Slurp! : a social and culinary history of ramen, Japan's favorite noodle soup / by Barak Kushner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kushner, Barak, 1968-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Noodles--Japan.

Noodles.

Noodles--Japan--History.

Pasta products--Japan--History.

Pasta products.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (309 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Social and culinary history of ramen, Japan's favorite noodle soup

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : Global Oriental, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Ramen, Japan’s noodle soup, is a microcosm of Japan and its historical relations with China. The long evolution of ramen helps us enter the history of cuisine in Japan, charting how food and politics combined as a force within Sino-Japan relations. Cuisine in East Asia plays a significant political role, at times also philosophical, economic, and social. Ramen is a symbol of the relationship between the two major forces in East Asia – what started as a Chinese food product ended up almost 1,000 years later as the emblem of modern Japanese cuisine. This book explains that history – from myths about food in ancient East Asia to the transfer of medieval food technology to Japan, to today’s ramen “popular culture.”

Contents:

Preliminary Material

Introduction – The Temple of Noodledom

Three Sages Walk into a Restaurant and … Noodles

Court Food versus Common Food

International Japan, Foreign Foods and Isolation

Early Modern Noodles and the Myth of Ramen

The Meiji Restoration: Menu Renovation on the Road to Ramen

Diplomacy and the Desire to Impress

Empire and Japanese Cuisine

World War II Cuisine: A World Adrift

History at the Dining Table: Postwar Instant Ramen

Ramen Popular Culture

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-283-60206-7

9786613914514

90-04-22098-4

OCLC:

818863468

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004220980 DOI