Today’s Special: Kenny Kim’s Vegan Ramen

The broth was creamy, savory, almost nutty. And it was vegan.

Kuro Shiro owner Dohyuan ​“Kenny” Kim created his recipe for vegan tantanmen with his younger brother. It was a twist on the meat-based, Japanese noodle soups that were just getting popular in the U.S. at the time.

“The first time, it wasn’t tasty. We changed a little bit and changed a little bit until we got this recipe,” Kim said.

The brothers decreased the amount of potato in the broth and increased the garlic. Three or four years ago, they started adding kombu, an edible kelp. The final product has become one of the most popular dishes at both brothers’ outlets.

Take-out and delivery orders will prove crucial to the ability of local restaurants like Kuro Shiro to weather the pandemic during the coming months as Covid-19 cases climb and cold weather sets in. Call ahead at 475 – 234-5568 to order tantanmen and other dishes for pickup. Kuro Shiro is open every day, noon to 9 p.m.

Kim started Kuro Shiro at 128 Crown St. in late 2018. It sits midway down the block between Church Street and the pandemic-era explosion of murals on Orange Street.

He moved to New York from Korea 15 years ago, planning to study English for a few years and move back. He studied English at a language institute during the daytime and worked at restaurants at night to afford his stay. After three years, he changed his mind about moving back to Korea and decided to open a sushi takeout restaurant.

Another three or four years passed, He saw ramen becoming trendy in New York. He closed his business and started cooking in ramen restaurants. Sushi was too easy and too popular, he said; he saw an opening to make the noodle broths that he loved for a region that suffers through long winters. He moved to New Haven, where he saw a gap in the market.

Kim’s sister-in-law designed his restaurant’s hip interior with its dark blue walls, wood benches, and pots of succulents. On Friday afternoon, soft R&B songs like Khalid’s “Talk” serenaded the one couple dining in, who were munching on some of Kuro Shiro’s tapas offerings.

I ducked through the curtain to the shiny, steel kitchen where Kim was preparing a bowl of the tantanmen for me to try. He makes the broth a day in advance by boiling together kombu, onion, garlic, cabbage and potato for two hours. Then he blends the broth together and adds soy milk and a Japanese soy-based sauce. He packs up each soup portion into a plastic container to await customer orders.

It’s a fast recipe compared to the pork and chicken broths, which take 11 hours and nine hours to make, respectively.

Kim pulled out one of the plastic containers of cream-colored broth and emptied it into a saucepan to heat. To his right, a vat of water was boiling and steaming around an array of strainers. He tipped a few florets of broccoli into one strainer and set a two-minute timer. He unfurled a small nest of uncooked noodles into another, to cook for one minute.

Into the bowl went the noodles, the broccoli and broth. Kim added centimeter-wide cubes of tofu, cashews, cilantro and a splash of sauce.

Once the ingredients were combined, the noodles absorbed the broth quickly. In most takeout orders, Kim assembles the noodles and toppings in one container he keeps the broth separate in another.

Because my order was already plated, Kim insisted that I sit down and taste it immediately. I could take photographs after.

I usually order meat-based noodle soups, like the spicy, pork ramen (pictured above) for my partner, Tommy. I try to avoid meat but gave up on vegetarian noodle soups a few years ago after a particularly miserable experience with a bland, watery version of one of Tommy’s favorite childhood treats.

This soup, though, was perfect. I took a bite of noodles and noticed how satisfying the texture was, soft but still strong enough to require teeth. The broth coated the noodles in creamy, savory nuttiness. I felt a light kick of spice at the back of my throat at the end of each bite.

I liked my bites of broccoli, toasted cashews and cilantro. The tofu cubes tasted bland, so I dunked them in the broth to eat later.

Kim gave me an appetizer to try as well, a kale salad sautéed in butter, slivers of garlic, maitake mushrooms and a spoonful of ponzu sauce. The kale tasted lemony. The mushrooms were so savory they almost tasted like meat (says the vegetarian who rarely eats meat — my perspective may be skewed).

On the recommendation of the waiter, I tried an opalescent bottled drink that tasted like lychees. I’ve never downed a drink that so closely matched the sweetness and freshness of the fruit it claimed to be.

After making a few more orders, Kim sat down with me to finish our interview. He lives in New Haven with his daughter, who has just started at Boston University this year and is studying remotely during the pandemic. He is planning to open a second ramen shop in Fairfield. He dreams about hosting a reopening event at his Crown Street shop after the Covid-19 pandemic ends.

He has more recipes that he wants to add to his menu when the pandemic is over, including some seafood ramen bowls. He plans to cut ties then with the delivery apps with their expensive processing fees and delays that alter the taste of his noodles.

“Everyone will be happy after the pandemic,” Kim said. ​“Right now, people are scared to go outside. I am too. After the pandemic, I’m going to make a new menu and business will be good and people will be happy.”

Previous coverage of recommended take-orders to help keep local businesses survive the pandemic:

• Today’s Special: Haci’s Napoletana Pie
• Today’s Special: Fred & Patty’s Brie On Baguette
• Today’s Special: Nieda’s Moist Falafel
• Today’s Special: Qulen’s Vegan ​“Wings”
• Today’s Special: Aaron’s Peruvian Rice Bowl
• Today’s Special: Singh Bros.’ Chana Kulcha
• Today’s Special: Grandma’s Chicken Soup
• Today’s Special: Woody’s Steak & Shrimp
• Today’s Special: Shilmat’s Yemisir Sambusa
• Today’s Special: Arjun’s Vegetarian Manchurian
• Today’s Special: Mohammed’s Bhel Poori
• Today’s Special: Francesco’s Tortelli
• Today’s Special: Seikichi’s Sushi
• Today’s Special: Ketkeo’s Khao Poon
• Today’s Special: Mike Fox’s French Toast
• Today’s Special: Zhang’s Squirrel Fish Dish
• Today’s Special: Jessica’s Gumbo