A Brief History of Ramen and Stir Fry

Ramen and stir fry both have Asian histories with varying degrees of variance in recorded history. Ramen as a commodity has been across Eastern Asia in various forms and its true origin may never be known. Stir fry, as a method of cooking, has more concrete evidence in its origin. However origin is not the only important aspect of food. This review of the ramen and stir fry will cover the origin, some variation in their respective histories and their dishes, their place in the economy, and the health impacts of both.

To start, Ramen's origin story is unclear. Early investigation into the commodity's history by Barak Kushner revealed that the noodle was conceived in china, but the recipe for the noodle traveled from North, main, and southern China in an unknown period of time before making its way to Japan.1 Unfortunately his investigation could not correlate a time period to ramen's inception in China except for its place in history after the Meiji Restoration of Japan in 1868 since Meiji had existed before ramen was introduced. Additionally, once the process to produce the noodle became common knowledge, it is not surprising that the method to make a cheap noodle from wheat and wheat flour would have spread through China at any moment in history very quickly because even during golden ages the region had a large number of impoverished or hungry citizens due to quickly growing populations, food shortages from bad weather or a growing population, or even poverty making cheap food scarce. However, other records indicate that a scholar named Shu Shunsui may have been the person to propagate ramen throughout Japan.

The story of Shu Shunsui plays out like so: A scholar under Manchu rule in China wanted to escape Manchu dynasty rule by fleeing to a foreign country's court. He ended up settling in Tokugawa Japan's Mitsukuni: a feudal lord. Once settled, he shared his knowledge and in it was the recipe for the ramen noodle.2 Once again, the noodle's cheap ability to be made would have allowed the public to access another cheap source of food so the knowledge would spread by word of mouth like wildfire once unleashed. Unfortunately, one vital flaw exists in this narrative; the fact that Shu Shunsui was never recorded to have actually produced nor cook ramen for Mitsukuni.3 this means that diffusion of the recipe and process to make the noodle may not have come from Shu Shunsui at all. He could have even lied about its origin and claimed it be something he brought over. Thus making his narrative a claim to fame through the masses actually hollow and untrustworthy. Luckily, another narrative poses a different, more probably cause for the spreading of ramen across Japan.

The story of Rai Rai Ken in Tokyo during the 1900's posed another, more likely explanation to ramen's place in Japanese history. In this version, as discussed by Carlos Daniel Peralta in “The History of Ramen in Japan”, “Rai Rai Ken employed Chinese workers and served a noodle dish called Shina Soba. Shina Soba incorporated ingredients that resembles today's ramen such as roasted pork, Japanese fish cake, and nori seaweed into one dish. Interestingly, Japan was becoming industrialized and more urbanized during this time period. Japan’s industrialization and urbanization helped to popularize ramen. Shina soba was cheap and filling, providing plenty of calories for Japanese urban workers,”.4 To clarify, the dish ramen and the noodle ramen are used interchangeably in his narrative which is confusing. Because the description of the dish “Shina Soba” was still “cheap and filling” it is inferred that the dish, with the help of the newly hired Chinese workers, could be improved from a business perspective by changing the noodle from the soba noodle to the Chinese ramen noodle. To further clarify, soba is a noodle produced from pressed buckwheat and is also popular in Japan because it is easy and cheap to produce.5 However ramen, being made from wheat, flour, and baking soda would still be cheaper to mass produce and thus cheaper for a business such as Rai Rai Ken's Shina Soba. With this in mind, the Chinese workers he hired would have the knowledge of how to create a cheaper noodle that tasted similar enough to the soba noodle and would then replace the soba noodle with ramen because it was what they knew how to make and would be more profitable for the business. This version of history, with real world application and modern reasoning is the generally accepted narrative of how ramen spread in Japan though there is no definitive version across all accounts.

As mentioned previously, one of ramen's greatest characteristics is its cheap manufacturing process and ingredients. Several recipes for ramen all share the same base ingredients of wheat, flour, and baking soda.6 With the ease of access to these ingredients even the most poor households could afford, grow, or process the ingredients themselves via personal gardening, grinding, and distillation for each ingredient respectively. In addition, if the Rai Rai Ken narrative is the accepted version, Japan underwent extensive industrialization in the early 1900's.7 With more industrialization the mechanical noodle press would become popular and mass produced to meet popular demand; resulting in the manufacturing of ramen noodle becoming even cheaper to produce and consequently buy and would have a trickle down effect to the common household. In addition, with the noodle being so cheap to produce, it could be sold cheaply on the world market where poor households in other countries could benefit from a cheap source of carbohydrates. However for far shipment the noodle would have to be dried and contained in some sort of waterproof package so that it does not spoil in a fashion similar to bread because of its wheat based production. This would not be a limiting factor though because drying the noodle is ideal even for local consumption because drying it makes it lighter to carry and preserves it for a longer shelf life for local markets as well.

