Just the other day I was having a beautiful bowl of ramen at Marutama in the West End. I opted out of the “extra noodle” option and five minutes in I was already done with all the noodles and pork and left with a brimming bowl of hot, delicious chicken broth. I usually put my mouth on the lip of the bowl and slurp loudly in the traditional way, but I always feel a little self-conscious bringing it up to my face and making the indecorous racket. I’d been supplied with one of those tiny spoons that you normally get at noodle joints, but what I really wanted – half-seriously – was a straw…

While hardly the proper way to eat ramen (“First, caress the surface,” according to Tanpopo in the scene above), they would accelerate consumption considerably, which is the soul of ramen in the first place. And so the internet giveth: product designer Julian Lechner has created chopsticks that are also straws. They’re just a proposal in development at this point, but I can imagine these being available everywhere, yesterday.

EVERY COOL THING WE WANT