Aji Ramen – Albuquerque, New Mexico
If a television show was to be created about ramen (some pronounce it ray-men), it would probably be called “Everybody loves ramen.” According to the World Noodles Association (yes, there is such an entity), Americans consume 5.15 billion servings of instant ramen every year. If you think that’s a lot, the United States ranks as only the sixth-largest consumer globally, significantly far behind such Asian nations as China and Indonesia. Still, the land of spacious skies and fruited plains ranks as the top ramen consumer outside of Asia. The per person consumption rate among Americans is 15 servings of ramen per year. Would you believe South Korea is ranked the world’s number one per capita in instant noodle consumption (72.8 servings of instant noodles per annum)? Perhaps because of my non-traditional route (night school and testing out of courses) to higher education, I’ve never had instant ramen. That’s right. In my 39 years on planet Earth, my lips have never partaken of the food most commonly associated with college students. Maybe it’s a good thing. The high-calorie content and the high concentration of refined carbohydrates, fats, and sodium in instant noodles, contribute to an increased risk of metabolic disease. Though…