From the perspective of dieting and calorie consumption, ramen is not a bad option. The noodle itself is a simple source of carbohydrates since its main ingredients are wheat and flour. Even though this means the noodle has little to no nutritional value it still offers a cheap source of empty calories. Immigrant Chinese workers made use of this fact during their stays in Japan so the method is tried and true for hard labor based jobs and can easily translate to less physically intensive fields as well.8 However, anyone who has made ramen for themselves will likely site that it is too high in salt for a single meal, let alone multiple during the day. To counter this, one must simply not use the “seasoning packet” enclosed within most ramen blocks. The seasoning packet is where the salt, MSG, and other flavor related chemicals are introduced into the store bought, home cooked version of ramen. If that packet is thrown aside then the noodle itself is still just empty calories without health benefits, but that is not where the lesson ends. The ramen noodle alone can serve as a base of many dishes such as stir fry, lo mein, etc. In the same vein of perpetual stew or the hunter's hot pot from Eastern European wives tales the noodles can have most ingredients added to a bowl of plain noodles and flavored that way in addition to gaining actual nutritional value with whatever the household has available. Is the meat about to spoil? Boil it or sear it on a pan and add it to some freshly boiled ramen for a beef noodle dish or beef soup with noodles instead of potatoes. If it needs more flavor spices from a variety of cultures such as Indian, Greek, and of course Asian all mesh well with ramen because it is based on the same ingredients as bread. Vegetables can even be boiled with the noodles during preparation to save on time and water in low water environments. All of these factors lead to ramen being a versatile base for many dishes that are all cheap and easy to reproduce.

The next step from ramen is a dish that can be easily produced from ramen: stir fry. Luckily, unlike ramen, stir fry is easily traced through Chinese history. Derived from the word chao meaning “scraping and stirring over a fire” the term stir fry is the straightest translation taken from any Chinese cookbook.9 The symbol for chao containing the character for fire on the left and a new character that resembles a spoon shaped utensil scraping the side of a curved pan indicates that chao was invented from the practice already in existence.10 This means that the method while already existing before the symbol, was never recognized as unique because of how widespread and common it was. The curved pan called a wok has variations from cheap to expensive depending on size, curvature, and even material. Because of the cheaper variations being made from iron are typically large enough to feed a nuclear family and durable enough to last years it was a vital utensil to many if not all households. Interestingly, the symbol for chao can be traced back to 1945 when it made its debut in English in the cookbook How to Cook and Eat in Chinese by Buwei Yang Chao when the word was invented by her husband, Yuen Ren Chao who infamously loved playing with wordplay and puns when translating works such as Lewis Carrol's 'Alice in Wonderland' and the poem 'Jabberwocky'.11 Although Yuen's love for wordplay and puns was an extra hurdle for linguists, his invention of coining the method “stir fry” is still its origin. Unfortunately, an exact region could not be decided upon because of the method's general application in the common household and could be easily distributed via word of mouth.

An overview of stir fry's history would be incomplete without a short, easy to remember method to make the dish and try it; for research purposes of course. First one must gather ingredients and materials for food prep. Main ingredients consist of a type of noodle and a sauce. The noodles should be boiled to a suitable softness so that they do not have to be cooked very long in the final wok or pan. Other ingredients, including but are not limited to meats, fishes, and vegetables should be cut or diced into small bite sized portions to allow for quick cooking.12 This is in order to quickly and evenly cook non essential ingredients so that when all ingredients are in a wok or pan together they will be finished cooking at relatively the same time. Additionally all food prepared should be at room temperature by the time they should enter the wok or pan meaning they should at least be thawed once sliced or diced. For tools, a wok is recommended, but if without a wok a medium sized pot or pan will work well enough. To stir a large spoon or ladle that is long enough to dip into the pot or wok without placing one's hand to close to the heat is necessary for obvious reasons. Next, to decide what order to place ingredients. In general, the sauce selected should be added first to heat up and saute with other ingredients. Next, any meats such as beef or chicken followed by fish such as salmon or shrimp should be added to cook the longest. Cooking either meat or fish should take approximately 2 to 4 minutes on medium heat or until tender. Noodles follow meats since they need to absorb whatever sauce was selected and slow down the cooking of the meat. Additionally the noodles serve as a measure to how long the entire dish should be sauteed; i.e. if the noodles start to stick to the bottom of the pan or wok then cooking has gone on too long and should cease immediately.13 Lastly vegetables should be added due to their short cooking time among in process noodles. Continuously stir all ingredients in the wok or pan until the sauce has thoroughly integrated into all ingredients or until the noodles start to stick to the bottom. Noodles sticking to the bottom is not a recommended tell of when to finish though as mentioned previously because this runs the possibility to overcook/ burn. Though this explanation is longer in length comparatively to microwave instructions, they are meant to be a general guideline until one “gets comfortable” for preparing the dish.

