Rahu: I Forgot I Kinda Liked Hipster Sushi

Rahu

Sisowath Quay

10 Sisowath Quay

Tel: 023 215 179

Hipster sushi makes up roughly 80% of the diets of Northern Californians, and I'm pleased to announce that Phnom Penh now has an entry into the field. Restaurant chain Metro has opened a sushi outpost next to Harem Shisha Bar and the Riverhouse Lounge, with sushi and Japanese specialities added on to the standard Metro menu.

The dark, moody, and aggressively hip decor - yes, I'll mention the Angry Monk Kid painting in the back corner, let's stop talking about it now - is set off by extremely attractive and somewhat attentive wait-staff. Where Rahu really shines is after 11:00 PM, when the sushi menu is discounted by 50%. In fact, I've never actually eaten at Rahu before the discount hit.

In a city where late-night food can be limited—if you're not brave enough to risk food stalls and gastrointestinal ruin—this late night sushi can be something of a blessing, especially if you're not really that into greasy hangover prevention chow. Rolls top out at around $5 and most are in the $3.50 area. It's a pretty good deal for the tastiest sushi I've had in town. The menu is not particularly extensive, but all the bases are covered, with sushi rolls, sashimi, and some other Japanese classics on offer.

The spicy salmon rolls are my favorite here. The legitimately spicy salmon interior is wrapped in rice which is studded with small, crispy tempura bits. It's finished with a not-excessive drizzle of wasabi mayo and is really a pretty perfect light meal or late-night snack. I used to bitch about California sushi's obsession with sauces, but now I miss them. A lot.

The simple tuna roll is executed beautifully here - fresh tuna, perfectly rolled, seaweed that isn't too chewy. No sauces to accompany here, which is as it should be for one of Japanese cuisine's more perfectly simple creations.

Salmon, asparagus, and cream cheese is another classic California-style roll that is just about impossible to find in Cambodia. I really like this roll - creamy cheese, some subtlety unctuous salmon, a bit of green onion, some crisp asparagus, and a smidgen of spicy sauce. Rich without making you feel sort of awful about yourself. Which is not the point of sushi.

There's also beef with red ants rolls on the menu. These are especially fun if you can order these when your friend is in the bathroom, than pass it off as something totally benign. That joke never gets old.

Don't forget to ask the waitstaff to bring you some of Rahu's home-made potato chips to go with your sushi and alcoholic beverages. They're seasoned with something delicious and are, in my opinion, far superior to the sweet n' salty peanuts usually on offer with beer in Cambodia.

Be aware that a service charge is tacked onto the bill whether you like it or not - keep this in mind before embarking on some sort of PM sushi binge. It's true that Rahu would be somewhat obnoxiously chic if it wasn't here, but as things currently stand in PP, it's kinda nice to be able to get California-style sushi late at night at an aggressively hip restaurant where the waitstaff aren't particularly nice to you. It reminds me of home.

Shabu Shabu and Sushi Buffet: Raw bacon on a conveyor belt!!!

Shabu Shabu and Sushi Buffet
City Mall Shopping Center
Sothearos Boulevard
855 12 208 383



Food served on a conveyor belt has always held a profound fascination for me. Admittedly, a lot of people really enjoy eating food in motion - maybe it appeals to our primitive hunting instincts, grabbing moving plastic trays of food. Phnom Penh, in yet another indication of its growing economic power (or something) now has its own place to get food on a conveyor belt: Shabu Shabu and Sushi Buffet.



My boyfriend is really tall and chronically hungry so the word "buffet" tends to get our attention. At Shabu Shabu, you pay $7.80 for 80 minutes of stuffing your face, which is a pretty good deal by Phnom Penh standards. You're led to a table and given a choice of broth for your personal-sized hotpot.

You then grab raw ingredients off the belt and dump them in the soup. Simple enough. There's also an assortment of sushi, cold dishes, some hot stuff (spring rolls and the like), ice cream, soda, and other food products. The decor is somewhere between Asian-futuristic and 50's buffet, with sappy Khmer music playing in the background. Personally, I find it rather charming. You can also mix up your own dipping sauces which is always endlessly entertaining for me.



The sushi is only okay, but there's a lot of it and they do make an effort to keep the variety up. If you are like my boyfriend and messily devour all of the crab-stick and shrimp sushi as soon as they set it out, they'll probably stop making it for a while. "They see me COMING," he's started to complain to me. Ah, Sushi Buffet, thou art a cruel mistress.

Admittedly, they may not be equipped for the appetites of 6'6 22 year olds at Shabu Shabu. The shabu-shabu element is quite tasty, mainly because shabu shabu is pretty hard to screw up due to its rather simple, interactive nature. There's usually a healthy variety of raw ingredients, some of them amusingly difficult to identify for your average Westerner. (WHAT ARE THOSE CRACKER THINGS I DON'T EVEN).

