the ramen blog & other goodies!

Almost a year after we reported on Nissin’s new refillable Cup Noodles, environmental blog treehugger steps in with more details and pictures. I really like the fact that you can design your own cup liner, and as much as I’d have a blast designing my own “Cup”, since the liner is presumably made of paper…isn’t that like two steps forward, one step back? Still, it is a big step forward and we’re still eagerly forward to the day when these are available in the U.S. Nissin, are you listening?

South Korean artist Sang-Wook Lee creates works of art…from instant ramen! One art show used 20,000 packages of instant ramen and took him and his volunteer students 5 days just to open the packages!

Check out the amazing video of his art at cnn.com

(and a tip of the hat to Jake for the heads up!)

I wish I knew about this before I got married! Natsuki Sakai and Ai Ito had their marriage ceremony at the Asahikawa Ramen Village, a ramen theme park in Hokkaido, Japan.
The groom, Sakai, told guests “We want our marriage to be as long and endless as a noodle and stay as hot as the broth in which noodles are served.”

Apparently, the only reason Sakai and bride Ai Ito could be married at the ramen village is because Sakai’s father is the head manager. I wonder if the RSVP cards read “shoyu or tonkotsu” instead of “chicken or beef”.

No word on how many nights the groom had to spend sleeping on the couch for pulling this off.

Source: Mainichi Daily News

It’s a shame that ramen yatai (street vendors) are disappearing from the streets of Japan. Catch a glimpse of a dying breed at Tokyo Daily Photo.

Even the Wall Street Journal is catching on to ramen. Check out this article, complete with video, about Ivan Ramen, the ramen shop in Tokyo opened by New York chef Ivan Orkin!

Ever think of the instant ramen industry as good corporate citizens? Ever thought they might be as greedy and corrupt as the music or oil industry? If you think the latter, you may be more right than you thought!

You’ve probably already seen Transformers, the movie? How about transforming ramen? via Canned Dogs 2007

Surveys galore about what Japanese people think about ramen (and an animated Cup Noodles commercial)

No, we did not get bought out by a daytime talk show and no, People magazine is not sponsoring us. Here’s one woman’s account of how she lost 10 pounds by eating ramen! (Oh, and the picture above…*not* the woman on the ramen diet!)

Are you curious about how the ramen in a can tastes like?

Everyone’s heard of the famous hot dog eating contests. But is the world ready for a ramen eating contest?

Picture this…you’re in Japan…armed with a laptop and a wi-fi connection, and you want a bowl of ramen, but you don’t know where to go. What to do, what to do?

Sony is probably the last company you would turn to in the quest for ramen, but leave it to them to come up with the X-Ramen Radar, a software program designed to help ramen fans find their favorite food by cross-referencing your wi-fi location with a database of ramen houses. Crisis averted!

Sony, my hat’s off to you!

via gizmodo