Mexico gobbles ramen — with salsa, please

COAMILPA, Mexico — Only 3 years old, Leon Gustavo Davila Hinojosa is still learning to speak Spanish. But the precocious youngster already knows a bit of Japanese: "Maruchan."

That's a brand of instant ramen noodles that to him means lunch. Leon's grandmother stocks them in her tiny grocery in this hamlet 40 miles southwest of the capital. The preschooler prefers his shrimp-flavor ramen with a dollop of liquid heat.

"With salsa!" he said exuberantly at the mention of his favorite noodle soup.

Through the centuries, Moorish spices, French pastries and Spanish citrus have left lasting impressions on Mexico's cuisine. Now Japanese fast-food noodles, first imported here in the 1980s, are filling pantries across the country.

Time-pressed school kids, construction workers and office drones have helped turn Mexicans into Latin America's largest per-capita consumers of instant ramen. Diners here slurped down 1 billion servings last year, up threefold since 1999, according to a Japanese noodle association.

Urban convenience stores do a brisk trade selling ramen "preparada," providing customers with hot water, plastic forks and packets of salsa to prepare their lunches on the spot.

People in the countryside have developed a taste for it too. As part of a food-assistance program, the Mexican government distributes ramen to commissaries in some of the most remote pockets of the country, where it is supplanting rice and beans on many tables.

The product is so pervasive that a national newspaper recently dubbed Mexico "Maruchan Nation."

Purveyors say you don't have to strain your noodle to figure out why. Nearly 60 percent of Mexico's work force earns less than $13 a day. Instant ramen is a hot meal that fills stomachs, typically for less than 40 cents a serving. The product doesn't need refrigeration and it's so easy to make that some here call it "sopa para flojos," or "lazy people's soup."

Defenders of the nation's cuisine, such as Gloria López Morales, an official with Mexico's National Council for Culture and Arts, are appalled that Mexican palates have been seduced by this ramen import.

Lopez is leading an effort to have the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recognize Mexican food as a "patrimony of humanity" that should be nurtured and protected.

She worries that globalization is disconnecting Mexicans from their very life source, be it U.S. corn displacing ancient strains of "maíz" or fast food encroaching on the traditional "comida," or leisurely afternoon meal.

Nutritionists likewise are alarmed that instant ramen, a dish loaded with fat, carbohydrates and sodium, has become a cornerstone of the food pyramid.

The country is experiencing soaring levels of obesity, diabetes and heart disease, particularly among the poor.

Instant ramen was invented by Momofuku Ando, an entrepreneur whose businesses crumbled with Japan's defeat in World War II.

Instant ramen hit the Japanese market in 1958 and became an instant sensation.