On the whole, the Shabu-Shabu Sushi Buffet is an entertaining change from the usual in Phnom Penh, as long as you're not out to experience the Art of Sushi or anything and derive as much pleasure as I do from grabbing little plates of uncooked bacon off a conveyor belt. Just don't stay past 80 minutes. You won't like what happens.

Okay, they actually just charge you a few bucks more, but it sounds cooler like that.

Kaiko's Sushi: Back to Basics Japanese in Clearwater

Kaikos
2475 North McMullen Booth Road
Clearwater, FL 33759
(727) 791-6640

The sushi disease has infected Tampa, just as it has pretty much everywhere else, barring (perhaps) certain grasslands in Nebraska and the wilds of Upper Mongolia. There is a sushi restaurant on just about every corner, sushi at the grocery store, and sushi-making classes on offer at your nearest convenient library location. Most of this sushi is absolutely horrible. Thus, I'm happy to relate that Kaiko's Sushi in Clearwater is tasty, fresh, and suitable for human consumption. Back away from the Publix stuff. I mean it, you dirty little animal.

Kaiko's is what I'd call a traditional style sushi bar, Thank God. This means the rolls are

1. Small enough so that they can be fit in a standard-issue human mouth.

2. Not drenched in mayonnaise based sauce in wacky colors.

3. Put together with an eye towards fresh ingredients and the interplay of flavors, not with an eye toward "How much random shit can we stuff in this sushi roll for ten bucks? And how much sake do we have to sell to the pale-faces to get em' to eat it?"

All of these elements are Good. The menu is short and exists in the form of a piece of paper on which one marks off one's choices.



Sunonomo salad with seafood. Fresh and a good selection of fish - that's a plus here. Too much vinegar.



The Tampa roll. People in Tampa are nuts for fried grouper, totally nuts and thus this roll - fried grouper and onions, no more, no less. Too simple for me - grouper isn't exactly a hyperactively flavorful fish - but certain family members go nuts for it.



Ah, that's the stuff. I liked the 7-ingredient futomaki, which featured a whole bunch of crunchy vegetables, some preserved, and was very refreshing indeed. Also liked the simple unakyu with avocado and eel. The chopped conch special was all right, but not sure how I feel about the (thankfully not over the top) mayo mixture. Conch on its own is an interesting sort of flavor experience - not sure if that lily needs to be gilded. A very nice sashimi selection - these guys are sourcing and cutting their fish well. I can't stand sashimi that's been cut so thickly and so poorly that one needs a steak knife to get through it.


The two guys next to us were friendly in that older-guys hitting on you in a courtly fashion way to me and my cousin, and we shot the shit merrily throughout dinner. It's a convivial place, and the older guy manning the sushi bar is funny as hell, berating a regular who identified himself as "crazy, just crazy." (Not in my eyes: a lot of middle aged guys trying to seem wacky have this habit of identifying themselves as Crazy, as if I will leap back all astonished and horrified but at the same time aroused. I have (I think) looked into the Eye of Crazy on a couple occasions on my life and you sir, wacky as you may be, do not qualify as bona-fide crazy. That is darker and much more complex. Such things do not need to be discussed over austere and good sushi somewhere in the depths of Clearwater.

I have forgotten where I was going with this.

I recommend Kaiko for back-to-basics sushi in the Clearwater area.

The Sake Cafe: Yet More New Orleans Sushi! SHOCK AND HORROR

Sake Cafe
2830 Magazine St
New Orleans, LA
504 894 0033

The Sake Cafe. Yep, it's more sushi in New Orleans. I know you're shocked. The Sake Cafe seems to be pitching itself up as an upmarket date place, and that's reflected in the ultra-hip decor and the hordes of highly dressed thirty-somethings gazing into one another's eyes over plates of sashimi. (Yes, we CAN pretend we actually live in upper Manhattan instead of in a malarial but curiously delightful swamp! Joy!)



We checked out the Uptown Roll ($14.00) with spicy scallops and "crunchies" inside, and chopped tuna, salmon, and yellowtail on top with tobiko and scallions. I am not sure what the national fascination with tempura "crunchies" is- unless it is simply proving that Americans really dig deep fried things - but they have found their way into almost every sushi roll in this country. I've made my peace with them. Crunchy things aside, this was a pretty good roll - the combination of cool interior and hot, richly scallop-y topping was very good.




We tried the curiously titled Never Bored Tuna ($13.00) with sliced torched tuna, cucumber, and chili sauce with masago and scallions. This was a fairly pedestrian seared tuna - sorry bout' the name- but was composed of high quality fish and was a pleasant enough variant on the theme. How many ways can sushi restaurants think of to jazz up seared tuna?




We tried the assorted sashimi ($22.00) with tuna, salmon, yellowtail, white fish, octopus, surf clam, and crabstick. Sashimi lives and dies by freshness, and this was certainly very fresh, and a nice combination of different fish varieties. The Sake Cafe has a bitching shaved ice (snoball) machine for this kind of stuff. It's behind the sushi bar. Sort of mesmerizing. (Why aren't there seafood flavored snoballs on the menu? Okay, don't answer that).




