"As an additional benefit, I found these to have about 50% more calories than the brands I found at the Japanese grocery stores."
They're just bigger. The calories per unit weight for ramen is pretty much the same across the board.
I like the Korean style ramen because of the quality of the noodles. The powdered flavor packets are garbage just like every other ramen but they are easily replaced with a little dashi or miso. Nongshim is one manufacturer that has a number of "flavors" available. They're a Korean company but the noodles sold here are manufactured in southern California.
I know it's super popular in Japan but ramen is kind of trashy junk food mostly. Fried white flour: not much there nutritionally except calories. But on the trail they can be heavenly. And they are so easy to cook. You can even eat them raw if your stove breaks. The big problem is that they're bulky and have to be left out or at least limited if you have a full bear canister. I've probably eaten well over 1000 packages.
