Ramen, contrary to popular belief, are an offset of the Chinese food Lo-Mein. The logic behind this? the Japanese pronounce the Chinese Characters for Lo-Mein as "Ramen"
The dish originally became popular in the Japanese island of Hokkaido, specifically the capital, Sapporo. Amusingly enough, the dish was so popular their it is now concidered their regional dish.
The instant noodles that people have come to know and love here in america were created by Momofuku Ando, the founder of the Japanese company Nissin Foods. In 1970, the brand "Top Ramen" was introduced to America. While there are many other Ramen brands out their today, Nissin Foods still holds captive 1/2 of the instant Ramen industry.
One of the reasons Ramen is so popular is the cost, coming in at 12.5 cents on average in america. This is also one of the reasons why Ramen factories can be found not only in America, China, and Japan, but also in Europe, Malaysia, and Thailand.
Ramen consuming countries also have their own preferences for flavors, similar to the toppings in Omelettes around the world. Koreans generally have spicy Ramen with a packet of black bean sauce. Japan prefers mild spices with seafood flavors. Here in America, we generally have the meat flavors with mild spices, but apparently there is also some mushroom flavors floating around the US somewhere...
for More information on Ramen and it's history, please visit http://www.konzak.com/ramen/index.html. this is an excellent website with the history of Ramen, interesting facts on Ramen, and even recipes incorporating the Ramen noodles into other foods. I seriously recommend that last one, because unless your visiting Japan anytime soon, It's highly unlikely that your going to find a nice bowl of freshly made Ramen lying around, and this is probably the closest you can get.
-AdamK
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