Ha ha ha! Ramen!

I saw the cover of this manga and knew that I would pick it up. If you have known me for any amount of time, you may know that I have a half-serious dream running a ramen stand/manga cafe/wifi hotspot one day (it used to be in Japan, but someone pointed out that the idea is awesome anywhere, so I have pulled back my ambitions a bit)!

Anyhow, I went looking for the elusive Emma #4 (no one around here has it in stock), and saw Taisho standing there, laughing, drawing me in.

I am so hungry for ramen, now.

I will be honest, despite the premise, I didn’t have high expectations. I like to think this is a sign of maturity on my part, but it may be that I am merely jaded after being burned so many times.

However, it surprised me, I really enjoyed it. The format switches between 4-koma and wider format for the special stories. I am amazed at how creators tell stories in that format.

While be slice of life, you can tell that Kenji Sonishi has given a lot of thought to different aspects of running a ramen shop, as well as the inherent absurdity of being a cat chef. And then there are the tangents that don’t have much to do with ramen at all, which tickle me endlessly. There is one gag having to do with beards…

If you like cats, or Azumanga Daioh, you will probably like this, as well. ^_^

For the last week or so I have been pretty out of it. I started at King Dong, but this head cold continued to plague me (heh, that is kinda funny how appropriate that is!), and I resorted to copious amounts of rest and hacking up snot in the mornings, trying to be productive and mostly failing at it. However, I just had a bowl of ramen, and I realize that I should have taken my soup remedy into my own hands. Well, that is what this post was supposed to be about.

It comes down to this:

La yu chili oil, as seen in all its product page glory!

If you have ever shopped at an Asian food store you have probably seen this little wicked looking bottle (it does not, in fact, restore hit points). The one shown in the picture above is actually the mild(er) one, I have the added sesame seed oil, and my lips are burning at the moment. Gloriously.

I wanted to just drop this little tidbit, in that I make a mean bowl of Ichiban Ramen, Miso Flavor (which you can apparently order on Amazon), with La yu and Nanami in it. Again, my lips are burning as I type this, and I have been done eating for twenty minutes. You can imagine what this does for one’s sinus clog.

The neat thing I found as I was searching for a photo of La yu (and besides the funny Wikipedia discussion page for it) was the company bio for the founder of S&B Foods, Minejiro Yamazaki.

Besides being the guy who started a company I can get behind (because they make yummy condiments), he made Japanese curry Serious Business. Here are some excerpts with emphasis on the reasons this guy is a hero to me:

He was born on June 11, 1903 in Kanasugi village in Saitama prefecture and moved up to Tokyo and started working for a sauce manufacturer when he was 17 years old. When he ate curry and rice for the first time, it had a tremendous impact on him. His encounter with curry drove him to start devoting himself to making curry powder, a main ingredient of curry. After much frustration in making a food that no one ever had tried, he finally succeeded in making pure Japanese curry powder.

This part has a list of medals he was rewarded, but there are some stories to be told in there:

Minejiro also publicly dedicated himself to developing the Japanese spice industry, before, during and after the war. His public contribution began with serving as the chairman of the Tokyo Metropolitan Association of Curry & Sauce Manufacturers in March 1963 and then he established the Japan Pepper and Milling Industry Association in June 1941 in the midst of the war to help the industry grow. After the war, when food and materials were extremely scarce, he created the Japan Curry Association and negotiated with the US Forces stationed in Japan to sell surplus commodities to help the curry and spice industry revive. He always led the industry and held many important roles in relevant organizations including Chairman of the Japan Curry Industry Association in May 1994 and Executive Director of the Japan Curry Cooperative Association in February 1954. In April 1958, he was granted the Medal with Dark Blue Ribbon for his social contributions. Many other medals were also awarded to Minejiro including: the Medal with Blue Ribbon for his contribution to the curry industry in May 1960, the Medal with Purple Ribbon for developing spices especially garlic powder, the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon for his untiring pursuit of research on spices for over 50 years which made a significant contribution to promote science and industry in Japan and national welfare.

Not only did this guy nearly single-handedly make his industry interesting and important, his legacy company employed biography writers that impressed upon me the importance of Japanese curry in the survival of their nation before, during and after World War 2. Without his contributions to reality as I know it, we may have never gotten any of the weird things out of Japan that no doubt half the people reading this will think of, curry competitions being a vehicle of conflict resolution in anime, or the third thing I am able to cook (after ramen and yakisoba)! It is for this reason that he is one my dawgs!

Curry, like the Internet, is serious business!