In the year 2000, people in Japan were polled and asked what the greatest Japanese creation of the 20th century was.

They didn't pick the Walkman, digital cameras, or the compact disc, nor did they pick any cultural achievements like the works of Akira Kurosawa, anime or Pokemon.

What they selected as the greatest Japanese accomplishment of the 20th century was instant noodles.

Learn more about the simplest, cheapest food in the world and its inventor,

Momofuku Ando, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. This episode is sponsored by Audible.

My audio book recommendation for today is Rice

Noodle Fish. Deep travels through Japan's food culture by Matt Golding. In this 5,000 mile

journey through the noodle shops, temp Tempura Temples and Teahouses of Japan,

Matt Goulding, co-creator of the enormously popular Eat This Not That book series,

navigates the intersection between food, history, and culture,

creating one of the most ambitious and complete books

ever written about Japanese culinary culture

from the Western perspective.

You can claim your one month trial to Audible

and your two free audio books by going to

audible trial.com slash everything everywhere or by clicking on the link in the show notes.

Japan's greatest inventor wasn't actually Japanese. Momofuku Ando was born in Taiwan in 1910 to a Chinese family with the birth name

Wu Bifu. In 1933, Ando moved to Osaka where he started a clothing company.

After World War II, Taiwan became the Republic of China,

and he had to choose if he wanted Japanese citizenship or Taiwanese citizenship.

He chose Taiwanese to keep some family property on the island but continued to live in Japan.

By the late 1950s, Ando's company had gone bankrupt, he had been found guilty of tax evasion, and he

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