A Dried Squid Isn't Ramen!

Edible tinned gifts

~ Tin of tuna 

~ Tin of corned beef

~ Tin of tomato soup

~ Tin of beef stew

~ Tin of cherries

~ Tin of sardines

Food featured

~ Shunraku ramen (Osaka)

~ Udon noodles with vegetables cooked over a fireplace (Kamigori)

~ Iwana trout (Kamigori)

~ Suiton soup (post war Osaka)

~ Seikoken ramen, dumplings, fried rice, grilled pork (Itzumi Otsu)

~ Chanpon rice (Yamane Diner in Shinagawa, Tokyo)

~ Kaminari Okoshi (Asakusa, Tokyo)

~ Curry and rice, corn soup (Kōkichi Noro's restaurant, Osaka)

~ Urashima Milk formula (gift from Katsuo Sera)

~ Curry, spaghetti Napolitan, ketchup rice, tomato soup, coffee and tea, fruit punch, panna cotta, oden stew, rice omelette (Parlour Shirobara, Ikeda)

~ Pacific saury (Ikeda)

~ American cookies (gift from Katsuo Sera)

~ Minoike mandarin oranges (gift from a neighbour)

~ Castella cake (gift from Toshiko)

~ Dewars Whiskey (gift from Katsuo Sera)

~ Secret ramen soup recipe: onions, shitake mushrooms, dried sardines simmered for two days

~ Karinto snacks (gift from Fukuko's mother)

~ Grandma Suzu's savoury egg pudding

~ Morokyu

~ Grandma Suzu's pork and potato stew

Mampei Tachibana's inventions/ business ideas / employment history

~ Image slide projector - (Tachibana Industries)

~ Root vegetable chopper - (Risō Kōsaku-sha)

~ Water purifiers 

~ Personal stamps

~ High quality salt manufacturing - (Tachibana Salt Company)

~ Daneihon sold to hospitals and regular people nationwide - (Tachibana Nutritional Foods)

An animal protein paste with nutritional and digestive properties that you can spread on bread and consume to prevent fat soluble vitamin deficiency and malnutrition).

The current formulation includes:

Beef bone marrow for protein, vitamin A, vitamin D

Canola oil and plums for vitamin E

Kelp for everything and to help it taste good

Sea salt for minerals

~ Sponsorship for their youngest employees who missed out on their basic high school education during the war and to encourage them to study in the evenings and graduate. 

Tachibana Nutritional Foods believes that if their employees are more educated, the quality of the company will improve. The company will raise up their employees and in return the employees will help the company grow.

~ Director 

At Ikeda Credit Union.

~ A multi-purpose kitchen tool - (Odajima Factory) 

Mampei and Shigeru Kanbe helped Kenzo Odajima (President of Odajima Factory) and his son Tadashi develop a device that allows regular kitchens to juice, blend and chop vegetables using just one small gadget.

~ Ramen that can be made at home

Mampei's dream new ramen must meet all of the following five criteria:

1. Taste good
2. Affordable
3. Convenient
4. Shelf stable (in the late 1950s, not many households owned a refrigerator)
5. Safe and healthy for pregnant women and kids

The broth has to be a flavour accepted by everyone and people won't get tired of: chicken meat and chicken bone broth with sesame oil, ginger, soy sauce, sweet rice wine and garlic. 

The basic noodles recipe:

500g flour

1 x egg (for nutrition)

Powdered eggs shells (for calcium)

Vitamins

Kneading water:

200g water

5g brine

8g salt

A touch of sesame oil

The noodles should be 1mm thick and 8 inches long.

Noodles are grouped into 180-200 strands for one portion.

Individual noodle portions are shaped into waves then steamed for seven minutes. Then dried in the shade to bring the water content down by 45%.

Soup essence is poured on top, then deep-fried in a metal cage (to regulate the size and shape) in lard and sesame oil at 160 degrees for two minutes.

Noodle blocks are cooled before packaging.

Instruction for consumers:

Hot water is poured over the block of noodles, wait three minutes and voila...instant ramen!

BANZAI !

Product name: Manpuku Ramen

First packaging design by Tadahiko:

Company name: Manpuku Shokuhin/Manpuku Foods

Price per packet: 20 yen

Released for sale: 25 August 1958

Second packaging design by Tadahiko:

Instigated by Professor Omiya, the National Institute of Nutrition conducted an analysis and concluded that the product contained the following:

Calcium

Phosphorus

Iron

Vitamins A, B1, B2

Niacin

They recommended it as a health food.

