Noodle Tourism: My Hands-On Experience at the Cup Noodles Museum in Hong Kong

During a recent quick trip to Hong Kong to catch up with a few family and friends, I found myself craving more than just a good lunch. When my friend Doris and I were making plans to hang out, we decided to skip the usual restaurant meet-up and instead spend the afternoon at the Cup Noodles Museum. It turned out to be the perfect blend of fun, food, and nostalgia — and surprisingly, it gave me some fresh ideas for my own business, The Story of Ramen.

A Workshop Experience, Not Just a Museum

The Cup Noodles Museum in Hong Kong isn’t your typical museum. It's hands-on, immersive, and very much workshop-based experience. They offer three noodle-making workshops, and we chose the 90-minute Demae Iccho Factory, which promised to be the most interactive. Demae Iccho (出前一丁), for those unfamiliar, is the most popular instant noodle brand in Hong Kong — a beloved staple created by Japanese food manufacturer Nissin.

From the moment we stepped into the workshop, the experience was impressively well-orchestrated. After a short intro video on the origins of instant noodles, we got right to work.

Making Noodles — The Instant Way (But Still by Hand!)

Despite being all about "instant" noodles, the process felt anything but rushed. Here’s what we did:

1. Mixed wheat flour and kansui (alkaline water) in stainless bowls.

2. Kneaded the dough by hand.

3. Flattened the dough gently using rolling pins (mostly pounding, not rolling).

4. Ran it through a heavy-duty, industrial hand-crank noodle roller — fold and roll 12 times!

5. Let the dough rest in a plastic bag while we customized our noodle packaging with crayons.

6. Watched a second short video explaining the next steps of the noodle-making process.

7. Rolled and cut the dough into noodles using the same hand-crank machine.

8. Watched a third video covering the history of Nissin and the invention of instant noodles by Momofuku Ando.

9. Trimmed our noodles to exactly 110 grams — even played a puzzle game featuring Ando’s avatar while waiting!

10. Observed the final steps: the noodles were steamed for 4 minutes and deep-fried at 150°C (302°F) for 1 minute and 40 seconds.

11. Then came the magic moment: our noodles were sealed in packaging right before our eyes — a real "factory line" moment.

    
    

What Surprised Me as a Ramen-Making Classes Business Owner

What stood out to me — as someone who runs ramen-making classes in San Francisco — was how surprisingly similar their process was to ours at The Story of Ramen.

• The Dough Process: They kneaded the dough by folding and rolling it 12 times using a hand-crank machine. At The Story of Ramen, we use a KitchenAid pasta roller, but the method and intention are almost identical. We knead our dough seven times — they go a bit further.

  
  

• Workshop Flow: Instead of one large class led by an instructor (our format), the Cup Noodles Museum uses staggered stations. Each small group is guided through the process in phases. It's more self-guided, with staff assisting and short videos playing between steps.

  
  

• Kid-Friendly Design: The workshop was packed with families and kids — likely because we went on a weekday afternoon. Their workshop felt slightly more like an edutainment experience, whereas ours is a bit more technical and culinary focused.

  
  

• Videos for Engagement: They used videos at three different points in the workshop to explain the process and give historical context. That’s something I’m definitely considering bringing to The Story of Ramen to enrich our guest experience — maybe a short intro video or a behind-the-scenes noodle-making montage before the class begins?

Bigger Reflections: Experience Matters

At its core, this workshop wasn’t about eating — it was about doing. It reminded me why hands-on food experiences have universal appeal. Whether it’s learning how instant noodles are made in Hong Kong or crafting your own ramen bowl from scratch in San Francisco, people love connecting with food in a tactile, personal way.

In the end, my “noodle tourism” afternoon wasn’t just a fun outing with a friend. It reaffirmed something I’ve long believed: people don’t just want to consume food — they want to be part of the process. That’s exactly what we aim to offer at The Story of Ramen. And now, maybe with a few new ideas from Hong Kong, we’ll make the experience even better.

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Manville Chan is the Founder and Chief Experience Officer at The Story of Ramen.