A Museum Pays Tribute to Japan’s Favourite Instant Food

Japan’s Nissin Foods just opened a cup noodle museum charting the history of the instant snack which from Japan’s shores branched out to be one or the world’s most popular snacks. Reportedly last year the humble cup noodle was scoffed, slurped and swallowed 95 billion times around the globe, according to the Japanese instant noodles manufacturers association.

At the museum kids are encouraged to create their own noodles, design their own cups and assemble their own toppings – apparently there are 5,000 combinations. Visitors can see how cup designs have evolved over the decades and pay tribute to Momofuku Ando, the founder of this dish.

Momofuku Ando, the man credited with inventing instant noodles, entered the food business when Japan was hungry after World War II and invented the world’s first instant noodles – chicken ramen noodles sold in bags – in 1958. Momofuku launched the cupped version in 1971 with a pre-cooked slab of noodles in a waterproof styrofoam container. Momofuku said he was inspired to develop the product when he saw a long line of people waiting to buy soup noodles at a black market stall in post-war Japan.

“Peace prevails when food suffices,” he was quoted as saying.

Noodle Museum

the emerging fish factor after Japan’s disaster

Japan seafood industry is on its knees and it will take time and major investments to take it back to the thriving asset to the nation’s economy that it was. Likewise also people consumption habits on certain items may have changed for the short-medium term. Expensive fish delicatessen may not be on most people’s minds for a while. These consideration all have relevant economic repercussions outside Japan’s boarders when you think that, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Japan is the world’s largest importer of food and the second-largest consumer of seafood.

In all crisis lies an opportunity and in this one as well with a crippled Japan, other seafood producing nations may take their chance to increase supply. So who are the winners? As recently reported by Bloomberg, an increase in demand from Japan may favour fish companies from Norway and other Asian countries like Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. Moreover other suppliers will have an opportunity to gain market share on Japan’s usual seafood export countries, like US, China, South Korea, etc. According to data on the website of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japan exported 195 billion yen ($2.4 billion) of seafood last year.

Reversely, countries like Alaska, whose number one seafood buyer is Japan, may benefit from increased Japanese demand, but are also likely to be in trouble for high-end products like pollock roe and herring roe which may not be on people’s priority list during hard times.