Category: What’s Entertaining?

It’s midnight, your parents are asleep, but you are starving. Looking through the kitchen, your initial expectations of cupboards brimming with your favorite snacks fall short. Instead, you’re left staring at the cold, barren wasteland of your refrigerator shelves, desolate save for the random ketchup bottle, carton of spoiled milk, and jar of mayo. 

Damn it.

Your pride and stomach battle into the night as you contemplate spoon feeding condiments into your mouth—anything to occupy the empty expanse that is your stomach. But, eventually, you come to your senses and regain your sanity.

What the hell would you do?

Your instincts kick in: it’s practically second nature at this point. You grab the square package, sliding out the fried noodle cake and plopping it into the boiling hot water. At last, the end of your starvation is near, measured by the two-minute recommended cooking time on the Maruchan packet. Finally, you sprinkle in the oddly colored, MSG-loaded chicken seasoning onto your bowl like salt bae sprinkles coarse sea salt on a medium rare filet mignon. Slurping down your midnight snack, it tastes obscenely salty, watery, and artificial. 

But don’t lie. On those late, lonely nights, those instant noodles taste like a meal from a Michelin 3-star restaurant.

***

Whether it be a hungry teenager, a broke college student, or an overworked, nine-to-five adult, instant ramen has undoubtedly become a staple in kitchens worldwide since its invention in 1958. And, I mean, it’s easy to see why. With it costing an average of thirteen cents in supermarkets and taking a maximum of five minutes to make, instant noodles fit snugly into the hustle and bustle of everyday life, seasoning people’s lives with an extremely heavy, beef-flavored hand. 

But, what’s so weird about this makeshift meal is that, frankly, it’s freakin’ delicious. Let’s be real: that small, off-white colored chunk of wavy noodles and yellow powder taste absolutely phenomenal. There’s countless explanations for this disparity. Perhaps it’s the fact that one bowl of Cup Noodles has forty-five percent of your recommended sodium intake, making it a scarily salty snack (that you shouldn’t eat more than 2.22… times a day for those keeping track at home). Maybe it’s due to the massive amounts of monosodium glutamate, a flavor enhancer that gives ramen it’s savory, artificial kick. It’s probably safe to say that ramen is not good for the body, but good for the soul.

Or, most convincingly, it could be because society adores efficient products designed to streamline the lives of everyday citizens.

See, to eat instant ramen is literally to consume consumerism (see what I did there?). Try to think of any other full meal that can be purchased by the sixty-fours and tastes exactly the same each time you make it. With American ramen companies such as Maruchan releasing new flavors like Creamy Mushroom, Picante Beef, and Oriental (ironic, I know), America has rapidly simplified this artisanal Japanese delicacy into a microwaveable, machine-made fast food product. 

Other countries seem to take an opposite approach. Indonesia’s famous Indomie ramen noodles use five different flavor and spice packets to pack that South Asian punch when imitating their own national dish in instant noodle form. Japan has created an instant ramen bowl so complex it has won a Michelin Star.  Costing around $30 for a pack of four on Amazon, I find these inventions to be a complete steal when compared to the dainty plates from high-end restaurants in Chicago or Los Angeles. Now, these innovative pre-made noodle dishes are what I call ramen.

In fact, I’ve even managed to whip up something in my own kitchen that can easily knock the commercial edge of a pack of ramen out of your bowl. Here’s my very own ramen creation, crafted on the basis of countless late homework nights and hungry study breaks.

Jason’s Not-So-Instant Ramen Recipe:

• Heat a pot of water to a boil
• Add Shin Ramen flavor packet and noodles
• Cook until noodles separate from the clump
• Stir to combine, then carefully crack an egg on top of your pot
• Place enoki mushrooms on the other side of the pot
• Allow the egg to poach and the mushrooms to blanch in the boiling soup
• Top with scallions, serve with a side of kimchi

Although it takes an extra ten minutes or so to prep, this recipe can substitute for a substantial lunch or dinner. To be honest, this recipe has made me love instant ramen so much that my parents have placed a “ramen quota” on my consumption: only two packs or less of ramen per month. As a practical and obedient son, I naturally handle this limit with one of my favorite quotes.

“Rules were made to be broken.” 

                                 -an absolute genius

While instant ramen has penetrated into the cupboards and lives of nearly every American alive, its true cultural and innovative roots still remain elusive. Halfway across the world, Asian countries continue to symbolize their backgrounds, providing delicious yet accessible forms of their nation’s favorite dishes to their people. It’s vital that we recognize and come to respect the culture behind one of America’s favorite midnight snacks and explore the various other forms of our curly-blocked, salty-powdered friend.

I promise, they’ll become instant favorites.