Last up were the Screamer Oysters ($7.00), fresh oysters sauteed with garlic chili sauce and served with warm bread. The buttery sauce had a good flavor with a boatload of chili sauce, but was actually too hot: made it difficult to taste the oyster. I am a bit of a stud about hot food so these guys are definitely stepping on it. Would be a real standout dish if they kicked it down just a teeny little notch or two.

Verdict: the Sake Cafe is New Orlean's most atmospheric choice for sushi, although the food isn't particularly superior to the other joints in town - in other words, it's pretty good. Keep it in mind for occasions when you want to dress up and eat raw fish like all good urbanites should.

Ninja Sushi: YES IT'S MORE SUSHI IN NEW ORLEANS

Ninja Sushi
8433 Oak Street
New Orleans, LA 70118
(504) 866-1119

Why does New Orleans have so many sushi restaurants?

This is a question that has plagued me throughout my (ending!) two years as a New Orleans resident. The Big Easy possesses a vibrant and fascinating food culture and a profusion of good restaurants, that's evident, but it does not have much in the way of Asian food. Decent Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean food are difficult if well nigh impossible to find within the central city (you get far better pickings in the burbs). But sushi? SO MUCH SUSHI. SUSHI EVERYWHERE. This can probably be attributed to the hordes of yuppies and liberal arts students that populate the Garden District, and can also be chalked up to the serious hipness that sushi has enjoyed for what, the past twenty years, and some of it can probably be credited to Louisiana's fine seafood-eating tradition. But the fact remains that New Orleans sushi restaurants are both numerous and extremely similar, with menus and focuses that could be carbon copies of one another. How the hell do they all survive? Do Tulane students really eat that many 11:00 PM spicy tuna rolls? Is there an economics major in the house, someone who could parse out this mystery, present a paper, put my worried and unsettled (oh, eternally) mind to rest?

Sorry. Anyway. Ninja Sushi on Oak Street.

Ninja is located in a rather funky building a bit past the Maple Leaf on Oak. You walk into a funky bar area and are directed to a cleverly concealed set of stairs to the main dining room. The restaurants name and the bar area are, rather sadly, misleading: the dining area is a perfectly standard issue Japanese restaurant interior. Think soft colored wood paneling and gently piped in music.

The menu is standard for NOLA sushi joints, although there are a few nods to local foodstuffs - think fried oyster rolls and okra tempura - and some interesting appetizers, such as sauteed enoki mushrooms.



I had the seafood salad, which is one of my stand-by orders at Japanese restaurants. Pretty good, although the salad at Hana is bigger for slightly less money. The fish selections were fresh and I was impressed with the variety - they could probably toss more greens and seaweed salad on this thing and pad it out without driving the price up too much.



My friend swears by the pickled wasabi (Teardrop) roll here, which I didn't try. Apparently it's wasabi distilled to its smack yo in da face essence, and judging by the reactions of my two dining companions, it went over well. Look, I apologize for the whole wasabi thing. I will eat just about anything but horseradish products are one of the very few existent flavors that don't get my motor runnin' at all. Just can't stand it. I hate the way it goes up my nose.

We tried the Moriaki roll with yellowtail, salmon, fresh tuna, green onion, smelt roe, radish sprout and avocado, which was pleasant and fresh, although not particularly exciting (but that wasn't exactly expected). An order of salmon sashimi was fresh and properly prepared. We also sampled the enoki mushrooms, which were served in an interesting soy sauce, vinegar, and ginger concoction and possessed the slimy, chewy, yet oddly compelling thang enokis have going on.

On the whole, Ninja Sushi is a nice enough NOLA Japanese joint - but it doesn't possess anything extra to set it apart from the rest of the pack. Nice enough for sushi on Oak Street, especially if you've grown sick of endless, endless Hana runs.

Kru Sushi: Sacramento's Tastiest Raw Fish

Kru
2516 J Street
Sacramento, CA 95816-4815
(916) 551-1559

Kru is Sacramento's upscale sushi emporium, shooting for a crowd more interested in nuanced flavors and a hip ambience then the Mikuni adherents. Instead of gigantic mayonnaise-drenched rolls and sake-choco-tinis, Kru is more interested in producing refined nuevo-Japanese cuisine at upscale prices, in a chilled out (if hipster-infested) setting. The place isn't always 100%, but in my opinion, it's the region's tastiest and most "serious" sushi. Check it out. On this particular visit, they were really firing on all cylinders, and we had a downright delightful meal.



One of the daily specials consisted of monkfish, Japanese mushrooms, and flash-fried piquillo peppers, an extremely Spanish influenced dish. And did it ever taste that way. I was instantly reminded of the copious amounts of monkfish I consumed over the summer in Spain and especially in the Basque country - the perfectly cooked "poor man's lobster" was complimented perfectly by a snappy pan-sear and a soy sauce glaze. Just excellent.



