e rustic look great shows a luxurious
nds to gently st 30 minutes
d vanilla. In a it will be very
are uneven. es of sheet). of the edge. crimping as
n and fruit is e honey over rt or whipped
cks...
Shop
ARM
y Rd.
ca
ibed as
SUSHI TOWN
Kei Nireda of Miku Restaurant, Manabu Honda of Toshi Sushi, Shiro Okano of Shiro Sushi
Vancouver may have more sushi restaurants per capita than Tokyo. Here’s how to. —By Jenny Uechi Sushi is to Vancouver what curry is to London—ubiquitous and one of the culinary treats visitors to the city should not miss. With hundreds of sushi restaurants to choose from, however, it can be hard to tell which places serve genuine sushi and which serve haphazardly glued fish and rice. I asked three local sushi chefs to share their personal pointers on how to distinguish good sushi. “I look for the taste of the sushi rice,” says Kei Nireda, head chef of Miku Sushi on Coal Harbour. “People here like sushi vinegar sweeter than in Japan, but rice should be wellcooked and flavourful throughout. There’s Japanese- and Californian-grown rice, but I find Japanese rice to be moister, with a gentler texture.” When teaching others how to make proper sushi, Nireda explains that he squeezes a handful of rice for nigiri (individual sushi piece) and holds it in the middle between two fingers. “Ideally, the rice should hold for about 10 seconds before falling apart. If it holds longer, it’s packed too tight.” And if a restaurant serves pink ginger, don’t get your hopes up, he warns. Pink means poor quality. He describes all-you-can-eat places as “unthinkable” if you’re looking for real sushi. Pointing to the restaurant’s opalescent ceiling, Nireda says that the restaurant’s name, Miku, means “beautiful sky” in Japanese, and that his ideal sushi would be the kind of fresh food people would consume while overlooking a gorgeous view. It’s a fitting description, given modern sushi’s roots as a stall food consumed in the open air. At Toshi Sushi, a small Mount Pleasant restaurant packed with diners on a nightly basis, chef Manabu Honda offers a tip to customers looking for freshness. “You won’t be disappointed if you go to a busy restaurant because their ingredients are being sold fast,” he says, working busily with his sushi knife. From behind the counter, he holds up a “definitely fresh” hikari-mono (shiny-skinned fish), its scales shimmering in the light. “We cut fish differently, depending on the ingredient,” Honda explains. “Thin-sliced tuna isn’t tasty, so we cut it thick, while white fish is harder to chew, so we serve it thin. Any proper sushi chef should know this.” At Shiro Sushi on Cambie Street, owner and chef Shiro Okano says balance is key when looking for well-crafted sushi. “It’s not great sushi just because they give you lots of fish,” he says. “The best sushi strikes a good balance between fish and rice.” Okano is a veteran of the local scene who trained under Koji Shimamura, the sushi pioneer who introduced many locals to raw fish during the 1960s. He says Vancouver has abundant options for both local and Japan-imported ingredients, but customers miss out because many sushi chefs don’t know how to handle and maintain fish. To gauge the food quality, Okano suggests ordering saba, or mackerel, which requires seasoning because it goes bad quickly. “Saba should have just a hint of saltiness,” Okano notes. “If it’s too vinegary or salty, it’s over-prepared.” Motioning me behind the counter, Okano elaborates on another key ingredient—nori. He holds up a sheet of nori to the light, and the black-hued seaweed turns a deep forest green
(cheap nori is green from the start). “See how it’s even all across?” he says, fingering the smooth texture. “This is nice nori—the cheaper kind is rougher and has clumps throughout.” While some sushi buffs insist on Japanese chefs, Okano feels that nationality is less important than character. “Do they keep a clean workspace, do they study a lot about sushi? It boils down to the person’s character.” Vancouver’s sushi has come a long way from the days when Okano’s mentor had to offer free fish samples to attract customers and assure them it was safe to eat. Today, however, he fears the explosive popularity of sushi is linked to the global dilution of traditional Japanese cuisine. “You see a lot of East-West fusion items now, like cheese in sushi. It’s fine as a menu item, but not Japanese cuisine as it was meant to be,” he says with a sigh. As the number of sushi-literate customers increases, perhaps the Vancouver sushi scene will experience a second boom—this time with quality to match the enormous quantity of restaurants in the city. Miku, #2 – 1055 West Hastings St.; Toshi Sushi, 181 East 16 Ave.; Shiro Sushi, 3096 Cambie St.
www.eatmagazine.ca MARCH | APRIL 2011
29