I have to admit I did a good bit of flip-flopping around about my digital artefact. At the beginning of the semester I thought I knew what I wanted to look at; the way that Japan more or less stole aspects of American culture to make it their own (Denim/ Workwear, Cuisine, Jazz… etc.). It was a matter that I had looked into in previous subjects, but the more I considered the assignment at hand the more I knew I needed to move towards a different topic.
That brought me to the humble instant noodles.
Noodles… Asia… Great, how very original. I get it, it doesn’t seem like a massive leap towards any real cultural experience or immersion, but I think in some ways that’s the point I’m trying to make. A true Asian experience (at least culinary) doesn’t have to be this far reaching thing, but is readily available.
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Digital Asia 
Yeahhh boyy indeed. The whole endeavour sounds delish. I think you preface your autoethnographic experience with a really important point about how a true Asian experience is easily accessible and not as foreign as we may think. In my experience, we think of Asian culture as so separate to our own however in regards to food specifically, it is everywhere. I also appreciated how you made note of the ways in which you would normally engage with noodles (ie the microwave) and how this drastically alters the experience, and end result. After having a bit of a google I found out that your noodle is as you mentioned, extremely popular, in over 80 countries to be exact. I found this to be incredibly surprising! It would be interesting to find out why this is so.
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As an avid fan of a good bowl of ramen I really like the direction your experience is going in. I would be so interested to see your thoughts a bunch of different brands as well! I too tend to stick with what I’m familiar with and you really encapsulated the way I think we all eat and think of noodles in Australia. It’s interesting that as widely available different types of noodles are, I (and probably many others) aren’t familiar with the range until you look into it further. Here’s a handy article that gives you a guide into different noodle types that may help with your further analysis http://www.sbs.com.au/food/article/2016/07/28/know-your-noodle-ultimate-guide-asian-noodles
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Hey Connor,
I enjoyed the read and discovering how easily you can get better two minute noodles then the Maggi ones. (although my favourite are the standard Mi-Goreng noodles).
I also appreciated the humour in your article, snorting packet noodle seasoning really is a good past time of mine as well.
There is also a heap of videos on youtube about noodle inventions if you are interested, here is a link to one of them, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql7Ex4MXQsM.
Cheers for the read and Good Luck!!
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This is such a cool and simple topic to explore! All of us probably grew up with two-minute-noodles as a child without even knowing they were appropriated from Asian ramen. Everyone can relate to this idea and it’s interesting to think beyond the basic consumption of instant noodles.
It was also really interesting to read your thoughts and reflections that are key to the auto-ethnographic process that Ellis describes. You delved into the topic in a way that made it easy and engaging to understand your experience.
I’ll be very interested to see where you go with this as well as the research side of things!
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