We tried the gorgeous sashimi tapas, the chef's choice of fish. I will say right now I cannot recall exactly what all of this stuff was, other then that it was delicious and extremely attractive. A hell of a step up from the area's usual "sashimi samplers" - shoddily cut merely-okay fish slapped on a plate. Interesting but not overpowering sauces and accompaniments? Good.



Next was the Hawaiian walu and enoki mushroom "parcel" with soy, sake, and garlic, a special that found its way onto the permanant menu due to overwhelming popularity. For good reason. A nice subtle flavor permeated both the fish and the meaty, delightfully alien-like enokis.



A special of pork belly over a wild mushroom risotto. Not particularly Asian, but certainly very tasty, with the tender, uber-fatty pork in confluence with the earthy mushrooms. The risotto was a spot too dense.



Seaweed salad. I cannot not order this stuff, I am afraid. A good version here, though real seaweed dorks should check out Kru's other seaweed salad, which features weird-ass stuff doubtless scraped off the ocean floor.

Kru was spot on during this visit, and I'm certain I'll be returning to sample their interesting food in the future. Whenever I save up my pennies, anyhow. Great sushi don't come cheap. And that's probably the way it should be.

Kru: Fancy Sushi in Midtown Sacramento

Kru
2516 J Street
Sacramento, CA 95816
(916) 551-1559

Kru is Midtown Sacramento's nouveau sushi restaurant, specializing in preparations and ingredients beyond Mikuni's mayo-drenched norm. The hip and small place attracts an equal contingent of hip people(excluding me) : a quirky wine list and a small-plates centric menu complete Kru's aura of studied difference. So what about the food?



This is the baby calamari salad ($10), a texturally interesting combination of sliced cucumber, green apple,
micro-greens, and creamy miso dressing. The flash-fried little squids were a nicely chewy warm juxtaposition to the crunchy and slightly sweet cucumber and apple, and the miso-sauce was a good tie together. A successful (and attractive) dish.



This is a rather unusual seaweed salad, composed of different varieties of seaweed and served with a spicy wasabi dressing and a little bit of quail egg. If you're one of those people who are into the gelatinous and salty side of Japanese cuisine, you'll like this. (I do).



The always-popular hamachi kama ($11), a charbroiled yellowtail collar, typically served with a dish of ponzu sauce. This is one of the simplest dishes on Kru's playlist and one of my favorites: the fatty and super-flavorful meat, when combined with the grill's char and the snappy citrus sauce, is just delicious. This was a very nice rendition of this classic, and one of the best I've had in the area. Two snaps up. (Another advantage of hamachi kama is that some people will find it icky and refuse to eat it, leaving more for you!)



This is panko crusted salmon sashimi, served with a crab remoulade ($14). I have always been suspicious of fried salmon, as the combination of deep fat fryin' and salmon's inherent richness seemed to be totally overwhelming. Thankfully, this suceeded the trick seems to be keeping the fish inside uber-rare with just a slight panko-crunch on the outside. The creamy remoulade didn't possess the horse-radish kick I was expecting (being a remoulade snob and part-time New Orleanian, yeah, bitches, I like my remoulade good n' proper.)



This is Kru's signature Poke trio - hawaiian style marinated spicy tuna, hamachi, and octopus, with green tea, schichimi, and nori salts ($13). The dish is pretty as hell and plays well off the oft-abused three ways concept - Poke is one of Hawaii's most divinely inspired treats, and this was a good rendition of a classic, with super fresh fish and a good flavor profile. The schmancy salts sound compelling, but I honestly can't detect much flavor difference between the three varieties. Pretend you can tell the difference to impress the hell out of your date.



This is the Tesla roll, which has soft shell crab, avocado, albacore, salmon, garlic cream sauce, and chives ($12). I'm always a sucker for soft shell crab, so this was pretty good, although I am increasingly over Sacramento style rolls of "fried stuff with cream sauce on top. If you are into that (most are), this definitely knocks the socks off of Mikuni.


Kru does a very good job of getting high quality and super fresh fish. That can be a real problem in Sacramento's more half-assed sushi joints. My hat is off.

Service was not up to Kru's usual standards. Our server was rather scattered, and our attempts to order two different bottles of wine were unsuccessful. "Sorry, we're redoing our wine list," was the explanation. Folks, take the wine off the menu if it is not available, do not cruelly lure us in then dash our hopes. To put a completely over-dramatic spin on it.

Despite some small hiccups, Kru is my favorite sushi joint in Sacramento. The quiet and stylish dining room, the innovative menu items, and the super fresh fish combined to produce a superior experience to the other Ye Olde Sushi Huts that proliferate in Sactown. They'll have my business for a long time to come.

