Gerry wrote:
Thought the following might be of note. I'm surprised I didn't even
think to post it here. Don't tell the roll-hogs about it!

Quiet Treasure, Around Back, Hidden

June 8, 2007

Dinner: Kappo Suzumaru in Tustin

We stopped by Suzumaru about 6 years ago, and found just a basic
suburban sushi bar. All-anglo clientele, a roll-dominated place that had
nothing but die-hard loyalists eating there 500th order of same-ol'-same.

We heard it had changed hands and was favorably mentioned in the past
few years. But we forgot. It's really not the kind of place you'd expect
a decent Japanese place to be despite the fact that within 3 blocks you
have Wasabi, an omakase-only sushi bar, and Yoshino, which can always be
counted on for quality. Still, behind McClure's, next to a decrepit
Indian joint and across the street from a bat-cave of dense Latino
housing? It's not where I troll for kaiseki.

We tried Suzumaru a couple of weeks back, and I was offended when they
put us at a table despite the fact that the sushi bar had not a single
customer. Many tables were occupied, but I felt kinda diss'ed. Then,
while sullen, Nancy made her move and got all her favorites and the
dishes were large. While we ate, a large retinue appeared and were
seated at the bar. It was some pre-arranged party. So completely full,
we left an hour later and all I'd had was tofu and seaweed salad. For
me, this wasn't optimum.

But clearly Nancy was eager to get back. Her eyes unclouded by miff-dom,
she thought the place felt more like a Japanese restaurant than any
we've encountered outside Japan. Reticent. I acquiesced. There were
again many tables occupied and again no one at the counter. We pressed
for the sushi bar and after getting the okay from the sushi chef we were
seated.

I glanced at the drink menu and remembered that they have an unusually
diverse sake menu. After a sake-tasting the previous day I was really
hungry to compare these to one of my favorites, Hananomai. Happily they
actually had it. Sadly it came only in a 35-dollar 720 ml bottle. The
hell with it, I said, and we ordered it. I felt so reckless. It tasted
great.

I noticed whole scallops in the refrigerated bays so we got them sashimi
and they were very good indeed. The itamae mentioned proudly that they
were from Japan. They were excellent, but something notable was on both
sides of the scallops; seaweed that neither of us had seen before. One
was transparent and very crunchy, the other pale green and had a lot of
personality for a seaweed: a notably sharp herbal taste though not
bitter. "Different" seaweed? That's impressive.

We perused one small wall-menu where a few cooked items were listed in
English; baked shell-fish and such. But the bulk of the larger
marker-board menu was in Japanese only. I could glean "fresh" toro,
octopus, aji and other sashimi selections. But there was just too much
kanji for me to read the rest.

When he came for our next order, we said that could read a few but
wanted to know the others. "Ano...", he stalled, "that's food that
Japanese eat." We asked him to pick a few but he seemed reticent. We
pushed hard and said we had eaten lots of Japanese food and only
disliked natto. He still seemed a bit timid, and I thought I was going
to have really muscle the guy by making him read out the whole menu. In
retrospect I think maybe he was just lost in thought. Finally he issued
a few dictates and off his wife and the waitress went.

First we received "sakura ebi" or "Cherry Blossom sweet-shrimp". These
were very small whole shrimp, maybe a half-inch long, eyes and legs and
all, and a very bright pink. They had been lightly boiled, it seemed,
and were in a parfait glass on two new kinds of seaweed. A few
super-fine strands of crimson-red dried chili pepper were on top. To the
side was a mayonnaise with a light red powder on top. It was fabulous.
They explained everything we asked about, which was plenty. These shrimp
were from his home prefecture of Shizuoka and only one shop in all of
the USA had these and it was his shop. His brother ran a fish import
place and he always got the very best of the very best.

Next they brought us micro-sardines with strands of a very mild shallot
mixed in a small bowl. There was also miyogo, which is ginger flower. It
was really tasty. Clearly I wanted to be this man's best friend and so I
asked if he drank sake. He said no, but his wife was glad to take up
the slack. We introduced ourselves: She is Mamiko and he is Koz,
possibly short for Kazuya. We began chatting about all things Japanese.
He has a large HD TV dead-center behind the counter. It's played what
appeared to be Japanese television, with the sound down. So periodically
we'd discuss an onsen or site of natural beauty that might pop up. He
was quite hospitable.

Koz-san has owned and run the place for some 6 years, apparently buying
it about 20 minutes after we visited the previous installation. He had
concluded work at Benihana in Newport Beach for the prior 15 years.
Before that apparently had a restaurant of his own for a few years in
City of Industry where it was apparently "very hard". Mamiko's English
is excellent and his English is fine but it does take a moment each time
to start up. He starts his sentences and sprinkles them literally with
"ano" which is a buffer word like "well..." or a more modern "like...".

They asked Nancy if we liked tofu, but before I could clap a hand over
her mouth they were off and running. Underscoring that their tofu was
made in-house, they brought us each a little bowl of tofu with myriad
other things, nori, salmon roe, what looked to be sturgeon roe (caviar),
some small mushrooms I haven't seen before, and some other stuff. We
mixed it up real good and I have to say it was just fabulous.

We got a grilled fish cake that was just plain amazing. I assume it was
produced in-house, and was great tasting as a fish cake but it also had
some kind of savory sauce that made it, as Nancy said, about the best
fish cake we've ever had. Imagine ooh-ing and aah-ing over a damn fish
cake. It's such a delight to encounter a real chef.

Incidentally the background music, at quite low volume, was traditional
Japanese music with shamisen and shakuhachi and was a significant part
of a very pleasant ambience, with the wood and bamboo trappings. Not
kitsch and claptrap, mind you, but the traditional outfitting of
Japanese kappo restaurants.

Suzumaru (714) 665-1300, 17292 McFadden Ave. #B, Tustin, CA 92780



That a great review, Gerry, do you mind if I put it up on the
sushi-ya-pedia?
In case you don't know what that is, :
http://www.sushifaq.com/sushiyapedia/

I would be happy to remove any references to your name if you want, or
you can put it up there yourself however you would like...

Warren


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