The Ramen King and I (Review)
Aug 22nd, 2009 by Ad Blankestijn
This book is like the cup of instant noodles on its front cover: light, easy to digest, but a bit lacking in nourishment. Probably I felt so because I came to it with the wrong expectation. Interested in books about Japanese food, I was hoping to learn more about instant ramen and its inventor, Momofuku Ando, and the company he founded, but instead I got a personal record about the author, Andy Raskin (who, by the way, is fascinated by Japanese culture and fluent in the language). Plagued by an all too hectic love life, as a therapy Raskin is advised to start writing imaginary confessional letters to a sort of God figure – and he selects Mr Ando, the inventor of Cup Noodles, as his unseen spiritual guide.
[From my photostream on Flickr]
There are some engaging anecdotes in the book, such as how Raskin travels to Osaka to interview the then 94-year old Mr Ando without an appointment (and without wearing a suit and tie or even bringing namecards) and is rebuffed by Nissin’s public relations department. They politely show him the Instant Ramen Museum in Ikeda, as Japanese are good in smothering bothersome foreigners in kindness without giving them what they want. Other stories demonstrate Raskin’s enormous love for ramen – he travels all the way from Osaka to Fukuoka, 622 kilometers by Shinkansen, just to slurp a bowl of Hakata Ramen in one of the famous food stalls in Nakasu. It is also nice to hear that Raskin is fond of food manga as Shota’s Sushi, Natsuko’s Sake, Oishinbo and of course Ramen Discovery Legend. In the grand finale of the book Raskin gatecrashes the megalomaniac space-themed funeral of Mr Ando. And he manages to fix his life.
[From my photostream on Flickr]
For a personal record that is told with humor, this is an original set-up, but I just missed something deeper about ramen and Japanese food. New readers should adjust their expectations accordingly.
I find it also difficult to see how Mr Ando can be considered as a spiritual guide. Raskin quotes from Ando’s essays and collected sayings, but can anything be more banal than “Peace follows from a full stomach?” Although another reviewer calls these pronouncements “Zenlike nuggets”, to consider this as “Zen” is blasphemy. Mr Ando was an entrepreneur and not a philosopher.
[From my photostream on Flickr]
Raskin also quotes lavishly from Ando’s memoirs, and discovers that Ando was not honest in telling his own life story. In other words, a good critical (=independent) biography of Momofuku Ando is what we need. Ando seems to have been able to turn everything he touched into a business. How did he do that? What kind a man was he? What did his Chinese origins mean for his invention of Cup Noodles? These questions are still waiting for an answer.
In the meantime, have a nice bowl of ramen!
The Ramen King and I, How the Inventor of Instant Noodles Fixed My Love Life by Andy Raskin (Gotham Books)
Sorry you didn’t enjoy the book as much as some other readers, Ad. If you’re looking for a biography of Ando, the best is probably “The Story of the Invention of Instant Ramen,” the Nissin-published English translation of Ando’s memoir, 魔法のラーメン (Maho no ramen). It’s available through Nissin (in Japan), and at the Instant Ramen Invention Museum gift shop (and sometimes pops up on used bookstore sites in the US).
Hello Andy,
Thank for your comment. As regards a biography of Ando, I would prefer *not* to have his officially-sanctioned and “cleaned-up” memoir (in fact, a sort of hagiography), but rather an independent biography by an outsider! As you write in your book, Ando tried to “hide” his first son and there may be more like that. I do not only mean these negative things, but also other questions which could only be posed by a critical researcher: how does Ando compare to other post-war entrepreneurs in Japan? How was his management style? What was the judgment of his contemporaries, for example in the fifties and sixties?
As regards The Ramen King and I, it is mostly a matter of wrong expectation that led to my disappointment. I started reading it as a book on Japanese food, which is one of my interests also in these pages, and found it to be more like a personal record. As such there is nothing wrong with it, on the contrary, the set-up is quite original and there is a lot of humor. But to me especially the Japanese food angle is interesting, about which I feel you know a lot – I just wanted more of it in The Ramen King. Perhaps in your next book?
P.S. I have amplified the review and changed the wording in some places as I felt I gave some matters too short shrift.
Thanks for clarifying, Ad. I totally respect your opinions about the book, though I hope you’ll forgive me if I challenge your assertion about Ando not being a philosopher. In books such as “How to Escape from Difficulty” and “Thus Spake Momofuku,” he offers guidelines for how to have peace in your life, how to deal with worldly desires, how to be a good person, etc. I’d even go so far as to say that his points-of-view on these topics are Zen-like. In fact, they are so Zen-like that he is not saying anything new. As you say, it’s banal. But what fascinated me was not the originality of Ando’s philosophical ideas, but that he delivered them in the context of inventing instant noodles. To me, that juxtaposition is just so strange and wonderful.
I, too, would love to see a thoroughly reported biography of Ando. I fear, however, that it’s a long shot. It would require the cooperation of family members, Nissin employees, etc., and they are, as you know, protective of the legend. It would be a costly research project, and given Ando’s marginal status as a world figure, I’m not sure that filling in the holes and setting the record exactly straight (Was he really innocent of selling military property during WWII, the charge that led to his torture at the hands of the military police? Was he really tortured?) would be worth the resources it would require. I hope that I’m wrong, as I’d be curious to know the answers. Though I also enjoy Ando’s story as he tells it — with its mix of humility and outsized ego. I tried to show where Japanese journalists had poked holes in his story. Perhaps another reporter will dig deeper.
Meanwhile, if you’re looking for something less cleaned up, if you read Japanese your best option might be his first memoir, 奇想天外の発想 (Conception of a Fantastic Idea). Published in 1983, it is far less whitewashed than his later books. It contains, for instance, details about his childhood in Taiwan and about his numerous and varied business adventures before and after his invention of instant noodles. He also writes about his relationships with distributors and employees, and about some key business decisions, so you get a good sense of his management style.
Sorry for my late reaction due to a string of business trips, but thank you again for your suggestions and additions! I’ll try out the biography you mention and indeed, I can see what you mean with “what fascinated me was not the originality of Ando’s philosophical ideas, but that he delivered them in the context of inventing instant noodles. To me, that juxtaposition is just so strange and wonderful.” That is wonderfully expressed and something I can fully agree with!