BEST Big Cup of Noodles in the Sky EVER

I have some sad news.

Momofuku Ando has passed away.

Right now, you are probably wondering why I am announcing the death of some obscure Japanese man or woman. Well, even if you don't realize it, Momofuku has probably had a dramatic impact on your life. The man INVENTED ramen noodles.

That's right the man behind the delicious salty broth, noodles that never quite cooked the right way, crinkly cellophane packages, etc has gone to the big cup of noodles in the sky.

As it was for most college students, Ramen was a part of my diet during my years in higher education. Granted, I didn't eat it every day… I was probably more of a weekly post bar this is great drunk food ramen eater, but I still did what every college student did…. I would drop $2 for a case of ramen and the beginning of the semester and when all other food options had expired, would indulge.

My favorite ramen related memory was when one of my good friends (Quoc) was in Morocco for the Peace Corp. For Christmas one year, I sent him about 10 packets of Ramen noodles, figuring that they would be an inexpensive thing to ship and provide him a taste of dorm life. So, I went to the store and bought the 10 packets for about $0.80, packed them up in a padded envelope (about $1.00) with a letter (about $0.10 worth of paper and ink) and brought the package up to the post office in Baker Hall. So all in all, about $1.90 worth of materials.

The man behind the counter weighed my package. He shook it. He added some more tape. He looked at the address. Then, he gave me the options…. "well, you could send this via airplane for $50.00," to which I inquired, "For $50, will you be bringing it there yourself?". Anyway, we haggled a bit, and I settled on sending it via pack-mule which would take at least 3 months for the bargain basement price of $15.00.

Anyway, so as you have to do when sending packages overseas, you have to declare the value. I triumphantly wrote "Ramen noodles $1.00" (I overestimated by about $0.10 as to not be embarrassed about sending such a crappy gift) and handed the slip back to him. He looked at it and the value and contents, and said "You really want to mail this?"

I really did. Apparently, even though it did travel by pack mule through who knows where and took 6 months to arrive and cost 1875% its value to get there, that ramen arrived just like it had come off the shelf.

And that is why I raise my fork full of salty goodness and drippy broth flavored water to you Momofuku.