Nothing is more boring than a pack of instant noodles. As the last option for a dinner, bought in bulk, and ready to serve just after some minutes, instant noodles are cheap and not worth paying attention to.
The modest instant noodles have contributed significantly to the modern economy
Nothing is more boring than a pack of instant noodles. As the last option for a dinner, bought in bulk, and ready to serve just after some minutes, instant noodles are cheap and not worth to paying attention to.
However, these very modest characteristics make instant noodles an influent factor to everyone in the world.
The use of instant noodles everywhere, from the wealthiest universities to the poorest towns in developing countries has attracted the three great anthropologists Deborah Gewertz of Amherst University, Frederick Errington of Trinity University, and Tatsuro Fujikura of Kyoto University.
They decided to study their presence in Japan, the USA, and New Guinea, the importance of price, the mobility, and dry preservation of instant noodles. All are recorded in the book “The Noodle Narratives: The Global Rise of an Industrial Food into the Twenty-First Century”.
There are approximately 100 billion packs/bowls of instant noodles sold in 2012. It means each person eats averagely 14 packs of instant noodles/year.
It is obvious that the remarkable presence of instant noodles almost spreads all over the world. In 2012, According to the World Instant Noodles Association, there were approximately 100 billion packs/bowls of instant noodles sold. It means each person eats averagely 14 packs of instant noodles/year. The spicy and sour seasoning sachets in the packet are also adjusted to fit with a local taste from Asia to Mexico.
A survey conducted in a residential area of Tokyo revealed that instant noodles defeated computers, karaoke, and Walkman to become the most influencing invention in Japan during the 20th century.
Researchers recognize that instant noodles play a complicated role which is beyond their initial objectives. Instant noodles, as they argue, are parts of the “food sources” which allow the poverty to exist and form a class of consumer at the bottom of the economic pyramid. Instant noodles also have benefits of providing cheap nutrients to the poor.
Whether Koki Ando, the son of the inventor of instant noodles, is right to declare that this product can save the world at the 2010 Noodle Summit? In order to find the answer, reporters of Boston Global interviewed Ms. Deborah Gewertz (1 of the 3 anthropologists participating in the study).
Question: Can instant noodles be considered as an invention, ma’am?
Gewwertz: Japanese have long-standing ramen noodles. We are mentioning the real ramen with sophisticated ingredients and the well-cooked and time-consuming broth with all the most elite ingredients and formula.
In 1958, many people were hungry after the war. This is a part of the legend narrated in the museum:
“A man named Momofuku Ando, who witnessing his countrymen starving, wanted to help them by inventing an inexpensive food which could be preserved for a long time and was not time-consuming.
He remembered the principles to make tempura* and applied the fast cooking and processing method of this food to create his instant noodle. What he had to do was making noodles dried and soft by dipping them into a tank of oil quickly. As a result, noodles were dehydrated quickly.
Ando had continuously tested and started selling the first instant noodles in the world. “.
* Tempura is a Japanese food consisting of seafood or vegetables that have been battered and deep fried. The batter to make tempura is the mixture of wheat flour, egg, and cool water. Frying oil is the mixture of ordinal oil and sesame oil.
Momofuku Ando – the “Father” of instant noodles.
Why do you decide to study instant noodles?
Instant noodles appear so much in anthropology. It can be said that people in Papua New Guinea, where we (Deborah Gewertz – Amherst University and Frederick Errington – Trinity University) have been working since the 1960s and 1970s, are eating instant noodles and talking about instant noodles. Someone said that “If there is no instant noodle, there is no hope.”
What makes instant noodles different from any other mass products?
The most interesting thing we realize is that almost everyone in the world ate or has eaten instant noodles for different reasons and with different budgets. Therefore, in some links, instant noodles have become the global story of how people are connected and different from each other.
What is the difference between the meanings of instant noodles in different markets (that you studied)?
In Japan, instant noodles market has been saturated. Japanese people always have their real ramen available. However, there are still 600 new types of instant noodles with shiny packs are launched and introduced into this market.
The United State of America is a basic market or a commodity market. People buy instant noodles because they are cheap. There are three segments in the instant noodles market of the USA.
The largest segment of this market is for the poor. They are the ones who work behind fast-food counters and earn hourly pay. One interviewee said that he ate instant noodles for breakfast and lunch, but never for dinner because that would be sad.
The second segment is for prisoners. They buy instant noodles from the food warehouse and mix them with other ingredients such as pastries, peanut butter, and jam to make the version of instant noodles with the taste of freedom. They buy instant noodles because they can do whatever they want with them.
The third segment, of course, for college students. They are not allowed to cook in the dorm rooms, so instant noodles become an indispensable daily dish. “We are not allowed to cook in the dorm rooms, so we make instant noodles and enjoy the sunset. It seems that we live with instant noodles.”
And in Papua New Guinea, instant noodles have appeared since the 1980s. At that time, many people left their villages to the cities and a lot of them became hungry. They did not only depend on instant noodles but also liked them for other reasons. Everyone could enter the store and buy instant noodles. People really liked to experience a wide selection of various products. This had changed the life of Papua New Guinea people and turned them into consumers.
The book titled “The Fortune at the bottom of the Pyramid” – C.K. Prahalad:
“If you can find products for those who are at the bottom of the pyramid, you may not earn a lot of money from a few people, but you can earn a lot of money from all of them”.
She says that the people “at the bottom of the pyramid” are the target market segment of instant noodles manufacturers. Could you explain more about this?
C.K. Prahalad wrote a book titled “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid” which has significant influence.
He believes that although poor people have very little money, the money of all poor people can make a great number. “If you can find products for those who are at the bottom of the pyramid, you may not earn a lot of money from a few people, but you can earn a lot of money from all of them”.
If you can sell products to the people at the bottom of the pyramid and give them the right to experience, select, and satisfy their basic demands, they will shake the economy. The pyramid will also change and evolve.
We tend to think that instant noodles are “at the bottom of the pyramid”, but it is better to change our perception that more food from other places, the less secure it is.
What is the future of instant noodles?
I think instant noodles will not stop. It can be seen that very poor people always need energy to live.
We do not think that instant noodles can save the world to any extent, but we can conclude, quite reluctantly, that eating instant noodles brings more good things than bad ones to the poor. Exactly, they do not feed them but help them survive.
According to Kien Anh (Cafebiz) / Tri Thuc Tre/The Boston Global
