At the International Museum of Ramen in Osaka, hordes of people come each year to pay homage. A free-to-enter chamber of commerce for Nissin Foods, the makers of Cup Noodles and Top Ramen, the museum features a timeline of hundreds of Nissin products, from Chikin Ramen to Spagheny to Cheese Curry Cup Noodles. Ramen-related ephemera and tributes are also placed around the exhibit space on the way to the main attraction, an enormous hall where you can design and purchase your own Cup Noodles. My favorite oddity is a sculpture depicting—embedded in stone so as to suggest future archaeology—fossils, a cell phone, and a brilliantly colored Cup Noodles open and ready to eat, its noodles already held aloft by a plastic fork. A placard gives the sculpture's title: “Eternal".Instant ramen can seem so elemental that it's almost surprising to learn that it required inventing. But coming up with a shelf-stable, quick-cooking noodle soup was far from simple, or intuitive. The oft-told story of Momofuku Ando suggests it was difficult: the struggling Osaka businessman experimented for months in his backyard shed before launching Nissin in 1958.The catalysing insight was flash-frying the noodles after they had been boiled, seasoned, and dried. Frying them zaps away any remaining water, increasing their shelf life. But it also leaves the noodles threaded with a warren of empty space. When they're tossed into boiling water again, the water rushes in, cooking them quickly and thoroughly in a few minutes. Contrary to the modern version, however, the first instant ramen noodles were not cheap. When Ando's Chikin Ramen hit the market, it cost more than getting fresh noodles at a restaurant.Traditional Japanese cuisine is in many ways the polar opposite of instant noodles. At an old-fashioned inn in Kyoto I stayed at recently, dinner was nine small dishes brought out one-by-one, beginning with a tiny collage of octopus suckers and red beans. Slippery jellies, exquisitely fresh seafood, and crisply grilled fish followed. It was delicious, and could not have been farther from the ramen of my youth. But despite this, the convenient noodles are a national symbol.One of the biggest changes Lienesch has seen, however, has been a move beyond the simple flavouring sachet tucked in alongside the noodles. In 2013, Prima Taste, a Singaporean company, sent him some samples to try. You can't tell me that it's not one of the best possible comfort foods out there.