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If you ask what is each person’s favorite dish, there will surely be hundreds of different answers. But if you ask what is the most familiar dish, that every household has, then it must be instant noodles. Instant noodles have existed for many generations, regardless of the differences in personal taste, or the birth of many types of hot delicacies, the chewy noodles with simple seasoning packets, no vegetables, no meat still have an important place in each of our hearts. Thinking slowly, we immediately realize that instant noodles are associated with all aspects of joy, anger, love, and hate in life, not simply a matter of good or bad.
Instant noodles – A witness to the history of the world…
Anthropologist Deborah Gewertz once wrote a book to analyze the impact of… instant noodles on human life, in which she described instant noodles as “the invention of mankind”, an “anthropological plate of food” that helps us understand the history, culture, and emotions of many different generations and races.
Clearly, for each individual and country, instant noodles represent a different meaning.
When it was first born in Japan, it was a vivid witness to post-World War II life. Instant noodles were born because of famine, when the Japanese wanted to find a cheap, easy-to-process and easy-to-port food (based on the fact that the Japanese could not even have a permanent home). Mentioning instant noodles is mentioning a period of national hardship, when the will to live of the Japanese developed strongly and shone brighter than ever.
In Korea, instant noodles are sometimes a sad dark corner behind the most modern and luxurious society in Asia. Workers in Korea greet each other with the phrase: “Have you eaten noodles yet?” instead of eating rice. In early 2019, when a worker died in an accident, people found in his backpack a bottle of water and… a half-eaten package of noodles. In Korea, instant noodles bring both sorrow and respect, as it is a companion, a strong and authentic voice of the little-known bottom class.
Instant noodles have a more humorous color in the US. According to Deborah, it is the number one favorite dish of… prisoners in this country. Prisoners like to vary instant noodles with strange ingredients such as coriander, cheese, peanut butter, etc. “They seek freedom” – Deborah explains – “With instant noodles, you can do anything and create variations that are deeply personal. This is what people behind bars always crave.”
… to the memory of Vietnamese people
Not outside the general trend, Vietnam itself also has a close relationship with instant noodles, in a completely unique way, no class of people is the same as another class of people.
Pizza, fried chicken, pearl milk tea may be unfamiliar to your grandparents and parents, but when it comes to instant noodles, we immediately have a common voice. Since ancient times, when people had to queue up to buy food with coupons, instant noodles have appeared. Every time the store ran out of rice, people would take noodles instead. Every time instant noodles are mentioned, it is mentioned the very difficult, but also very touching life of a class of people with coupons.
Until modern times, when everything is abundant, instant noodles have many other social roles in our lives.
For the student class, it is 2,000 VND/package of instant noodles for children, spicy and sour instant noodles, dried beef instant noodles that you can eat while slurping in front of the gate of Viet Duc school. Cheap snacks are not special, but they are still sought after, because everyone wants to “buy a ticket to childhood” through the familiar flavors of childhood.
For students, international students, and young people who are “lost in their heads and butts”, instant noodles are memories of hardship. As students away from home, international students, everyone has experienced years of eating noodles instead of rice. A simple package of noodles suddenly turns into a miracle on hungry nights, with only chewy noodles and a packet of sour, spicy, and rich sauce, but why is it so delicious? The impression of “a bite when hungry” is so profound that, when people can afford to buy rice, soup, and meat, they still sometimes remember student instant noodles.
Because of memories like that, I think we will still eat instant noodles and love instant noodles. People can stop going to a restaurant because the food is no longer delicious, stop loving something because they are bored, but it is difficult to turn away from the memories and emotions that instant noodles bring.