Episode #56: Sushi California (2nd Visit)

Coquitlam, $ (Budget)

As an executive of the SFU Recital Society (one of the largest student-run clubs at SFU), I have been trying to persuade the other executives to hold a meeting at a Japanese restaurant, but I have not succeeded until now. This was partly due to the fact that the old executives got tired of all our previous meetings at Japanese restaurants (of which there were quite a few), denying the new executives the chance to go on these very special occasions. At last, the good forces won and we made it to Sushi California for a late lunch. Sushi California, a Korean-run restaurant, is perhaps the busiest restaurant in the Lougheed area and attracts a lot of locals and SFU students with its low prices and passable quality.

Spicy Tuna Roll - B-

Christina allowed me to sample her Spicy Tuna Roll (for a sampling fee of $4.95), which I found to have an excessive amount of rice. Unfortunately, the rice was a bit dry and hard. The tuna inside was moderately spicy and savoury. Of course, I never paid her the $4.95 due to the fact that the roll costs only $2.95. I repaid her with a piece of my Alaska Roll instead, and she seemed to be okay with that trade ...

Prawn Tempura - B+

Next, I tried a piece of Kristian's Prawn Tempura, which was quite crunchy and haphazardly arranged on the dish. It had a nice buttery sweet flavour from the prawn. He wasn't going to let me have it for free, but that's okay because we all know that there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Fresh Hirame Nigiri - B+

Red Tuna Nigiri - C+

The Fresh Hirame Nigiri (flounder) was soft and had a smooth surface reminiscent of ika (squid). It tasted predominantly sweet, and had more flavour than the Red Tuna Nigiri, which was almost tasteless. The red tuna had a visually appealing dark red hue, but was very stringy and had perhaps a bit too much rice.

Alaska Roll - B

The Alaska Roll was the only roll I ordered myself and contained cucumber, avocado, masago, mayonnaise, salmon, and a vinaigrette dressing. The pieces of salmon were rather thin and small, but I guess that's what you get for a roll costing $3.95. Also interesting was the fact that each piece was twice as tall as it was wide. The best part about this roll was the sweet vinaigrette dressing and avocado pairing.

Chicken Soboro - B+

The Chicken Soboro was a new addition to Sushi California's menu. I ordered it to find out what a soboro was (as I have never seen it on a menu before). It came with seven toppings (chicken, tempura bits, red bell pepper, egg omelette, green onions, yellow bell pepper, seaweed) as well as rice in a stone bowl. The rice absorbed some of the flavour from the egg. My favourite topping was no doubt the chicken, which was tastefully grilled and dressed. I wish there was more of the chicken, but I also enjoyed the crunch of the tempura bits.

We barely received any service (other than the necessary acts of taking our orders and handing us our food), but then again, I can't exactly recall a time when I got good service from a budget Japanese restaurant with ten dining companions. The service from Sushi California was better for the times I visited all by myself. And as for our meeting ... well, I was too busy enjoying my food, but I will make a wild guess that it was very "productive."

Episode #55: Sushi 990

Port Coquitlam, $$ (Moderately Priced)
www.sushi990.com

Very rarely does my dad ever agree to join me on my sushi adventures if it is less than room temperature outside, but exceptions do occur from time to time. Thank you, above average temperatures. You're always welcome anytime. We ended up picking Sushi 990, a new Korean-run Japanese restaurant in the northern part of Port Coquitlam. The restaurant gets its name from the various combos that it offers for $9.90 each. I've always wanted to try the $19.90 special roll combo here, but I've been holding it off because I kept worrying that I wouldn't be able to finish the whole thing.

Of course, my dad wanted to order some hot dishes, but he didn't want to read the menu. He first asked me if there was BBQ Salmon Gama on the menu, to which I replied "no". Then, he asked me if there was tempura on the menu, and to my great surprise (and disappointment), I also had to reply "no". He then thought for a while and asked for two pieces of red tuna nigiri, to which I replied, "Dad, you're not going to be full ..." It was on the menu, but apparently it was sold out. Since there were practically no other choices left (as he isn't the biggest fan of udon), I had to make the call for him and ordered the Chicken Teriyaki.

Miso Soup - B+

The Miso Soup came with the Chicken Teriyaki and contained green onion and tofu. I gave it to my dad, who said it was very standard and told me to give it the most average grade for Miso Soup, which happens to be a B+. Apparently, it was also not too salty.

Chicken Teriyaki - A-

The Chicken Teriyaki came with a very generous portion of chicken and was plated quite nicely. The chicken was tender while the sweet teriyaki sauce was applied in just the right amount. I also enjoyed the sesame seeds and thin slices of green onion on top. The rice was soft and well-prepared. We both agreed that this was definitely an above-average Chicken Teriyaki.

Next came the slightly gigantic Special Roll Combo, which featured half orders of five of their various special rolls. It looked marvelous with all the different colours. Fortunately, my dad decided to help me out in finishing the dish. Unfortunately, he got full after one piece (*facepalm*).

Crispy Crunch Roll - B-

The Crispy Crunch Roll consisted of prawn tempura, avocado, and tempura crumbs. It did live up to its name, but I didn't really enjoy the sour tinge of the sauce. Furthermore, I realized that if Sushi 990 did serve tempura by itself, it wouldn't have been very good, as the oil was overused and the batter was a bit harder and crunchier than necessary.

