Folklore of Ramen
How a Simple Noodle Defined Post WWII Japan
Abstract
Ramen simply means “pulled noodle”, a surprisingly quaint definition given it’s impact on Japanese and global cuisine. However, it’s Ramen’s simplicity that has ushered its rise to global recognition and forever changed the fabric of Japanese culture. Ramen represents the rise of Japan’s post WWII culture and reflects the diversity of its individual communities and states. Ramen is a “food of contradictions” that represents both the new and old, local and global and simple and complex. Ramen’s ability to adapt and infiltrate popular culture has catapulted this simple dish of pulled noodles into an integral piece of Japanese material folklore.
"Japanese cuisine may be noted for its subtlety, the way the droop of a pine needle or a single cherry blossom signifies everything you need to know about the progress of the season, but it also has its heavy artillery. Tonkotsu ramen, whose broth is made from pork bones boiled halfway to eternity, is one of its blunt force weapons
Jonathan Gold