As the longer than hoped instructions reveal, the dish is highly variable and customizable which is why the dish is so widely practiced and accepted. The bare necessities of stir fry are noodles and sauce in a pan long enough to suit one's taste. The cook could let the noodles mingle with the sauce for a long time to severely soften them and dry up the sauce or for a very short time for more al dente noodles and runny sauce. Other ingredients such as meat or vegetables are also up for debate depending one one's taste, income, and ingredient availability. Personally I prefer cut up chicken and spinach for both of their cheap availability and easy preparation. From personal experience, store bought “stir fry sauce” or seasoning is not really necessary since the method can be easily applied to a simple soy or teriyaki sauce over noodles, meat, and vegetables for a tasty and nutritionally balanced meal. Furthermore, ramen can be used in stir fry as a cheap and easy noodle base for the dish.14 For the household perspective, whether for a parent making a meal for their children, or low food security college student living away from home, another option for ramen can be opened up to them with relative economic ease and variety of option once explored. From a professional or business perspective, the high level of customization also allows for easy production of it in the scenario where the customer can dictate what goes into their version from a fairly common and wide variety of ingredients and the quick cooking of the dish allows for it to be ordered and distributed with absolute ease and speed.15 Offering stir fry at a food stall/ cart or a restaurant opens up that establishment to even the pickiest of eaters since the dish can be distilled to simple noodles and sauce or altered to dietary restrictions such as food allergies, vegetarian requirements, or simply opinionated taste.

Ramen and stir fry, though appearing different, have many shared qualities. Both offer low income families a cheap option for a meal while at the same time offering high bidders a wide variety of meals in the restaurant realm. Ramen's history may forever be shrouded in mystery, but Rai Rai Ken may be the most suitable version for the 20th century origin even if ramen itself had existed before hand, but was simply not widely popularized in modern culture Japan. Stir fry has a similar, long running unknown history, but its definitive origin by name in a translated cookbook is absolute. Both the commodity and dish have since be distributed worldwide from Easter Asia and continue to flourish in economically strained and bountiful countries alike due to its highly diverse set of applications.

Bibliography

Bellet, Katte. “Stir-Fry : a History.” Shared Taste, September 24, 2014. Accessed November 30th, 2019. <https://sharedtaste.nl/2014/09/19/stir-fry/.>

Herman, Alison. “The Messy History of Ramen.” First We Feast. First We Feast, June 1, 2018. Accessed November 30th, 2019.

<https://firstwefeast.com/eat/2014/05/george-solt-on-the-messy-history-of-ramen.>

Larsen, Heidi. “Sesame Soba Noodles: Foodiecrush.com.” foodiecrush, December 10, 2018. https://www.foodiecrush.com/sesame-soba-noodles/.

Rayon, Carlos Daniel Peralta. “The History of Ramen in Japan (Carlos).” Noodles on the Silk Road. Scholar Blogs, July 2, 2018. <https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/noodles/2018/07/02/the-history- of-ramen-in-japan-carlos/.>“

Roberts, J A.G. “China to Chinatown.” University of Chicago Press, October 1, 2004. Accessed November 30th, 2019. <https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/C/bo3536662.html>

“Technique of the Quarter: Stir Fry.” The Culinary Institute of America. The Culinary Institute of America. Accessed October 30, 2019. <https://www.ciachef.edu/uploadedFiles/Pages/Admissions_and_Financial_Aid/Educators/

_Educational_Materials/Technique of_the_Quarter/techniques-stir-fry.pdf.>

Tsu, Timothy Y. Review of Slurp! A Social and Culinary History of Ramen—Japan’s Favorite Noodle Soup, by Barak Kushner. The Journal of Japanese Studies 40, no. 1 (2014): Accessed November 30th, 2019. 224-228. doi:10.1353/jjs.2014.0038.

1Timothy, Tsu. Review of Slurp! A Social and Culinary History of Ramen—Japan’s Favorite Noodle Soup, by Barak Kushner. The Journal of Japanese Studies 40, no. 1 (2014). Pg 225.

2Alison, Herman. “The Messy History of Ramen.” First We Feast. First We Feast, June 1, 2018.

3Ibid.

4Carlos Daniel Peralta “The History of Ramen in Japan (Carlos).” Noodles on the Silk Road. Scholar Blogs, July 2, 2018.

5Heidi Larsen, “Sesame Soba Noodles: Foodiecrush.com.” (Only used this to confirm soba was a buckwheat based noodle and distinguishable from ramen by ingredient, not just quality nor price)

6Timothy, Tsu. Review of Slurp! A Social and Culinary History of Ramen—Japan’s Favorite Noodle Soup, by Barak Kushner. The Journal of Japanese Studies 40, no. 1 (2014). Pg 225.

7Carlos Daniel Peralta “The History of Ramen in Japan (Carlos).” Noodles on the Silk Road. Scholar Blogs, July 2, 2018.

8Timothy, Tsu. Review of Slurp! A Social and Culinary History of Ramen—Japan’s Favorite Noodle Soup, by Barak Kushner. The Journal of Japanese Studies 40, no. 1 (2014). Pg 225.

9Katte, Bellet.“Stir-Fry : a History.” Shared Taste,

10Ibid.

11Ibid.

12 “Technique of the Quarter: Stir Fry.” The Culinary Institute of America.

13 “Technique of the Quarter: Stir Fry.” The Culinary Institute of America.

14Alison, Herman. “The Messy History of Ramen.” First We Feast. First We Feast, June 1, 2018. (Re used this source because it also mentioned substituting ramen as the base and an acceptable, original 4th source could not be found)

15J. A. G. Roberts, “China to Chinatown.” University of Chicago Press.