Hana: Sushi with a Side of Meh

Hana Sushi
8116 Hampson St
New Orleans, LA 70118
(504) 865-1634

Hana is your classic College Sushi joint, the sort of place where freshmen on dates, graduate students on budgets, and the general public who just don't know any better end up. The menu is comprised of classic entry level standbys: shrimp tempura, chicken teriyaki, gyoza, egg rolls, udon noodles, and so on and so forth. Most Hana goers roll with one of the economical and ginormous rolls or sushi plates and don't much bother how things actually taste.



On this visit, I tried the sunonomo salad. Gigantic, vinegary, and served with faux crab. Not bad but it's not exactly a difficult dish to nail.



The No Name role looks kinda like a surrealist painting, don't it? This riceless soy bean paper roll was interesting concept but inferior in execution. There were tiny tiny bits of unagi and salmon amid a humongo amount of mayo drenched faux crab. Admittedly this is what keeps prices down. I hate being poor.

Sad to say, Hana has consistently disappointed me. The first time I visited, I had a tremendous and overwhelming salmon and mango roll that seemed to comprise an entire unfortunate fish, a boatload of mayo, and some stone-cold chopped up tempura. The supposedly "famous" noodle salad seems to be composed of glass noodles and vaguely sesame flavored mayo - the kind of thing most college kids will scarf up and I, bourgeoise princess that I am, will regard with a raised and incredulous eyebrow. The one bright spot was the seaweed salad: tasty as it oughta be and served in a startlingly large portion. Then again it is rather difficult to screw up seaweed salad.

Hana is best suited for poor college kids and even poorer graduate students, and should be avoided otherwise. Unless all you really want is a big ol' bowl of seaweed salad.

Zen Sushi
900 15th Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 446-9628


Zen Sushi

Sacramento is the Land of The Sushi Bar. We don't have a discerniable local cuisine (unless California burritos with french fry's in em' and Foster's Fruit Freezes count), but we DO have epic quantities of sushi, sushi on every street corner, a unagi Kamikaze roll in every pot. Upon arriving in a new town or locale, I am always privately shocked that there are NOT twenty five bazillion sushi bars. (One exception New Orleans has about as much sushi as Sacramento does.)

During my Thanksgiving break, we paid a visit to Zen Sushi in Midtown, primarily because Kru was filled chock fill of trendy people on trendy dates, leaving us with no room at the inn.

Zen is a pretty typical Sacto sushi bar: the menu and the decor are all stuff you've seen before. The only real deviation from the standard sushi bar theme is a few interesting grilled items on the menu. Your rolls and poke salads and teriyaki bento boxes may be found here.



We started with Poke, my perennial favorite. (Yes, this photo is horrendous.) A nice job: big fresh chunks of tuna, plenty of wakame, no weird sauce like some places like to add. Could use some chunks of Maui onion and perhaps some sea salt for authenticity. Why does no one do that?



We also tried the sashimi plate. Hefty chunks of fresh fish, and we enjoyed the addition of sea bass to the usual suspects. I do wish more sushi places served something beyond tuna-salmon-yellowtail in their sashimi sampler platters. I'm on the fence about big chunks of fish: tasty and makes you feel like a vicious carnivore, but not exactly the daintiest thing to eat. Hem.



Now we're talking. I have had a curious life long love affair with the humble smelt, beginning when I was three years old in Florida. We would go to Tarpon Springs, a Greek sponge fishing village near Tampa, and I would happily chow down on large plates of fried smelts and squids - I loved their oily unctuous flavor and the fact I was consuming a whole entire animal, eyeballs and all.

These were quite tasty: well sized and not overcooked, although they could have stood being a bit warmer. Try them if you haven't before. You may indeed be disappointed but you CAN say you did.



A whole entire squid charcoal grilled, chopped up, and put on a plate. Quite tasty preparation, and managed to stay tender in the middle, though there was a bit of chewiness around the head-bits. I do so enjoy spending a quiet evening chawing on a charcoal grilled tentacle with the suckers still attached.



Another tenet of California sushi: Thou Shalt Have Rolls With Funny Names. We tried the Spicy Q Roll, with unagi, spicy tuna, shrimp tempura, avocado and spicy scallion sauce (12.95) and deemed it tasty: the chef has a nice hand with these sushi rolls and things were more composed and fresh then is the norm. I'm not a fan of the conventional Big Ass Sushi Roll but this was quite tasty.



We ended with the Zen Sunomono: cucumber salad with assorted seafood tidbits. Nice and fresh and a rather interesting cucumber slicing technique. It's the kind of refreshing sushi chaser I like.

Zen Sushi is a solid addition the downtown Sushi bar scene. It's a quiet and friendly little place, which gives it a serious leg up over the crazy decibel levels of nearby Mikuni. It's a good place to watch the game if so inclined and eat some tasty grilled sea animals, and sometimes that is good enough.

Addendum: My mom reported they have one of those crazy space age toilets. Take that as you will. (Woohoo!)

(Also: Sushi/sports bars are SUCH a California thing. Sushi is our state's great equalizer: red necks, college kids, rich people and blue collar workers all come together to eat Kamikaze-Crazy-Mofo rolls or whatever and unwind after work. It's a beautiful thing.)

