Snack attack: cups of joy

Whoever came up with the idea of serving cup noodles as a snack on planes was inspired. Cup noodles are the perfect snack: they are easy to prepare, filling, hot and comforting and, although many might argue otherwise, they actually taste good, at least when you're 35,000 feet up in the air, where your taste buds are muted.

Cup noodles are the younger sibling of instant noodles (which were created by entrepreneur Momofuku Ando in 1958). According to the Instant Ramen Museum in Osaka, Japan, cup noodles were first produced in 1971. The concept made instant noodles even easier to prepare: rather than having to boil the noodles in a pot for a few minutes, you just add boiling water to the cup they come in, which also contains the seasoning ingredients. You then close the lid and let everything poach, stir it all together and eat.

As with other big food corporations, such as McDonald's and Pizza Hut, cup noodle manufacturers tailor their product to appeal to the tastes of the people in whichever country they're being sold. Flavours that may sound odd to those of us living in Hong Kong include broccoli; bacon and potato; taco; gumbo; New England clam chowder; and batchoy (a Philippine version that contains pig offal).