Philadelphia Roll - A-

The Philadelphia Roll, on the other hand, was quite successful and looked really appetizing to begin with. The smoked salmon had a delicious, vibrant flavour and the cream cheese was nicely melted for better integration with the crab meat. It's very difficult to make me like any roll with cream cheese, but this one was successful at achieving just that.

Black Tiger Roll - B-

The Black Tiger Roll consisted of cream cheese, avocado, crab meat, and cooked shrimp. Interestingly, a small amount of mustard was added to each piece of shrimp. I found the crab meat to be a bit dry and the roll to be a bit too sour overall. On the plus side, the cooked shrimp had a nice natural, sweet flavour.

Hot Night Roll - B

The Hot Night Roll consisted of crab meat, avocado, spicy tuna, and tobiko. The tuna was soft and moderately spicy while the batter on the prawns was very crunchy. Each individual piece was quite large and filling, and sadly, I failed to finish the platter of special rolls as a result. Looks like I'll have to be rescued by the take-out boxes again ...

Poco Roll - B+

The Poco Roll had a very distinct appearance and contained prawn tempura, cream cheese, and avocado with crab meat and tobiko on top. I appreciated the novelty of having the crab meat on top, but it would be nice if the crab meat wasn't significantly cooler than the rest of the roll. Overall, the flavours worked well together and this was one of the better special rolls on the platter.

Our server had a friendly attitude and the sushi chef took the effort to greet every customer. However, we did have to ask for our tea to be refilled, although I wish they would have just served the tea in larger cups. The decent Chicken Teriyaki was the most memorable dish, though I'll have to confess that my eyes kept getting drawn up to the girls in the Korean music videos they were playing on the TV. Don't blame me ... I have a lot of excuses.

Episode #54: Aburiya Sushi

Maple Ridge, $$ (Moderately Priced)
www.aburiyasushi.com

My main problem with winter is that whenever the temperature dips below freezing, I do not feel like waking up at all. I figured that the only way to counter this would be a sushi adventure, so I planned an early morning sushi adventure (a.k.a. noon) to Aburiya Sushi all the way out in Maple Ridge. Aburiya Sushi is a new Korean-operated restaurant that opened up approximately two months ago, replacing the fancy Lava Room Dining and Lounge. A few clicks on Aburiya's website revealed that they did indeed serve Aburi (seared) sushi and had very good deals for lunch. That was enough to get me out of bed before noon but not enough to prevent me from dozing off on the bus. Sigh, winter problems ... 

The interior of the restaurant is very large and consists of multiple dining areas. I was seated in the largest dining area in a corner behind a divider, so I could do anything I wanted without being noticed. I guess I didn't need that privacy because the photos I took with flash turned out to be worse than the ones I took without (the flash made the table completely black, so everything looked like it was floating in space).

The lunch specials (PDF) were a steal, allowing you to choose three items from a select list for $8.95, four items for $11.95 and five items for $14.95. I guess they didn't think about including an option to choose six items for $17.95 (or seven items for $20.95), which would be helpful for people like me who want to try everything.

Salad - B+

The salad turned out to be quite large, dressed with a strong, tangy vinaigrette and accompanied by a generous helping of imitation crab meat. I enjoyed how the crab meat worked well with the vinaigrette, but the arugula leaves in the salad were quite mature, making them overly large and chewy.

Assorted Tempura (4 pcs) - B-

The Assorted Tempura consisted of one piece each of prawn, carrot, broccoli and yam. My favourite was the broccoli because it was nice and juicy and not thickly covered with batter. Unfortunately, the other pieces were quite greasy and covered in copious amounts of batter which were quite hard.

Chicken Yaki Soba (half) - B

The Chicken Yaki Soba was still steaming when it was brought to me and gave off an appetizing, aromatic flavour. The yakisoba noodles were quite chewy and almost al dente. The chicken was tender enough, but I wish it had more of a grilled flavour.

Aburi Salmon Oshi (3 pcs) - C+

Lion King Roll (half) - B+

The Aburi Salmon Oshi looked right, but turned out rather bland. For some reason, the salmon was close to being tasteless, so all the focus shifted to the rice, which was slightly mushy and also failed to provide much flavour. The Lion King Roll, which consisted of prawn tempura, crab meat, avocado, corn and mozzarella cheese, was much better. The mozzarella cheese and teriyaki sauce was a successful combination, and I also enjoyed the corn and sweet crab meat inside. The whole roll was delightably soft and full of moisture after being baked. 

 Salmon Sashimi - B-

Tuna Sashimi - B-

I wanted to try some sashimi too, but I had exhausted my limit of five items with the Lunch Plate C so I had to order the sashimi separately ($6.50). The cuts were quite generous and everything was plated nicely. The Salmon Sashimi had a soft and jelly-like texture, but it was lacking in flavour just like the Aburi Salmon Oshi from earlier. The slice of lemon cured the Tuna Sashimi from its slightly fishy flavour. It was still a few minutes away from being fully thawed.

Even though I was seated in a secluded corner of the restaurant, the servers came around to me quite frequently to make sure things were okay. The service was also friendly and attentive, though there weren't many diners, probably owing to the fact that it was New Year's Eve. The menu is quite extensive and there is a large selection of special rolls, though some of the food (like the Aburi Salmon Oshi) can use some improvements. As for virtually every other Japanese restaurant in Maple Ridge, I found the prices to be quite affordable.