【精英翻譯】的部落格

A Quick Look at Instant Noodles

飄香一甲子的泡麵物語

精英翻譯社轉自https://www.ivy.com.tw/newsLetter/analysis_cont/2021020416091893035

If you are a fan of instant noodles, you can thank a Taiwanese-Japanese inventor and businessman named Momofuku Ando, who came up with the idea for this popular food creation. Ando was born in 1910 into a rich family and raised by his grandparents in Tainan after his parents died. His first venture into business was not in food but in textiles.

如果你是泡麵的粉絲，你可以感謝一位名叫安藤百福的臺裔日籍發明家兼商人，是他想出了這種人氣食品產物的點子。1910年，安藤出生於富裕家庭，父母去世之後，他在臺南由祖父母撫養長大。他首次經商的項目不是食品，而是織物。

At that time, Taiwan was part of the Japanese Empire, and in the early 1930s, Ando moved to Osaka and founded a clothing company there. During that time, he also studied economics at a private university in Kyoto.

當時，臺灣是日本帝國的一部分，在1930年代初期，安藤移居大阪，並在那裡創辦一家服裝公司。在那段期間，他還在京都的私立大學讀經濟學。

According to his biography, Ando got the idea for instant noodles while noticing people gathered around a ramen stall after the Second World War. He said he was struck by the idea that noodles could help solve the problem of world hunger.

根據關於安藤的傳記，二次世界大戰後，他看到人們聚在拉麵攤前，這時他想到了泡麵的點子。他說他靈機一動，想到麵有助於解決世界飢餓的問題。

Another account of the origin of instant noodles is somewhat different, but it also involves a lack of food. In this version of events, due to food shortages in Japan, the government was encouraging people to eat bread made of wheat flour that was delivered from the United States.

另一種關於泡麵起源的說法有些不同，但也涉及食物匱乏。在這個版本的敘述裡，由於日本食物短缺，政府便鼓勵人們吃用美國運來的小麥麵粉做成的麵包。

Ando thought it was more suitable to get Japanese people to eat noodles instead, which they were more familiar with, so he set about trying to perfect a method of flash frying noodles. Finally, he devised a suitable process and began selling packages of instant noodles in 1958.

安藤認為讓日本人吃他們比較熟悉的麵反而更合適，所以他著手嘗試優化快速油炸麵條的方式。最後，他想出了合適的生產流程，並從 1958 年開始銷售袋裝泡麵。

Later, Ando decided to make eating instant noodles even more convenient by putting them in Styrofoam cups. This way, hungry consumers only needed to add water to the cup rather than empty the contents into a separate bowl. The introduction of “Cup Noodles” in 1971 caused the food item’s popularity to skyrocket in Japan and other countries as well.

後來，安藤決定把泡麵放在保麗龍杯裡，讓吃泡麵變得更方便。這麼一來，飢腸轆轆的消費者只需往杯裡加水就行了，不必把內容物全倒進另一個碗裡。1971 年，「杯麵」的問世使這種食品在日本與其他國家人氣爆棚。