When NOW raved about Kenzo Ramen (138 Dundas W, at Elizabeth, 416-205-1155) a few weeks back, we wondered why the best noodle soup in the house – tonkotsu ramen – isn’t included on the resto’s printed card.
Seems the meaty dish we likened to “liquid pork chops” is an off-the-menu special intended for cognoscenti and not made in sufficient quantities to allow for mass consumption – since NOW let the cat out of the bag, virtually every customer has tried to order it. Kenzo owner Daniel Park had no option but to remove it from the lineup.
“It takes my wife Jane 22-hours to just boil down the bones for the broth,” says Park of the labour-intense procedure. “We could have used the same instant broth that everyone else uses, but the quality wouldn’t be the same.”
That doesn’t mean that tonkotsu ramen is gone from Kenzo for good.
To supply the demand, Park has just ordered a multi-gallon pressure cooker from back home and should take possession of the pressurized pot by mid-September. It also cuts the soup’s cooking time to a more manageable eight hours.
“Once the new pot arrives, we’ll be able to make enough tonkotsu for everyone,” says Park.[rssbreak]
