Four days apart in August, under the steady boot crush of the pandemic and the restaurant off-season, two ramen restaurants opened. Both are great. The first is Origami Ramen Bar in Ahwatukee. Origami is the project Yusuke Kuroda started after being laid off in the spring from the national, reputable high-end microchain Nobu. He came to Arizona and opened a noodle bar — Origami also serves donburi, handrolls, a few fried foods, milk tea, and other offerings — to channel his reserves of dammed-up passion and energy that built and built in the early, idle, uncertain months of 2020. Kuroda, an Osaka native, went to culinary school and got his start cooking kaiseki in his home city. It’s no surprise, then, that his takoyaki are first rate. Takoyaki — dough spheres cooked on special trays to a brown crust, the rich product shot through with bits of chopped octopus — are a food from Osaka. Growing up, Kuroda’s mom cooked takoyaki at home, and the version he makes, he says, channels those memories. His are hearty and soft inside, a rendition topped with a blizzard of shaved bonito, the pink flurries of cured fish kindling a pleasant sea tang.