Slurp! A Social and Culinary History of Ramen - Japan's Favorite Noodle Soup -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Preface -- Note on Transliteration -- List of Figures -- Introduction - The Temple of Noodledom -- The Ramen Question -- Ramen - An International Force -- Noodles and Nationalism -- 1: Three Sages Walk into a Restaurant and … Noodles -- The Arrival of Noodles in China - Noodle Loaf -- Food Legends and the Roots of Noodle Worship -- Premodern Noodles -- 2: Court Food versus Common Food -- Shinto and Food -- Chinese Food Technology -- The Rise of Samurai and Medieval Japanese Food -- 3: International Japan, Foreign Foods and Isolation -- The Rise of New Leaders and New Japanese Foodways -- Edo is Not the Only City - Tokugawa Peace and a Piece of the Pie -- Nagasaki and Chinese Food -- Food and the Chinese -- Passion for Noodles - Soba and Udon -- Banning Noodle Consumption -- 4: Early Modern Noodles and the Myth of Ramen -- Japan's First Chinese Chef - Shu Shunsui -- Edo - Feast and Famine -- Kansai versus Kanto Taste -- Edo and Meat Eating -- 5: The Meiji Restoration: Menu Renovation on the Road to Ramen -- Treaty Ports -- Barbarians and Banquets -- Japanese and Meat Eating -- The Militarization of Food -- Sources of Bunmei Kaika - Civilization and Enlightenment -- Nagasaki and Champon Noodles -- 6: Diplomacy and the Desire to Impress -- Imperial Dining -- Health, Hygiene and Food -- Chinese in Meiji Japan -- Imperialism and Food -- 7: Empire and Japanese Cuisine -- Time is the Meter of Civilization - the Birth of Delicious -- Food and Excrement -- Raising the Standard -- Ramen Debuts on the Japanese Stage -- Other Theories -- Nighttime Dining, Students and Erotic, Grotesque Nonsense -- The Rise of "Nutrition".

Edo Started the Process, Meiji Promoted and Taisho Finalized -- 8: World War II Cuisine: A World Adrift -- Starving Japan and Bountiful America -- The Path to War -- Wartime Cuisine and the Nation -- Japanese Soldiers and Food -- Food and Victory -- Japanese Identity and Rice -- Battle Zones and Prisoners of War -- Food and the Home Front -- Surrender and the Dissolution of Imperial Food -- 9: History at the Dining Table: Postwar Instant Ramen -- The Sudden Postwar -- A Land without Food -- Repatriates and Food -- A Dream Come True - Instant Ramen -- Why Invent Instant Ramen -- Japan and Instant Ramen -- The Ramen Boom -- Ramen and Food Tourism -- Branding the Local -- Ramen Finds Its Way Abroad - First to America -- You Are Not What You Eat -- "Fighting for a Share of the Stomach" -- Is Ramen Part of Japanese Cuisine -- Ramen Is Japan -- 10: Ramen Popular Culture -- How to Eat Ramen - Slurp! -- Comedy and Ramen -- Ramen Fanatics -- Musée de Ramen -- Ramen Stadiums -- Manga and Ramen Music -- For the Love of Sushi -- Ramen - With a New York State of Mind -- The Global Impact of Japanese Food -- The Rise of Ramen and Japanese Popular Culture -- Competition for Original Ramen -- Conclusion -- The Dark Side of Food Greatness -- The Future of Food in Japan -- Changes in the Contemporary Japanese Diet -- Did Japanese Food Create Japanese Identity -- Ramen and History -- Now Go Eat History! -- Bibliography -- Index.