Works Cited

Brickman, Sophie. “The History of the Ramen Noodle.” The New Yorker. The New Yorker, 20 June 2017. Web. 21 Nov. 2019.

Gordinier, Jeff. “Ramen: A Quick Fix for the Soul.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 17 June 2014. Web. 21 Nov. 2019.

Nissin. “Cup Noodles, Chicken.” Nutritionix. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2019.

This was it.

Posing for our Math Team banner, my fellow captains and I knew that these next few minutes were no joke. This next picture would serve as the face of our club that was to be displayed in the cafeteria for the entire school to see. 

The photographer peered through his camera lens, aligning the perfect shot as we all took one last breath and put on our game faces.

*FLASH!*

Rushing over to see the snapshot, I was overcome with emotion as I reveled in the absolute perfection that unfolded on that camera screen: Josh, Allen, and Anne, staring steel-faced into the camera—their arms crossed, shoulders square, with our team’s silverware glistening behind them to flaunt our nineteen state championships and over fifty-years-in-a-row as DVC champions.

And me, clutching tightly to a fluffy stuffed bear smushed against my cheek, grinning goofily in the background.

To this day, I’m not sure what the caption word, “prime,” is supposed to be referencing: our dominant state competition performances, a clever math-y pun, or my picture perfect pose. Regardless, this Math Team captains banner has become a sort-of inside joke amongst my teammates, creating a secret bond of understanding in a largely individual and competitive activity. Ever since its rise to fame, the stuffed bear (named Stokes) now acts as our club mascot, with last year’s teammates passing the plushy to new members throughout the school day as a fluffy, snuggly surprise. And, of course, incoming freshmen flock into practices in search of Stokes’ iconic, photogenic face, but leave instead with a newfound curiosity for competition math.

While humor is an aspect of my identity I pursue for enjoyment, it also has a powerful role in developing a sense of community and teamwork.

 Like just about anyone else, a good laugh is something I can never pass up on. Whether it be a classic schadenfreude response to a friend’s struggle with a girl or the more risqué jokes of a Cards Against Humanity game, I’m all for some good fun once in a while. 

However, all jokes aside, the concept of humor can actually play a huge role in the success of a school club team or professional company.

Take the Math Team banner, for example. Sure, it looks silly. Of course, it attracts sideways glances in the hallways. And, with good reason, both the photographer and our math team head coach (Mrs. Moore) were skeptical at the idea. But, ever since the banner has went up in the small caf (which was very late, if I may add), our $150 spent on that piece of fabric has gotten a lot more than just giggles and glances.

Instead, Stokes and I managed to advertise Math Team while also making the exploration and discovery of competition math more accessible. From sophomores and juniors that I TA for in AP Physics 1 to freshmen in my PE Leader class, I have been notified of my artistic choices quite frequently this past week. It makes sense, after all: walking down a hallway with countless banners of stone-cold debaters, DECA competitors, and chessmasters (and Jeffrey Cheng, I might add), the one cute, adorable thing in a sea of intensity instantly draws people’s attention. Oh, and also the fact that there’s a stuffed animal in the picture next to me.

However, after the laughing and eyebrow raising is done, the same string of questions always seem to follow: what is Math Team? When are practices? Can I join? Soon, I couldn’t help but spot some familiar underclassmen faces at practices, picking up past competition packets and listening in on our coach’s lessons. While it may have started as a joke, my humor seems to be having some seriously positive effects on our Math Team culture and team structure.

And I’m not alone on this idea of humor’s benefits. In an article for Forbes magazine, Michael Kerr, an international business speaker, describes what he calls the “humor advantage.” His research indicated that “companies have used humor and a positive fun culture to help brand their business, attract and retain employees and to attract customers.” The fact of the matter is that, even in professional workplaces, your entire community—your customers, employees, and bosses—are humans just like you. While they may be donned in a suit from nine to five, I’ll bet that almost every one of those same people enjoy a good football game or family Monopoly game at night. Given this, I can’t help but see the power that humor and relaxation can have in even the most professional aspects of our lives, whether it be a joking side comment or a $150 portrait of a stuffed animal.

(A short but sweet video by Michael Kerr himself detailing his term: The Humor Advantage. Source: Youtube (Michael Kerr))

Humor is funny, but it also has the power to create. I use jokes to foster teamwork. My humor nurtures exploration. Most importantly, that stuffed bear and I created a hilarious photograph that also sparked a passion for learning within my community.

Pretty funny how that works, right?

Works Cited

Smith, Jacquelyn. “10 Reasons Why Humor Is A Key To Success At Work.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 20 June 2014, www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/05/03/10-reasons-why-humor-is-a-key-to-success-at-work/.