This AP story by Adam Goldberg was published the other day on the international AP wire and was reprinted all over the world. About 3/4 through the article there is a mention of rameniac.com

“Rickmond Wong, a Web designer....... has closely monitored..... He believes.....he says....Wong, who eats about 200 bowls a year...but he does have favorite: Santouka, Asa Ramen and Gardena Ramen.”

http://www.ap.org

http://www.news.google.com

QUESTION for Rickmond and readers: why is RAMEN called LAMEN in Taiwan and China? With an L instead of an R?

And does everyone know that ramen was NOT an invention of the Japanese, but of a Taiwanese immigrant to Japan who first invented ramen and later formed the Nisshin company. He has a Japanese name, Momofuku Ando, but he was born in Taiwan with a Chinese name Wu Bai-fu. So RAMEN is not a Japanese “thing”, it is a Chinese “idea”, created by a Taiwanese man named Wu. Sadly, after he went to Japan, he became Japanized and ordered his PR people at Nisshin to never refer to him as Wu ever! But the world should know that Ando-san was Chinese, not Japanese. Just for the record. SMILE
Ando was born into a wealthy family in the city of Chiayi in Taiwan in
1910, when the island was under Japanese colonial rule. His first
business venture was a trading company in Taipei, before he moved to
Japan at the age of 23, to study economics at Ritsumeikan University,
Kyoto.

http://www.thetandd.com/articles/2008/06/29/business/doc4865c3de0de94396251675.txt

LINK to story here

Rickmond Wong, a Web designer and self-proclaimed ramen expert who writes about his favorite topic on at rameniac.com, has closely monitored the gradual emergence of high-quality, authentic ramen shops in the Los Angeles area.

He believes it’s tied to the growing economic clout of Asian nations and American enthusiasm for all things Japanese, including animation, video games, cartoons and food.

“These days people are interested (in Japanese pop culture) in a much more sophisticated manner than in the past, when aspects of a foreign culture were typically exoticized and viewed through a post-colonialist lens — ‘Oh, look at what strange things these people eat,’” he says. “It’s high time for ramen to take its place in the pantheon of a multicultural American diet.”

Wong, who eats about 200 bowls of ramen a year and has sampled noodles at many of the dozens of ramen restaurants in Los Angeles, complains that “the bulk of them” are “fairly mediocre.” But he does have his favorites: Santouka, a branch of a Japanese chain, as well as two independent shops, Asa Ramen and Gardena Ramen.

Wong, the self-described rameniac, says he plans to visit New York to try Ippudo, testing his theory that real ramen has finally arrived in the United States.

“We are in ramen renaissance,” he says.

haha thanks for the post and link tampopo! i have no idea how to search for AP articles, and was wondering when this one would come out =)

by the way, ramen is called ‘la-men’ or ‘lai-mein’ in chinese because it means ‘pulled noodles’. to ‘la’ is to pull… and one of the theories of the origin of the japanese term is that it comes from this original chinese word.

rameniac - 15 July 2008 11:37 AM

haha thanks for the post and link tampopo! i have no idea how to search for AP articles, and was wondering when this one would come out =)

by the way, ramen is called ‘la-men’ or ‘lai-mein’ in chinese because it means ‘pulled noodles’. to ‘la’ is to pull… and one of the theories of the origin of the japanese term is that it comes from this original chinese word.

Hi Richmond, I am Danny Bloom in Taiwan, remember we chatted last year when King of Ramen died and I tried to tell news media he was Taiwanese not Japanese by origin. Nobody heard me. Sigh.

AHA, so that is it, you explained the mystery to me. Because in Taiwan everyone says LA MEN,,,,,i thought they were mispronoucing the R of Japanese pronouncation RA MEN = LA MEN, so I thought the Taiwanese were copying the Japanese R but subbing an L, but in fact, it is the Japanese who took LA MIEN, LA MEN and changed the L into R because they cannot say L very well as in I LOVE YOU comes out I ROVE YOU. I see now. So yes, it all started in China and China, NOT JAPAN! tell the AP this! I wrote to adam goldman but no reply his email

danny
Tufts 1971

I am on vacation, returning at the end of the month. If urgent, please contact City Desk at 212-621-1670.

Adam Goldman
Staff Writer
The Associated Press
NYC Bureau
212-621-7449