Google's Sophie Diao used an iconic Google Doodle to celebrate the would-be 105th birthday of instant noodles' and instant ramen's inventor on Thursday. Momofuku Ando, a Taiwanese-Japanese inventor who introduced the world to Cup Noodles, died in 2007 at the age of 96, due to heart failure.
Ando was born in Taiwan in 1910, while the Japanese occupied it. At the age of 23 he moved to Japan in order to become a Japanese citizen.
Soon after the end of World War II, Ando was inspired to invent instant ramen while he was walking along Japan's streets. That happened when he saw people waiting in long lines for hours, just to eat a tasty bowl of piping-hot ramen.
Ando started his experiments with ramen in 1957. However, he had difficulty finding the perfect balance of tasty noodles that did not get soggy after being boiled, according to Time.
Thanks to his wife, Ando was able to solve his flavor-texture problem. She explained that he must spray chicken soup onto the noodles, and then fry them up in tempura oil. Who knew? The founder of Nissin Food Products later introduced Cup Noodles in 1971.
Ando observed that people must eat "even (in) outer space," according to USA Today. In a bit of self-fulfilling prophesy, in 2005 Nissin prepared vacuum-packed instant ramen for Soichi Noguchi, a Japanese astronaut.
It all started when Ando first sold chicken broth noodles in plastic bags, from his home in Ikeda, Japan. The rest, as they say, is history.
Today, Nissin's product line includes instant ramen in plastic packaging, cups, and bowls. And in 2013, China alone ate 46.2 billion servings of instant noodles, topping the world.