Ramen as Dehydrated Noodles

When you hear the word "ramen," what do you think of? If you are a Westerner, chances are you think of dried noodles with some strange powder, served in a styrofoam cup. You pour boiling water into the cup, wait for three minutes, and serve. Which companies and brands you see most often will depend on the country you're from:
 * Australia and South Africa: Maggi's Two-Minute Noodles (actually from India)
 * Some Australians (in particular recent uni students) prefer Indonesian brand Indomie's Mie Goreng.
 * United Kingdom: Unilever's Pot Noodles
 * The United States: Maruchan's Instant Lunch and Nissin's Cup Noodles and Top Ramen
 * Canada: Mr. Noodles, Nong Shim, and Sapporo Ichiban.
 * In an example of Brand Name Takeover, "ichiban" is often used as a generic term in Canada to refer to any type of ramen. In the original Japanese, it means "number one".
 * Russia: Korea Yakult's Doshirak and local Rollton brand, although recently Nong Shim started to make a dent.
 * Germany: Maggi 5-Minuten-Terrine
 * Indonesia and The Middle East (minus Israel): Indomie, favored for being fairly good and halal.

We shall begin with dehydrated noodles, as this is more familiar to a westerner than fresh ramen. While "ramen" refers strictly to a specific type of Japanese noodle (often in soup), the term is also used to refer to any package of dehydrated noodles with seasonings for a single serving. On the other hand, recently many producers started to differentiate between various type of noodles, so one can encounter amusing combinations like "udon instant ramen".

Instant noodles were invented by a guy named Momofuku Ando, a naturalized Taiwanese immigrant who, among his many commercial ventures, was once a successful salt merchant and knew the food industry inside out. Once in 1947, at the height of the postwar poverty in Japan, he saw a long line to the ramen shop in Osaka, and thought that it'd be nice if the people wouldn't need to wait outside for hours to eat. He then went to experiment in his storage-shed-turned-a-lab in his backyard, and after 11 years of experiments finally found a solution: fry the freshly boiled ramen in palm oil until crisp to remove moisture, then pour concentrated chicken stock over, dry it off and sell. So in 1958 his first product, Nissin Chicken Ramen, was out. Later, he or some his employee invented a styrofoam cup, and so Nissin Cup Ramen was born. Ando died in 2007, at the ripe old age of 96 (eating his invention everyday, mind you), but Nissin Food, his company, remains the largest player on the market up to this day.

There are dozens of companies creating literally hundreds of different sorts, with at least one representative from every Oriental country. Step into an Asian (or even a general) supermarket, and you will see an entire aisle devoted to these noodles, usually spanning both sides. Dehydrated noodles exists for Indonesian mi goreng, Vietnamese pho, Japanese udon and yakisoba, Thai tom yum and pad Thai, Korean jjajang, Chinese wor wonton, and so forth. Udon is an odd case in that the noodles do not dehydrate properly, so they are normally shipped undehydrated and stored refrigerated, separate from the other types of ramen. Nevertheless, preparation techniques are the same as their dehydrated kin.

But the familiar styrofoam cups are not a given: they are characteristically Japanese and in foreign markets managed to get a hold mainly in US, so in other countries cup ramen would most probably be imported. The cheaper varieties will most commonly come in bags, which are meant to be prepared at home; but some more upscale types will come in plastic/cardboard bowls or buckets, which are meant to be prepared at school or at work. Most will cook in the same way as the familiar cup noodles (immerse the noodles in boiling water for 3-5 minutes, then uncover), though you should expect to see separate packets for the soup powder, as well as the occasional packets for chili powder, hot sauce, oil, soy sauce, fried garlic, vegetables, vinegar, etc., in addition to the brick of noodles. Some require you to soak the noodles, drain, and then season them. Some brands require no preparation at all--you'd eat the dehydrated noodles as they are (actually most could be, as they're all ready to eat, rehydration just makes them more palatable). The approach depends largely on the manufacturer, rather than the type of dish.

What all dehydrated noodles have in common, however, no matter what country they're from, is that they're symbolic of poverty -- or, at least, not exactly stable life. Which is somewhat ironic, given that initially instant ramen was seen as an upscale product, and cost significantly more than the real stuff. Things changed since, though, and now whether it's the starving university student, people living alone flooded in debt, or folks who have fallen on hard times, whenever you see someone in fiction pouring boiling water into a brick of rock-hard noodles, you can tell they're hungry for money as well as food. Quite Truth in Television, as instant noodles are quite cheap and can be prepared quickly. The somewhat more nutritionally conscious might put in some veggies and an egg.

