Americans may have gotten their first inkling of Japan's obsession with ramen in 1987, when the Japanese film "Tampopo" was released in the United States and became a cult hit. The so-called noodle Western tells the story of a truck driver who rides into town and helps a young, widowed noodle-shop owner perfect the art of making a bowl of ramen.

Ken Sasahara, president of Nissin Foods (USA) Co., which opened its first factory in California in the early 1970s, credits instant noodles with helping spark the wave of ramen bars that have sprung up across the country. The arrival of Ippudo has raised the stakes, he says, and could trigger intense ramen battles similar to ones found in Tokyo.

Rickmond Wong, a Web designer and self-proclaimed ramen expert who writes about his favorite topic on at rameniac.com, has closely monitored the gradual emergence of high-quality, authentic ramen shops in the Los Angeles area.

He believes it's tied to the growing economic clout of Asian nations and American enthusiasm for all things Japanese, including animation, video games, cartoons and food.

"These days people are interested (in Japanese pop culture) in a much more sophisticated manner than in the past, when aspects of a foreign culture were typically exoticized and viewed through a post-colonialist lens — 'Oh, look at what strange things these people eat,' " he says. "It's high time for ramen to take its place in the pantheon of a multicultural American diet."

Wong, who eats about 200 bowls of ramen a year and has sampled noodles at many of the dozens of ramen restaurants in Los Angeles, complains that "the bulk of them" are "fairly mediocre." But he does have his favorites: Santouka, a branch of a Japanese chain, as well as two independent shops, Asa Ramen and Gardena Ramen.

In New York, ramen lovers compare notes on places like Menchanko-Tei, Menkui-Tei, Rai Rai Ken, Ramen Setagaya and Momofuku, many of them clustered in the East Village but some located in prime midtown locations.

While the pricier joints may charge as much as $16 for a bowl of ramen, it's also possible to slurp a bowl, shoulder to shoulder with a mostly Japanese clientele, for well under $10.

Chang, who studied with a great ramen chef in Japan before opening Momofuku, gets credit for introducing ramen to a largely non-Asian clientele.

"He played a big part in making people aware of ramen," says Toshiya Suganuma, the secretary of Ippudo. "He may have opened up a gate. It was good for us."

As "Tampopo" cheerfully demonstrates, making top-notch ramen isn't easy — or cheap.