~ Noodles in a container

If it's in a cup, you can eat it outside of your home. For example, in a park, in a baseball stadium, even whilst walking.

Mampei wants to create a product that will affect Japanese people's lifestyle and food culture.

Manpuku Noodles' cup plays three roles:

1. It's a container that holds the noodles
2. Once you pour hot water in, it turns into a cooking device
3. When you eat it, it turns into a bowl

The container has to be light, sturdy, well-insulated and cost effective. The material decided upon: styrofoam. 

The soup essence of beef consomme with a touch of soy sauce is made into granulated form to sprinkle over the noodles.

The noodles need to be fatter, shorter and chewier to appeal to the Western market. The noodles will also be pre-seasoned.

The toppings will be colourful, Western-style and high-end. It has to be cutting edge in taste and appearance and be cooked in three minutes in the cup.

Toppings chosen: 

• Freeze-dried scallions
• Freeze-dried-scrambled eggs 
• Freeze-dried poovalan shrimp from the Indian Ocean
• Freeze-dried 'meat cubes' made using ground beef, soy protein and vegetable essence

These toppings are rehydrated with boiling water.

Aluminium sealed lid. Then the whole thing is shrink wrapped for extra security during transportation.

Cup packaging design: it has to be Western-style, new, and well-accepted internationally.

Tadahiko decided to give his apprentice, Junya Nagi, a chance to design the packaging for this product.

The trend of the nuclear family is increasing. As the trend progresses, Japan's food culture will be changed drastically. Many will start eating alone at random places instead of with their families. Our instant food is easy and safe to prepare for everyone in this new era.

Price of Manpuku Noodle: 100 yen.

===

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work" - (Thomas Edison).

 

つづく

* Information derived from the TV series Mampuku which the Domestic Goblin binge watched via Netflix in June/July 2026 *

* Images either derived online or from DGs own scene pauses *

The Artistic Style Evolution of Tadahiko Koda

Pre-War: Birds and Spring

Fukuko and Mampei's Wedding gift

Get Well Soon gift for Saki

Post-War: Monochromatic Blues

Portrait of Suzu (mother in law)

Portrait of Nahomi (model)

Avant-Garde Modern Abstract

The Dancing Woman

Gifted to Mampei
"You are a challenger!"

Karasu: Chaos and Eros

Gifted to the owners of Parlour Shirobara

Portrait of Mampei and Fukuko

===

Tadahiko Koda / 香田 忠彦 is a fictional character in the Japanese TV series Mampuku. 

He is married to Katsuko and has four children named Taka, Yoshino, Shigeyuki and Manabu.

He is a Western-style painter and resides in Osaka.

Whilst serving in WWII, he injured his eyes and became colourblind.

===

Bonus: artwork produced by his apprentice Junya Nagi who was inspired by Tadahiko's Karasu painting

Kabuso Citruses

Apprentice Junya Nagi finds his own style inspired by his girlfriend

===

Tootsy Wootsy

On your shoulders 

Strolling through the shady lanes

Oh your daddy's rich, and your ma is goodlooking

Do Do Ti La So Fa Mi Re

Let it shine!

* Found poem inspired by our third performance under the musical direction of DF *

Swimmming

Wear 

Swimmming costume underneath clothes
Contact lenses
Sunglasses

Bring

Padlock for locker
Body towel
Underwear

Moisturiser/sunscreen
Swim goggles and case

Swim cap 

Indoor sandals
Spare bag for wet items
Spare glasses and case

Swimsuit preferences 

One piece swimsuit

Built in bra with non-removable padding

Lined 

Scoopback

Medium leg

Black or blue colour

Goggles preferences

Black with clear lenses for indoor use

Black with mirror lenses for outdoor use

Remember to

Book your swimming session

Finish eating at least one hour before leaving your home 

Have fun!

Wellington-on-Sea

Mr McNutt puts a positive spin on nearly everything

Ferries: it's like a boat that gives a car a piggy back.

Bridges: it's like roads that hover.

Miss Trapper

Sometimes it's helpful to be a terrifying old trout.

It's time to celebrate the wins and live with the losses.

