I see in this morning's news that the Taiwanese-born Japanese inventor and businessman Momofuku Ando died last Friday (05 January 2007). He is best known for having invented instant ramen (ラーメン) noodles. His company and its product gave us the term Cup Noodle and kept university students everywhere from starving.

Ramen has pork in it, so being a vegetarian I've never had it. I saw lots of signs for it in Japan, also spelled らーめん.

cup noodle?

Are they what we call Pot Noodles?

Here there are two popular versions. Cup 'O Noodles which is about the size of a large coffee cup full of dried noodles and a powdered spice packet. You pour boiling water in the cup and add the contents of the spice packet and voila! 2 minutes later you have a cup of brothy noodles.

Ramen is the same principle but no cup. Bring a pan of water to boil. Add the square lump of dried noodles and spice packet. 2 minutes later - soup.

The square Ramen is by far the better deal at only 13 cents for a meal versus 89 cents for the cup version.

Are they what we call Pot Noodles?

I'm not sure. I picked up one in the grocery store about ten minutes ago, and it was a styrofoam cup wrapped in a cardboard sleeve with writing on it. It looked like this, though it said cup noodle without the -s.

Looks similar. Dried noodles, bits of other things that may or may not be dried meat or vegetables, some powdered stuff that looks as if it's intended to be spices. Mix it all together with boiling water and voila a plastic pot full of disgusting chemical gloop.

Trossl, you're back!!! Stick around this time, OK?

Some of the girls who worked for me used to eat pot noodles for their lunch. The smell was enough to drive me to the pub and I certainly never had any inclination to eat the contents of the pot.

I think they are quite good...they're healthy, too.