If MSG is so bad for you, why doesn’t everyone in Asia have a headache?
In the port city of Yokohama, south of Tokyo, there is a museum devoted entirely to noodle soup. It may be Japan’s favourite foodie day out: one and a half million ramen fans visit the museum every year, and even on the wintry morning that I went the queue wound 50 yards down the street – young couples, mainly: cold, hungry and excited.
Inside the Yokohama Ramen Museum and Amusement Park they meet exhibitions on the evolution of soup bowls and instant noodle packets – more fascinating than you’d think, but these are not the main event. That’s deep in the basement, where there’s an entire street, done up to look like a raucous 1950s Yokohama harbour-front. Every shop houses a different noodle restaurant, each a clone of one of the best noodle shops of Japan. It’s a culinary Madame Tussauds.
The Observer | Food monthly | If MSG is so bad for you, why doesn’t everyone in Asia have a headache?