* Information derived from 'That Christmas' aired by Netflix *

Victorian Hypocrisy and the Whitechapel Fiend

The Domestic Goblin attempts to read They All Love Jack: Busting the Ripper written by Bruce Robinson which consists of 764 pages...

Started reading on:

Friday 3rd July 2026 at 21:30.

Notes DG made along the way

The problem for the Victorians was that they equated 'evil' with 'insane'.

Jack the Ripper was a killer in a killer state, and in my view more likely to have been an Englishman than a citizen of any other nation.

Concealing the Ripper was not a Masonic conspiracy, but a conspiracy of Her Majesty's executive, which almost without exception were Freemasons. 

It was a conspiracy of the System. The man [...] was 'in house' and unquestionably revelling in the security he'd spun about himself. The secrecy of Freemasonry.

Evolving homicidal signature.

He killed mother-angels who proved herself lower than the filthiest whore and cut out their 'cunts' as a trophy.

James Maybrick.

"The Juwes are the men that will not be blamed for nothing."

The Victorian authorities knew perfectly well that they were looking for a Freemason (or rather, that they were protecting one). But they didn't yet know who he was.

===

(Information from the internet: 

In the early morning of 30 September 1888, cigarette maker and salesman Joseph Lawende saw a man talking to a woman believed to be Catherine Eddowes, the fourth victim of the serial killer known as Jack the Ripper. 

Lawende and two companions spotted the couple standing at the entrance of Church Passage, which led directly into Mitre Square, at approximately 1:35 a.m.—just ten minutes before Eddowes' mutilated body was discovered in the square. Because of the timing, police officials considered Lawende the most crucial witness who potentially looked upon the face of the Whitechapel murderer.

Despite providing a detailed description, Lawende consistently maintained both during his police interviews and at the official coroner's inquest that he would not be able to identify the man again if he saw him. He noted that the street lighting was poor, the encounter was brief, and he paid little attention at the time because the couple did not appear to be acting suspiciously).

===

We shall never know what Joseph Lawende saw.

The Commissioner of Police wasn't interested in detecting but in the strategy of avoidance. He was precisely the reason Jack the Ripper was never caught.

It became apparent that I wasn't investigating a mystery but why it was a mystery.

The Met were no longer a police force, but as a result of the efforts of certain senior officers had actually become a force for non-detection.

Grape skins and stones.

It was a common prejudice amongst the ruling classes that only Jonnie Foreigner carried a dastardly knife.

Matthew Packer, the Berner Street fruit seller.

Mr Durward Lely's tour dates and destinations coincided with letters.

Spurs on the S.

George Street and Conduit Street.

Tall and dark [...] handsome Gentleman.

Michael Maybrick and Toynbee Hall.

Moab. Midian.

Smoker the dog detective.

Maggots don't lie. They leave that to the Victorian police.

In such a crime the victim is the only witness.

The Canonical Five. Mary Jane Kelly was the only one murdered indoors.

Richard Whittington.

Transvestism is featured in the City letters, just as the joys of murder are in the Mets.

"If the police have a series of five homicides that demonstrate the same MO, we advise looking most closely at the earliest one, for it will most likely have 'gone down' closest to where the killer lived or worked or hung out...often that first crime is not thoroughly planned, but succeeding ones will display greater forethought."

(Robert Ressler - Psychological Profiler of violent offenders).

The fiends apparent termination of his homicidal activity seemed inexplicable. Why had he stopped? The general consensus to this day is that either:

1. He was incarcerated in a nut-house or possibly in prison for some other crime
2. He was a short-arsed seafarer currently in foreign parts or
3. He was dead

Or maybe the Ripper hadn't stopped killing at all. What had stopped was the police associating him with his crimes. 

Meanwhile a conveniently screwed-up non-entity called Montague J. Druitt stuffed his pockets with rocks and jumped into the river. They pulled his corpse out of the Thames on the last day of December 1888 and were happy to conclude that this innocent stiff was Jack the Ripper.

"No Brother may be admitted to a Lodge unless he is personally known to, and vouched for by one of the brethren present, or unless he be well vouched for after due examination". You didn't just waddle in.

24th October.

Carlo Fara.

The Cahills. 324 Heaton Road, Manningham.

Little Johnnie Gill, aged 7.

The Floating Ripper.

The Homicidal Milkman.

Horus.

Strictures of Ezekiel.

William Barritt.

===

Finished reading on:

Saturday 18 July 2026

12:56