Ramen Misoya

Most ramen shops pick a broth and build around it. Misoya picks a paste. Since it opened on Second Avenue in 2011 — billed at the time as the city's first shop devoted entirely to miso ramen — every bowl here has been built on one of three: kome, the robust Hokkaido-style miso; shiro, the milder, gently sweet Kyoto style; and mame, the dark Nagoya miso with a bitter finish.

For a Sapporo-leaning bowl, go kome, and consider the Konayuki, which melts butter and parmesan into the miso broth — rich, odd and very good on a cold night. The shiro spicy ramen is the lighter route. It is a small, quick-turnover noodle shop. A second location runs on Hudson Street in the West Village.