Robots Cooking Your Ramen?

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By: Sarah Chee

If you guys haven't read the article about robots being the chefs at a Japanese restaurant at Nagoya, Japan, you should! The Japanese are just so technologically advanced, aren't they? They're probably the most futuristic people I know. I mean, just look at the various inventions that the Japanese people have invented. They're always coming up with genius inventions to make our everyday life better and more convenient.

Since we're on the topic of ramen today, here's a picture of a Japanese woman using a hair protector. An invention meant to protect your hair while your slurp your ramen. It may look silly, but you gotta admit that it's really creative!

I absolutely LOVE this! A butter stick! It'll be so much easier to spread butter on toast with this invention, you don't need to use a knife and wash it afterwards!

I don't mean to be crude with this image, but this is evidence of how technologically advanced the Japanese people are! Look at the different functions their toilet bowls have!

So, by now you should already have an idea of how Japenese people are always coming up with new ideas and inventions to make our everyday life easier! I'm sure, at least some of you, like me, have  wondered when will the day come when robots take over our world and do normal human jobs for us! And the day has come sooner than I'd expected! Well, the robots have not taken our world, but at a ramen restaurant in Nagoya, those little machines are taking over the roles of chefs by preparing and cooking the ramen for customers!

I know it is a little confusing and difficult to imagine how, so here's a video of the robots hard at work:

Pretty amazing, right? This got me wondering how long will it take before Singapore does the same. I mean, it's inevitable, don't you think? Over the years, Singapore has picked up and followed a thing or two from the Japanese. For example, you can now find bidet toilet bowls in Singapore like you do in Japan, only not as common! Another more relevant example would be the ramen being served in Singapore ramen restaurants nowadays.

Do you remember the time, a few years ago, the only ramen restaurant in Singapore was Ajisen Ramen? And for those of you who have tried Ajisen Ramen and the recent ramen restaurants that have opened in Singapore, you'd notice that their ramen tastes VASTLY DIFFERENT. For people who have also tried ramen in Japan, you'd notice that the ramen restaurants these days taste very much like the ramen you'd find in Japan!

Here's a comparison between AJISEN RAMEN (available way before more recent and newer ramen restaurants appeared in Sg) and MENYA MUSASHI (a popular ramen stall in Japan which recently opened it's first ramen restaurant in Singapore last year):

1. The name. I can't help but notice how the recent ramen restaurants in Singapore have very "authentic-sounding" names. E.g. Ippudo, Menya Musashi (quite a mouthful, huh?), Keisuke Tokyo Ramen etc. compared with other ramen restaurant names like: "Ramen Ten".
2. The ramen itself. Restaurants like Ramen Ten and Ajisen Ramen have VERY different ramen from Ippuso, Keisuke Tokyo and such. This isn't a bad thing though, because I like both! 

AJISEN RAMEN: Normal soup stock, hard-boiled egg, sliced meat. Chinese food lovers can rejoice here because it has a mix of Japanese and Chinese taste to their ramen!

MENYA MUSASHI: Do you see the similarity of this ramen with YOSHIMARU's one? It seems that seaweed, bamboo shoots and the soft yolks are a MUST for authentic ramens!

YOSHIMARU RAMEN: Here, you can clearly see the difference of the colour and consistency of the soup. It is pork-bone soup that has been boiled for hours; making it really rich BUT makes you really full really fast as well. The egg also has their signature orange, soft yolk. Japanese food lovers can rejoice here as it tastes very similar to the ramen you'd find in Japan!

Here's a picture of the ramen I had at Shinjuku, Tokyo. Doesn't it look so much like the one you can find in Singapore nowadays? It tastes similar, too!

These restaurants in Singapore now serve the real deal! They taste so authentic like the ramen you'd find in Tokyo, they have cute Japanese names (although they can be a mouthful) and there are so many varieties of these ramen restaurants growing in Singapore! When you visit these restaurants, the staff are even decked in traditional Japanese clothes and greet you in Japanese, it's like being in Japan! 
What I'm really saying here is, Singapore's been picking a thing or two from Japan (their technologically advanced ways, their food, lifestyle, etc.), will it be soon before long when Singapore starts using robots as chefs or waiters in future, too? If you think about it, Singapore's pretty tech-advanced too and is such a fast-paced country. We're always rushing and rely so much on technology. When the train breaks down once in a while, we complain like it's something impossible has happened; we rely so much on technology and take them for granted, it's kinda scary!
If we do have robots taking over human roles in a restaurant, I guess it'll be pretty interesting, no? But, is it a good thing? What do you guys think? Is it a genius idea for us to let a machine do the labour for us in such  quick time, or are we getting lazier and taking things too far? 
I'd like to hear YOUR views, drop me a comment! ;)