Ramen For Everyone, an illustrated book for any palette

Ramen used to have a horrible reputation. When I was in college the only option for ramen was those flavorless packets that you’d purchase at the dollar store. You’d talk, or kvetch about how many times a week you had to eat ramen because you didn’t have much money. Unbeknown to us, in Asia, ramen was a flavor-packed dish that could comprise an excellent meal that would leave people wanting more and create the word-of-mouth that restaurants strive for. Ramen For Everyone is an illustrated book that operates in today’s world of ramen. It works as well as a read-to-me or read-aloud book, as it does a story about persistence and doing your best. The book also receives some dad points for showing a healthy, normal relationship between a youth and his dad.

Hiro is a kid who loves ramen. There’s a family recipe that’s been handed down for generations and every Sunday Hiro and his father are in the kitchen preparing the family dinner. Their ramen has seaweed, egg, pork, noodles that are perfectly cut, and seasoning that is one of a kind. As Hiro turns seven years old he decides that he’s ready to try to cook ramen just like his dad. The two meet in the kitchen and Hiro gets down to work, but it doesn’t go as smoothly as planned.

The noodles stick to his fingers. The broth doesn’t taste good. The seaweed crumbles into bits that make it lose its taste. Dinner is late, everyone is hungry and Hiro is frustrated. He throws away his bowl of ramen and sits on the floor in disgust. His dad comes up to remind him that the family would be happy with his ramen, and aren’t expecting the recipe that dad usually makes. With this revelation, Hiro gets back into the kitchen and makes ramen that the family has never seen. Their bowls have elements of food that he enjoys, plus things that they like and it’s combined in a fashion that’s new and refreshing for all.

The moral in Ramen For Everyone is timeless and easily translated into any culture. Don’t give up, keep trying and do your own thing. Hiro thinks that his ramen will only be excellent if it’s the same as his father’s. However, he realizes that it becomes his ramen when he stops relying on his father’s recipe and ventures out on his own.

You Japanese language students will appreciate that there are a handful of words written in hiragana also. Hiro’s mom and sister are in the book as well, but this is his and his father’s show. When Hiro is cooking he is doing all of the work. His father is simply watching from the side, even as his son isn’t doing things as well as he could be, in a traditional sense of ramen. I tell some of my students that there’s a class of kids that learn from failure more so than success. I was certainly that way and would’ve benefitted from failing more as a youth.

To be clear, by that I mean taking more risks, experimenting with things that I wasn’t 100% sure about, and trying new activities. It’s from that reset that those kids are able to self-analyze what just happened and mentally play things back so that they’re able to improve what they’re trying to accomplish. That might include altering things, as Hiro did with his recipe, measuring two times (instead of once) or something else that would yield a different result.

Ramen For Everyone is a lovely read-along book. The big, oversized illustrations run with movement, life and energy and have a zeal that goes across cultural barriers. It’s not just an illustrated book about Hawaiians making ramen. Sure that’s the backbone of it, but kids will see the family, the history and the fun that has the potential to happen in the kitchen. Even if your memories of ramen are more like mine than the more regal and modern-day interpretation you’ll trip into Ramen For Everyone with ease.

Ramen For Everyone is by Patricia Tanumihardja with illustrations by Shiho Pate and is available on Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

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