I have to admit that I, too, enjoy watching Tampopo's journey to becoming a good noodle chef more than the other side stories, but I appreciate what director Itami Juzo was going for. There are fun moments like the beginning of the movie where an old man describes how to appreciate a bowl of ramen, the businessmen in the French restaurant, the hobo cooking up an omurice for Tampopo's son, Tampopo saving a choking man by using a vacuum cleaner's suction tube, and Tampopo's final noodle exam treated with all the seriousness of the westerns the movie is spoofing. Watching this movie definitely makes you hungry for ramen!

It was meant to be silly. It's a comedy/parody film, a lighthearted movie poking fun at the role of food in Japanese culture and life in general while at the same time parodying a range of genres including Spaghetti Westerns, samurai films, gangster movies and so on.
The people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of history.
-Mao Zedong