Most people think of ramen as something that broke college students eat, but when I think about ramen I think about my childhood. In my early childhood I would always eat top ramen, I loved how basic and simple it was. But as I grew older (age 10-11), I started going to ramen shops with my mom. My first time eating traditional ramen was at this shop called Narenko in SE Portland. I chose the shoyu (soy sauce) flavored ramen and liked it so much that I got it every time after that. Although this bowl of ramen is popular to people all over Portland, the raw ingredients came from people and places you wouldn’t expect and ended up where I live due to globalization.

The heart of the bowl is the shoyu broth which originates from soy. According to the NC Soybean Producers Association, soybeans are native to Southeast Asia and were first grown by Chinese farmers around 1100 BC. These Chinese farmers would use soybeans as forage for their livestock. They also state that the first seeds to be brought to the U.S came from a crew member rescued from a Japanese fishing boat in 1850, he distributed them to Illinois and the corn belt states. The plants flourished in these states thanks to the hot and humid weather. Long after soybeans gained popularity in America, the USDA began to encourage farmers to plant the seeds as animal feed.

My favorite add-on for my ramen is egg. According to the American Egg Board, chickens were first domesticated for eggs in India, people that had chickens would use eggs as a food source and a trading item. It is believed that Columbus was the one that brought chickens to America on his second trip in 1493, but there is some evidence of native fowl being in America prior to Columbus’s journey here. As the popularity of chickens rised in the New World, farmers started to realize that eggs were very profitable. Many farmers had flocks of over 400 hens and would sell their eggs to other local farmers and markets.

Last but not least, there is the noodle which surprisingly comes from wheat flour. According to Meredith Sayles Hughes in the book Glorious Grasses, “10,000 years ago the first agricultural society developed in the southeastern part of present day Turkey, a nation that straddles the Middle East and Asia.”(12) She also states that ancient civilizations began actively cultivating wheat by scattering wild seeds along the muddy soil in the region’s riverbanks. These farmers would use wheat mainly for bread baking which was one of their best food sources. So, they heavily relied on wheat. Also stated in the book, “Wheat is very much a newcomer to the Western Hemisphere. At the beginning of the 1500’s, Christopher Columbus ordered his soldiers to plant wheat in Puerto Rico, an Island in the Caribbean Sea. By 1530 the grain made it to present day Mexico and the U.S where it thrived.”(18)

In conclusion, we all rely on globalization to get the foods that we love and adore. Raw ingredients come from all over and have traveled far to become what they are thought of today. While typing this paper I learned so many new facts about where my ingredients are native to, how the use of the ingredients have changed over time, and how they were popularized. I hope that you found this paper interesting and that you use these facts in everyday situations.