen or around a dollar 85 USD adjusted for inflation a packet was up to six times as expensive as other noodles at the time the convenience factor made up for the cost though instant ramen was a hit and prices eventually went down by a lot today the average pack of instant ramen Kossoff had a quarter which means that eating it for three meals a day would only cost around two hundred and seventy-five dollars a year though with 1820 milligrams of sodium and every brick of chicken top ramen that's not something I'd recommend if you want to avoid paying back those savings in medical bills as ramen became synonymous with convenience food abroad the ramen stalls that first popped up in the early 20th century experienced a resurgence in Japan the ramen was practically outlawed in the years right after the war America's presence in Japan actually boosted ramens profile in the long run America sent cheap wheat to Japan during the post-war food shortages this was partially a humanitarian effort to stave off hunger and partially a political calculation American leaders feared the prospect of East Asian countries turning the communism out of desperation or frustration with Western powers in the mid 50's japan and america signed the series of agreements that sold surplus American wheat to Japan at the same time American propagandists teamed up with the Japanese government to extol the virtues of we as part of a healthy diet one part of this propaganda campaign involves sending out kitchen buses an attempt to teach the Japanese to bake bread a plan that was doomed by the fact that many Japanese kitchens lacked ovens whoops they even suggested that a diet relying on rice could cause brain damage when laws on food vendors relaxed in the 1950s the dish is now healthy reputation paired with its great value in a time of economic recovery helped make it a success it was also around this time that the basic meal started to get complicated different parts of the country began developing or spreading their own styles of ramen Fukuoka which sits at the center of Japan's pork industry became famous for its tonkatsu not to be confused with the Japanese pork cutlet tonkatsu tonkatsu is a cloudy stock made by simmering pig bones for up to 12 hours sometimes even longer this breaks down the fat marrow and minerals inside the bones to create a broth that's unctuous and opaque other areas are better known for their terrain than their broth tar a is the seasoning that's labeled into the bottom of ramen bowls before the other ingredients are added and in many cases it's the main source of salt in the dish the miso and miso ramen is example of tarring chefs in northern hokkaido first had the idea to add fermented soybean paste the ramen as a hearty savory antidote to the region's cold winters but the earliest use of taro it can be traced back to those first bowls of ramen served at the turn of the 20th century in an effort to make Chinese lamia and feel more Japanese cook seasoned their noodle soup with soy sauce something that actually originated in China before making its way to Japan but that's for another video no matter the style of ramen it almost always comes with toppings seaweed eggs bean sprouts corn green onions preserved bamboo shoots and braised pork being some of the most common options but while many Americans consume those ingredients and other dishes Robin may be the only place they encountered the fish cake known as Naruto Maki if you don't recognize the name you may know it as that white disc with the pink swirl in the center Naruto Maki or Naruto for short actually predates modern ramen it was first made in the 19th century by shaping pureed white fish into a loaf and cutting it into slices pink swirl in the middle is made from food coloring and it's inspired by the whirlpools of japan's a Naruto straight hence the name today this world has a more modern connotation with the word Naruto uses a slang for the at symbol by the 1980s ramen was a cultural phenomena in Japan unlike other Japanese dishes that were tied to centuries of tradition young chefs were free to experiment with ramen and elevate it to something beyond its blue-collar roots but it would still take a couple decades for the dish to gain widespread respect in the u.s. restaurant mogul David Chang is often given credit for helping Americans see ramen as something more than a quick dirt cheap meal he opened Momofuku Noodle Bar in New York City back in 2004 named in part for the instant noodle innovator a few years later the Japanese ramen chain knew puto opened its first location in the States and soon ramen may well rival sushi for the title of Japan's most beloved culinary export one of the cool things about the history of ramen is that it's still evolving mark Hoshi documents some of this evolution on his web site ramen culture Hoshi spent two of his years in Tokyo working at a ramen shop often working 90-hour weeks but he embraces ramen worldwide in that spirit we asked them to explain some differences between the culture of ramen in Japan versus here in the United States so one difference between ramen culture in Japan and in America is the average time someone eats their ramen so in Japan the average time is about 12 to 15 minutes in the u.s. it's about 40 minutes in America you want to socialize you want to talk about how your day went have a little sake in Japan they considered ramen is fast food get your ball ramen and get going with the day when Japan they don't do any takeout ramen the chef understands that the noodles will go bad by the time they eat it out the United States takeout is the norm so noodle manufacturers made noodles that will last until it gets home u.s. manufacturers might add a little bit of gluten or egg whites to keep it from going side so a perfect noodle in Japan might be different than what it would be in America another difference between Japan and America is how you pay for your ramen in Japan they tend to have ticking machines called ken Mikey you're able to select your ramen even order beer with it pay usually in cash once the ticket comes out you hand that ticket to the chef in the United States you'll have a waiter most likely and you'll be able to pay with cash or credit card you'll also need to tip in America even though the ramen might be different in Japan America there's always great ramen if you want to learn more about ramen check out ramen culture on instagram at ramen underscore culture huge thanks to mark for taking the time to share thoughts with us if you have a question about the history or science of food write it down in the comments well choose one question to research and answer in our next episode that's coming out March 25th until then just remember don't slurp your noodles or do you know you know it's actually kind of an interesting cultural day

Channel: Mental Floss

Views: 82,801

Rating: 4.8638697 out of 5

Keywords: John green, mental floss, idea channel, food history, ramen, history of ramen, where does ramen come from?, did you know food ramen, vlogbrothers, nerdfighters, the list show, $3 ramen vs $79 ramen, $3 ramen vs, history of japanese food, japanese food, ramen history, ramen noodles, ramen king, history of food, john green books, stephanie soo, stephanie soo ramen, instant ramen, who invented ramen?, who invented ramen noodles?, ramin, noodles, food facts, the history of ramen

Id: esEipHFkPOM

Length: 14min 0sec (840 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 26 2020