The Discovery of Ramen (The Asian Hall of Fame Series) by Phil Amara & Oliver Chin, illustrated by Juan Calle

When I was in college, I practically lived on ramen. I was paying my own way, including a small apartment in the East Village in NYC. I would walk down to Chinatown, where I bought stacks of dried ramen packages with various flavor packets and experimented with fresh vegetable, tofu, and even chicken for about 25¢ each. I always assumed ramen was just some conglomerate’s invention to make a fast, easy buck. How wrong I was!

In this debut story for Immedium’s new Asian Hall of Fame line of books, two American children, Emma and Ethan, are on a class trip exploring the downtown area where they live. Suddenly, a delicious aroma comes their way and following it, they discover a shop where everyone is eating noodle soup.

As they wonder what everyone is eating, a small red panda named Dao suddenly appears, and tells Emma and Ethan the people are eating ramen. Dao also tells them he is “…a guide to the many fabulous creators from Asia - inventions from food to fun.”

Ready to show them how ramen came to be, Dao whisks Emma and Ethan off to Yokohama, Japan in 1880 and begins to explain that it was the Chinese who brought ramen to Japan, where it was sold from pushcarts. 

Off to 1910, Dao tells them, a man named Momofuku Ando was born in Taiwan. Momofuku later moved to Japan. After WWII, when food was scarce and rationed, ramen was made from the wheat the Untied States shipped to Asia. Meanwhile Momofuku moved to the US, and began experimenting with ways to making a fast, easy, and inexpensive packaged ramen. Yes, Cup O’ Noodles (now called Cup Noodles) is a Momofuku invention, made by the company he founded - Nissan Foods.

Besides the history of ramen, Dao shows Emma and Ethan how the noodles are made, how to heat and eat Cup Noodles, and they even take a trip to several of the ramen museums located throughout Japan. So you can see, there is much to learn about ramen in this fun, colorfully illustrated picture book, including some fun facts, like how 100 billion instant noodles are sold annually, and how chefs all have secret ways of seasoning their ramen in different restaurants.

I really enjoyed reading about the history of ramen, and I suspect that whether your kids are already fans of these curly noodles in their various forms or not, this is a book that will definitely tempt their taste buds. I made them for my Kiddo when she was very young, and she’s been a ramen fan ever since.

The Discovery of Ramen is also a wonderful and tasty way to introduce young readers to Japanese history and culture. There is also a glossary at the back of the book, defining the many Japanese words used throughout the book. 

The Discovery of Ramen will be available November 14, 2017.

This book is recommended for readers age 4+
This book was sent to me by the publisher, Immedium Books

FYI: Momofuku Ando was honored on his 105th birthday with his own Google Doodle:

And, since I began this by saying that ramen was one of my main staples in college, here’s an interesting article about Momofuku and hungry college students from the Christian Science Monitor.