Three Monkeys: Kitchen-Sink Menu, Tasty Sushi

Three Monkeys
723 K St
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 441-4860


Three Monkeys, yet another attempt to make K Street Mall slightly less gungy, was all the rage a few months ago, attracting big old crowds to indulge in a highly eclectic menu. The crowds are gone months onward, but does the food hold up?

Set in a rather conventional (but pleasant) space, Three Monkeys reminds me of your standard Western brewpub space, with a big open bar and whismical paintings of the Sacramento Delta on the wall. Unlike your average brewpub, Three Monkeys features an inconogorous sushi bar smack dab in the middle of it with sake signs plastered all over it. Therein we find Three Monkeys gimmick: Brew-pub American food (pulled pork slides, fried chicken tenders, burgers, salads) juxtaposed with freshly cut sushi and other Asian and Mexican specialties all one one rather thick menu.

Since me and my dining companions (hi kevin!!) were experincing a dangerous sushi jones, we stuck to that portion of the menu. The sliders looked good from a distance if that's worth anything to you.



We began with the tuna poke salad, served with sweet onions and fried lotus chips. This was a tasty version, and I was impressd with the freshness of the fish - the lotus chips were an interesting and crunchy alternate to potato chips. (I also like how they knid of look like alien life forms.)



We also sampled the tropical salmon - raw salmon stuffed with crab and served with tropical salsa. This sounds foofoo but was actually rather delicous, again featuring commendably fresh fish - even the martini glass presentation was rather adorable.



We moved on to unagi nigiri and the chef's special salmon belly. The unagi was as tasty a version as I've had other places, but the salmon belly stood out: quickly seared and topped with a bit of vinegared onion, it was a delicious and fatty little tidbit.

Next up was the K Street Roll - filled with fried soft shell crab, avocado, crab salad, and wrapped with salmon. This was not exactly revolutionary sushi but it was fresh, skillfully made and quite tasty, and I deeply appreciated that the crab was freshly fried instead of fished out of some box after being fried roughly 2.5 years ago. Props.



Round four: Asian lettuce wraps (hello, P.F Changs) with ground chicken and mushroom, along with a Korean-ish dipping sauce, served over cellophane noodles. This was a perfectly serviceable version of that Chinese Food For Frightened White People genre, and I did enjoy it, especiallly the pickled vegetables on the side.

We ended with hamachi kama, that delicious dish composed of grilled fish collar with ponzu, broiled under a very hot flame. Three Monkeys seems to be sourcing some rather tasty fish, and this took a while to cook but came out excellent: lots of fresh and flavorful meat with a nice crispy fish-skin crust. (Do not order hamachi kama if you averse to picking around bones and kind of looking like a horrible animal.)

Three Monkeys is doing a surprisingly good job on its sushi component, although the non-Japanese aspects of the menu have yet to be tested - at least by me. Certainly it's a good option to keep in mind if you're in downtown Sacramento and find yourself in the midst of one of those annoying ass social groups where everyone wants something different because they are just that special.

Tokyo Fro's: Disco Sushi

Tokyo Fro's
2224 Fair Oaks Blvd
Sacramento, CA 95825
(916) 648-1115




Tokyo Fro's has been around for a while. I remember when it first opened: my family ran over there immediately, memories of a Disco Sushi place we used to frequent while living in Atlanta running through our heads. The place didn't disappoint in that regard: thumping disco music and funky paintings filled the space and young, attractive sushi chefs sliced and diced fish at the wide open sushi bar, while rail thin CSUS students picked at decent rolls and enjoyed Happy Hour.

I hadn't been in a few years, but we revisited the other night. Has it changed any?

The music is still loud, but Tokyo Fro's definitely seemed to be seeing less business then it did in the old days. The menu is your standard Americanized/Fusion Sushi sort of bidness, with a lot of bizarre rolls and other vaguely Japanese and Asian inflected dishes. Almost all menu items have cutesy little nick-names, which is kind of fun if you're drunk but embarrassing to say when you are both stone sober and with your parents.

We began with the wakame seaweed salad (6.50), which was essentially the same as you'd get anywhere else: tangy, crispy, and salty. I insisted on ordering the Kama Sutra (pictured above) (6.95), which was a grilled hamachi collar in ponzu sauce over a bed of daikon. This was actually very good, and I enjoyed picking the meat out of the fish's elaborate bone structure, while swirling it in the tangy citrus sauce that covered the plate. For god's sake though, don't order this if you have any issue whatsoever with fish bones. For the rest of us: it's like pig picking Japanese style.

We also ordered a couple of rolls. The rolls here are totally overwrought, stuffed with ingredients, drenched in sauce and generally way too big to eat in one bite - but if you're into Wacky Explosions of Fish (and let's be honest, most people are,) Tokyo Fro's has some options for you. If you're into austere, simple rolls that are healthy, normal sized, and evocative of actual Japanese cuisine....uh, good luck.



