Posted by Adam Kuban, June 27, 2008 at 10:45 AM
Student Erick Montes created this instant ramen noodle soup packaging that's based on the work of Japanese "superflat" artist Takashi Murakami. "I originally set out to do only one flavor (shiitake mushroom) to communicate the references to hallucinogenics in Murakami’s work," Montes says, "and also as a metaphor for the bombing of Hiroshima, which Murakami sees as the birth of today’s westernized Japan."
I love how the bowl also forms a mouth—and that it's a cut-out that reveals the product. Snappy design. [via Superpunch]
Posted by Robyn Lee, October 23, 2007 at 5:30 PM
The above photo is not photoshopped—it really is a bowl of ramen topped with soft serve ice cream, cones and all. I love ramen and I love soft serve ice cream, but methinks the combination of the two would not placate my rumbling belly. Japan it UP! has more details about the ramen shop, which also offers yogurt ramen, hot cocoa ramen and coffee ramen.
Posted by Robyn Lee, June 13, 2007 at 4:30 PM
Ben and Nate roamed Asia for months on a belly-expanding mission to find the best bowl of noodles on the continent, or possibly the world. Today they revealed their number one bowl hailing from a greasy ramen shop in Tokyo named Ramen Jiro:
As I look around and take in the sights and the sounds (mostly raucous slurping), the overwhelming fragrance in the room is a deep hue of soul wrenching pork stock. This is not a pretty bowl of noodles; it will taunt you, it will tease you, and after 5 minutes of eating the crap out of this thing it will somehow breed more noodles, more bean sprouts, more cabbage, more melty, fatty, juicy chunks of days-cooked pork, more chopped garlic, more soup, more...ramen. I notice that every single bowl that goes back on the counter has been completely demolished, perhaps only a bit of soup remaining. It becomes very clear to me that absolutely no one can leave there without finishing the whole thing.
Read the rest of Ben and Nate's "unforgettable journey of taste-bending glory," preferably not on an empty stomach unless you want to feel sharp pangs of ramen hunger. Also be sure to check out their other top Asian noodle picks: #2 and #3, and #4 and #5.
If you're interested in hearing more about the greatness of Ramen Jiro and the shame that results from failing to finish a bowl or the glory that comes after polishing off your order, listen to the excellent ramen battling stories in "Ramen Jiro Noodles: A Test of Greatness" on NPR.
Posted by Adam Kuban, January 8, 2007 at 12:39 PM
If your college diet consisted partly—oh, who are we kidding—mostly of instant ramen, you have Momofuku Ando to thank (or blame.)
Mr. Ando, the product's inventor, died Friday at 96. Says the Los Angeles Times:
As recounted in his 2002 autobiography, "How I Invented Magic Noodles," Ando's eureka moment occurred in 1957, when he noticed a long line of customers waiting for service outside a noodle shop. He asked himself if there was not a faster way to serve all those busy-but-famished construction workers and salarymen who were working late shifts and overtime hours to rebuild Japan after the war.
Photograph from Reuters
