I was thinking it's more of a college thing. It was a staple of early college life and sometimes after graduation due to how inexpensive it was when bought as a bulk purchase. Combined with some cheap spices and veggies and this is your basic college survival life for under $50 a month. At least it was like that 15-20 years ago. Prices don't seem to have gone up too much since either.

A pack of ramen noodles with a can of mushrooms, canned chicken or spam, and a little chedder cheese tossed in is still my guilty pleasure. It's terrible for you, but it's delicious and cheap.

I used to love ramen w/o soup with fried egg (runny yolk) and fried spam. It's also not healthy at all, but it's delicious and easy. If you want to get fancy, squirt some lime juice or something on it to make it not feel so heavy.

It was the staple of many of my college meals. I would cook some young bok choy in the broth and then sprinkle it with scallions and some garlic chips I fried up while the broth was going. All very cheap and tasty veggies to garnish with.