We went with the Passion of Rice (13.50), which had tempura prawns, avocado, and spicy tuna on the inside, topped with salmon, jalapeno, and garlic miso sauce, then torched. This was pretty good, and I liked the spicy kick of the jalapeno - though again, why does everything have to be drenched in some kind of squeeze bottle sauce?

We also tried the Captain Save-A-Fro (13.95), with spicy tuna and asparagus on the inside and hamachi, avocado, maguro, shitake mushrooms, and the ubiquitous miso sauce on the outside. The roll itself was rather ginormous for my tastes (though the aspragus was a fun touch), but the shitakes were absolutely delicious, with a garlic butter sort of flavor. It wasn't Asian, but it was tasty - I wish they offered these mushrooms as a side order.

We also tried a simple 12 piece sashimi platter (20.95), which was simply okay - featuring only hamachi, salmon, and maguro, rather then the more interesting variety you usually get with samplers. The fish itself seemed fresh and tasted good, but the pieces were gigantic and cut with an obviously heavy hand. I like sashimi in manageable pieces. Anything bigger and I feel more like a vicious raw meat consuming predator then a customer in an ostensibly civilized restaurant.



Still hungry, I ordered the Hawaiian Poke (8.95). The presentation was lovely: the chunks of tuna were layered with the seaweed and onion in a martini glass, along with slices of avocado on top. The spicy soy sauce it was tossed with was light and not overpowering - I really enjoyed this dish.



Service was fairly quick and certainly friendly, although our waitress did seem a bit overattentive. The noise level here is very loud, and you should by no means expect to come here and have a relaxing Japanese cuisine experience - you'll end up shouting at each other over the table as college students take sake shots instead.

So is Tokyo Fro's worth a visit? The place certainly lacks the luster it had when it first opened up, but the very untraditional sushi is still a decent option if you have no convictions about how Japanese food *should* taste. If you're a roll person or simply enjoy spicy mayo sauce drizzled over everything, you'll like Tokyo Fro's. (And the poke is definitely a safe bet if you're only willing to commit to a bar snack or two.) Try a few things off the menu, have some drinks, and try to relax - if you can get past the whole thumping party music thing.

Bizen: Good Sushi in the Berkshires? What?!?

Bizen Sushi Bar & Japanese Restaurant
17 Railroad St
Great Barrington, MA 01230-1577
Phone: (413) 528-4343





Decent sushi in the extremely landlocked Berkshires is suprising, but there you have it - (I can hear the Locavores screaming from here.)

Bizen delivers a nice product in a lovely space, complete with a vast menu and some truly interesting riffs on your standard sushi rolls. It's definitely not *that* traditional, but I've had some really exciting meals here. There's a certain crunchy eird" stuff, ranging from Japanese bar foods to funky rolls to a good selection of raw oysters. Nothing here is cheap, however, so be prepared for the accompanying wallet hit. What are you expecting anyway? The Berkshires are a giant money pit.


I like the Afghanistan Roll, featuring a somewhat pedestrian crab and avocado roll covered in a crazy-good spicy sauce with chunks of real meaty lobster. This is thrown in the oven and baked for a bit and it comes out as some sort of perverse spicy sushi casserole - did I detect hints of curry? You must try this.



Next was a tasty fried scallop roll, featuring scallions and a bit of avocado. The rolls were a bit large, but impeccably made and very tender - this rice hasn't been sitting around. I also tucked into the Kiss My Bass (cute), rolling chunky and tender fried sea bass in with your standard issue avocado and cucumber. Fresh and tasty.

Finally, we ordered the Pearl Harbor, which was simply bizarre. A roll composed of soba noodles, smoked tofu, and veggies is deep fried into UFO like lumps and tossed in a pan of tempura sauce. It was tremendous, kind of scary looking, and probably bad for you, but I ate it anyway. I'm still collecting my thoughts. Order it if you want to be both kind of disturbed and highly satiated.



I also tried some of the sashimi deluxe dinner ($21.75), which included tuna, yellowtail, salmon, sunshine bass, and octopus. The fish was expertly sliced and very fresh, served on the standard bed of daikon. It's a good simple choice if you're not into all that rice.

On other occasions, I've tried their excellent fried lotus root - the starchy and slightly sweet nature of the lotus set off well by the light tempura batter. They also do a serviceable spicy tuna roll. The tuna on a bed of pureed sweet yam is bizarre and glutinous, which is not exactly a testimony...but I presume it's really, really traditional.

The teriyaki broiled Chilean sea-bass is absolutely delicious and comes in a caveman sized portion, which is fine, since you will by no means wants to share. I loved the thick, charbroiled meat and even the tasty and chunky side of vegetables that came with it.