Very likely to be Trademark Favorite Food for characters in media like manga. Interestingly, in manga and related media nowadays, there is a tendency to depict ramen as Trademark Favorite Food for even rich and high class people, or at least as some kind of delicacy to them.

Of course, the media also depicts fresh ramen as well. The restaurant-quality stuff may have been right under your nose among the things you've watched, read, played, or otherwise consumed.

Anime and Manga

 * The heroes in Cowboy Bebop always find themselves eating dried noodles of various types due to their constant lack of money. It becomes a Running Gag.
 * Lucky Star has a few scenes with instant ramen, discussing the tendency to forget about it while it's cooling.
 * Noblesse has the main character having ramen as his Trademark Favorite Food despite his high-class background.
 * Resident ojou of Seitokai Yakuindomo also appears to be quite fond of ramen.
 * One of the Project X nonfiction business documentary mangas is about Nissin and the creation of the Cup Noodle.
 * The vehicle assembly crew in Rocket Girls are shown more than once arguing over which flavor of instant noodles is best while eating those noodles.

Literature

 * In Uglies, they have tons of types of dehydrated meals, many involving noodles, which are all written in CamelCase, and so would all be Wiki Word-ed here.
 * In The Tomorrow Series, city girl Fi is entirely unfamiliar with Two-Minute Noodles. Jack tells her about him subsisting on Two-Minute Noodles for a whole week when living with his father before the war.

Live Action TV

 * In Red Dwarf, Lister refers to "Pot Noodles" as a meal of last resort. He eats dog food over them in "Marooned", and in "Angels and Demons", when on a "perfected" version of the Red Dwarf, he tests its perfection by ordering Pot Noodles from the food dispenser.
 * In a first-season episode of Breaking Bad, Walter White gives a pack of ramen to his old business partner Elliott Schwartz as a memento from their days working together as struggling graduate students.
 * An early episode of ER had Dr. Ross catching Dr. Carter preparing to feast on a cup of instant noodles, despite being from a very wealthy family. Turns out, his family cut him off due to a disagreement.

Video Games

 * In Ace Attorney, Dick Gumshoe frequently finds himself eating ramen... when he can afford it.

Web Comics

 * The students in PHD feed off of dried ramen and free food.

Anime and Manga

 * The eponymous character in Naruto is a fan of ramen, referring specifically to the fresh kind (and the dehydrated one, too, which he eats on a daily basis). The series has a ramen bar, Ichiraku Ramen, that's internationally famous.
 * Ramen Fighter Miki focuses on competing ramen delivery services.
 * In One Piece, Wanze fights using ramen noodles as armor and as grappling.
 * Oishinbo has devoted chapters here and there to ramen and other noodles.
 * Super GALS!: Tatsuki and Naoki are the sons of a ramen shop owner, and their day in the limelight involves the family business.

Film

 * The Ramen Girl, a movie about an American woman who follows her boyfriend to Japan, ends up getting dumped by him and left stranded there, and later drowns her sorrows at a local ramen restaurant. To cope with the loss, she vows to become an expert ramen cook and convinces the restaurant owner to train her in cooking ramen.

Video Games

 * In The World Ends With You, there's a ramen restaurant (Ramen Don)whose food affects the player characters' stats. In Week 2, Day 3, a mission revolves around Ramen Don and a rival ramen shop which opens a few doors down.
 * Persona 3 had Hagakure Ramen as a typical hangout location, usually important for Social Links.
 * Ramen has become an Earth delicacy in the Mass Effect universe by the time of Mass Effect 2. Kasumi speaks about her grandmother preparing it, and a cook at a restaurant on the Citadel can also be overheard talking about it.
 * Alternatively, the chef is trying to con some Citadel tourists into eating "genuine" Earth cuisine.
 * Grunt the Krogan and Extreme Omnivore at that dislikes ramen, because it looked like dead worms to him.
 * In one of the levels of Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan the cheerleading squad has to help the owner of a failing ramen shop revitalize his establishment.