Why do Indonesians have such an attachment to instant noodles?

A number of Indonesians share the memory of sipping chicken-flavored instant noodle soup while watching the rain pour down outside of their window. At the very least, that image, ingrained through years of advertisements, resides in their minds. It is one that presents instant noodles as a comfort food that makes everything better, Indonesia’s very own chicken soup for the soul.

Today, instant noodles are practically a daily good that transcends class and circumstances.

But how did a nation dominated by rice and cassava-eating people develop such a united love for a wheat noodle product? Food researcher Monika Swastyastu said the addiction was the result of United States food export policies in the 1960s.

Under Public Law 480, the US government was permitted to ship surplus commodities to friendly nations, either on concessional or grant terms, and Indonesia was one of the beneficiaries.

“The US had a surplus of wheat production in the 60s and 70s, which they sent to developing countries under a food propaganda scheme. Indonesia, which did not cultivate wheat, was one of the countries that received a massive amount of wheat,” said Monika, who is a researcher with culinary anthropologist collective Bakudapan.

She said the turning point came when Indonesia learned how to mass-produce food products from wheat. Then-president Soeharto instructed businessman Sudono Salim to open a wheat mill to produce flour, which would be the start of a decades-long wheat production monopoly under the Bogasari company. “It was followed by the emergence of Indofood, the producer of Indomie, which is also under the Salim Group conglomerate,” Monika said, referring to the group headed by Chinese-Indonesian tycoon Soedono Salim, or Liem Sioe Liong, who was close with Soeharto.

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