A Moment of Silence for Momofuku Ando

Momofuku Ando, the Taiwan-born inventor of instant ramen, has passed away. The Peking Duck has the details:

Born in Taiwan with the name 吳百福, or Wu Baifu, Momofuku went to Japan when he was orphaned as a small child. His dream of creating an instant meal in a disposable cup has often been credited to his life growing up in wartime, but it might just as equally have been driven by a hatred of Japanese prison food when he served two years for tax evasion. Momofuku's product was laughed at by a food industry full of snobby, cigar-chomping, poisonous-blowfish-sushi-eating elites who called it a novelty. But as his company, Nissin Foods, so rightly points out on his bio page:

"They had never been so wrong."

Generations of college students all over the world are in your debt, Mr. Momofuku. Rest in Peace. A world without instant ramen would be a very sad place indeed.