You probably didn't know it until today, but you owe a great debt to Momofuku Ando.

If you're like most college students, you've spent a good deal of time with him without even knowing it. He's seen you through thick and thin. You've hung out with him late at night while you were working on papers you should have done weeks before. You've dined with him on various occasions. He's even saved you a few bucks when the money's gotten tight. Even though he has millions of friends all over the world, Mr. Ando has always been there for you.

Sadly, your dear friend Momofuku Ando died of a heart attack last month at the ripe old age of 96. However, his legacy will live on through his noodles: Ando was the inventor of instant ramen, a favorite of college students the world over.

College is hard to imagine without ramen. Even the most health-conscious among us enjoys a nice 10-for-a-dollar bowl of carbohydrate-laden deliciousness every now and then. However, 50 years ago, not even the Japanese had been able to conceive a packaged food as easy and cheap as instant ramen. It took an unlikely visionary to invent and market the little blocks of noodles the world has come to love.

At the beginning of 1958, Ando was nearly penniless. He had spent the last 10 years of his life alternately producing failed inventions and spending time in jail for tax evasion. Somewhere during this dark stretch of his life, Ando began to experiment with noodles. He wanted to invent a hassle-free product that would produce a noodle similar to those found at Japan's ramenayas, or ramen restaurants. A far cry from the dirt-cheap instant ramen found in the U.S., the fresh noodles at these restaurants take a long time and considerable skill to produce. Cooks simmer the freshly made noodles in a broth and garnish the top with a number of fresh ingredients.

It was Ando's goal to put the basic elements of this painstaking process into a bag that could sit on grocery store shelves across Japan. He hoped to make ramen cooks out of even the most culinarily inept consumers.

After months of work, Ando developed a technique whereby the fresh noodles were fried in palm oil and then dried out, making a shelf-stable noodle that would rehydrate in minutes. After the addition of a packet containing some chicken bullion, a generous sprinkling of MSG and some dried vegetables, the world had instant ramen. There was only one problem: Nobody wanted to buy it.

With fresh noodles available at Japanese supermarkets for about one-sixth the price of his new instant ramen, Ando faced an uphill battle. He had to convince the Japanese public that fried blocks of noodles were the way to go. It's hard to believe the term "luxury item" was once associated with instant ramen, but that became the case in 1958 Japan: By the end of the year, people had come around to the new noodle, and Japanese grocery stores were awash with bags of Nissin Chicken Ramen, the company's flagship product.

It wasn't until 1970 that Ando's noodles came across the Pacific to California under the name Top Ramen. Before long, the U.S. had caught the ramen fever that had swept Japan 12 years earlier, and blocks of noodles were flying off the shelves at obscenely low prices. The world's greatest student food had arrived.

Instant ramen has made quite an impact on American student life for a product that has been in this country for less than 40 years. For better or worse, this relatively new part of the American diet has become a symbol for our country's collegiate lifestyle. Some students would rather not be associated with a sodium-heavy, nutrient-poor, saturated fat-filled food like ramen, but I feel we should embrace the noodle. College students should be proud of their virtuous ramen-like qualities, such as unpretentiousness, thrift and an utter disregard for appearance. Just as ramen's deliciousness hides behind a homely plastic bag, our intellectual potential lies underneath layers of hooded sweatshirts and free T-shirts.

In short, we college students owe Mr. Ando a great debt, not only for giving us criminally cheap food, but also for providing us with a symbol for our identity. Even though he is gone, his invention assures he'll never be forgotten.

If you ever find yourself feeling desperate for the company of this remarkable man, just remember these words of wisdom: "Remove the ramen from its package, place it in a bowl, add boiling water, cover the bowl and wait three minutes."

Jason Engelhart is a junior majoring in economics and history. Want to debate the culinary merits of various instant ramen flavors with him? E-mail Jason at [email protected].