A big old hijiki salad ($6.95) wasn't really what I was expecting, coming on a bed of spring mix, but the seaweed was pretty tasty and had an interesting nutty flavor. The portion size was also huge: I guess they're trying to justify the premium prices they charge. The dressing is made with some sort of avocado variant and has an interesing pesto-ish flavor, but they went too heavy on the olive oil.



Service is the weak link here. The servers are young, inexperienced, and a bit foggy regarding the ins-and-outs of the menu. It's definitely not the service I'm expecting when I'm paying highway robbery prices. The time you'll wait can be maddeningly variable as well: they can be quick and efficient, but they go through weird droughts where the guy manning the sushi bar works at glacial speed...extra irritating to this Californian used to blindingly fast (and good) knife work.

I do want to give them accolades for allowing us to stay quite a bit past closing time the other evening - we were waiting for someone to show up who got held up at the airport. They were very understanding, and allowed us to get in an order before the kitchen closed for the evening for the missing person. Props.

Go Fish: St Helena

Go Fish
641 Main Street, St. Helena.
Lunch and dinner daily.
Reservations welcome.
707.963.0700.




Scallop Ceviche – $10
Hawaiian Poke – $12
Big Eye Tuna Burger - $15
Grilled Rock Cod Sandwich - $12

Go Fish is Cindy Pawlcyn’s latest restaurant – Cindy being the clever woman behind St. Helena’s deeply reputable Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen and Mustards restaurants. I admit I have not tried Mustards, but Cindy’s is just about my favorite restaurant in California. Her riff on Oysters Rockefeller – Oysters Pablo – is about the closest thing to an out of body culinary experience I’ve had in my short life. I could happily plow through pounds of the delicious, delicious roast duck that comes out of their wood burning oven. Let’s not even discuss the peppermint ice cream.

So Go Fish.

Go Fish is Cindy’s venture into the exciting and extensive world of seafood, with Ken Tominaga handling the sushi bar side of the venture. On the left side of the road as you enter Napa, the restaurant is roomy, airy, and quite attractive, with that crisp white table-clothes and tasteful yet quirky ambience I expect from the Napa region. We were quickly seated at lunchtime on the open patio, which is a lovely place to sit, dappled in shade from the trees. Ambience: score. But food?

The menu is large, diverse, and absolutely stupefying when first presented to you if you are of the “I want to try everything,” disposition like myself. A representative from pretty much every culture’s take on How To Cook A Dead Fish is here – from ceviche to sashimi to little-neck clams, and that’s just the raw stuff. How the hell do you choose?

Incoherently, in my case. The waitress hovered expectantly over me and I blurted. I wanted the scallop ceviche and the Hawaiian Poke. I subconsciously didn’t want them to cook anything. My mother had the grilled rock cod sandwich, and my dad picked the big-eye tuna burger, which is definitely an evocative name.

My ceviche came out first as it was technically an appetizer. The scallops were juicy, fresh, and delicious, helped along by the spicy broth and the pieces of onion, mango, and pepper diced up with the seafood. After I finished it, I found a few pieces of avocado at the bottom of the dish: a pleasant surprise.

Entrees came next. My poke was not what I’d expected: instead of the usual casual salad of tuna chunks, onion, and vinegar, it was a carefully molded mound of raw and high quality tuna, accompanied by various artistic squiggles of condiments: spicy mayo, seasoned salt, sliced avocado, an assortment of chopped red and yellow pepper.

It didn’t have much to do with poke, but it was certainly tasty, if ephemeral. The quality of the fish is one thing Cindy has aced: this was as fresh as can be.

The cod sandwich featured a very large slab of cod on buttered bread, served over crunchy coleslaw. The fish was peppery and skillfully cooked, but it wasn’t transcendent – and that’s kinda what I’ve come to expect from Cindy’s restaurants. The potato chips on the side, however, were made in house and seductively delicious. The sandwich came with homemade sweet pickles and carrots, which were crisp and excellent.

The tuna burger was certainly satisfying, with the fish presented in such a way that it tasted eerily like a bloody beef burger instead of something from the sea. This was a good thing – I’d happily order this next time I visited. The French-fries were also tasty, with the skins left on and plenty of sea-salt.

Service was prompt and good, if a little bit awkward: our waitress wavered confusingly between casual and efficient. Pick one! Still, any complaints about slow or rude service have been addressed: food came out quickly and correctly, and everyone was perfectly polite.

So is Go Fish worth the money? Can it stand up to Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen?

Eh, I guess. The food is tasty, but it’s not as delicious or inventive as the stuff served at the Backstreet Kitchen – and why the hell don’t they do Oysters Pablo here too? The menu is long and quite frankly too diverse - I don't want to or need to spend an hour and a half considering what continent I want my fish to come from. Still, the fish may be expensive, but it is fresh, tasty, and excellently sourced, which is hard to find in the Napa area – and this is one of the only games in town if you’re looking for good sushi.

Visit Go Fish if you just want a solid seafood meal with upscale pretensions, but don’t expect the Ultimate Seafood Experience – they’ve got a ways to go.