Japanese Food in Ottawa….
Being able to claim some Japanese ancestry on my mother’s side… and mistaken for being one when I walked into Yakitori House… if you remember that restaurant many years ago on Rideau…, I can claim some knowledge of Japanese food and eating….
There is more to Japanese food than sushi! (And ‘presentation’, which is the oft quoted anecdote when the food sucks…). Much much more… the invention of sushi as you might know was that the vinegar-ed rice was put onto the raw fish to keep it fresh… as in pickling… and the rice was usually thrown away originally, before eating the fish… The national dish of Japan is sukiyaki… not sushi… Sushi to the japanese is like dim sum to the chinese, or tapas to spaniards….. snack food….
The problem with many of the Japanese restaurants in Ottawa is that they are run by Chinese folks… that’s not a bad thing necessarily, unless they don’t have a Japanese sushi chef…. Then it’s a bad thing… as in fresh fish… the purchasing function comes seriously into play here…. and like some martial arts that are kept as secrets... I am sure that it is extremely difficult to be in a position to learn to recognize and buy fresh fish…. as they come in off the plane here in Ottawa… That’s one reason the Japanese always say Suisha Gardens is the best jap restaurant in Ottawa... because they have jap chefs… at least for sushi for sure… and the story of Festival Japan is that the east indian maitre d’, stole some chefs from Suisha and went on to form Festival Japan….
All of the places since those halcyon days have been fast food Jap places…. (as in ‘sushi plus’…), except many years ago there was a place in the market… (Taste of Japan, I think it was called… but there is a recent establishment in the west end now with that same name… I have not been
to the new one…so cannot comment…).This old place in the market (where empire grill is now...) was indeed very up market, very fancy, very stylish, run by a japanese gentlemen.... went there with my ex in a suit and dress… (me in suit and she in dress); and got food poisoned from the grilled fish (shioyaki)….which tasted excellent by the way… but through a process of elimination we figured it was that. Story there was they went back to Japan… but obviously, making a go of it on the margins… like the chinese do so well…. was much harder for the japanese…. At least in the restaurant business …. Which was way before this trend of the chinese finally figuring out that the margins on Jap food was much greater than chinese food.
Besides sukiyaki, there is yakitori (skewers), domburi (rice bowls with meat on top), ramen (noodles with meat on top), tempura (deep fried foods called agemono as a group)… nabemono (one pot cooking) of which sukiyaki is the fried version and yosenabe and shabu shabu are the boiled versions, similar to the Chinese fondues….
And then there are different kinds of sushi and sashimi as well…. As in maki sushi, nigiri sushi…. Hand rolls... foot rolls… blah, blah, blah… that’s when we start to talk presentation….
With that in context… here are my comments on Genji… a very popular, but in my opinion a so-so Japanese restaurant in Ottawa…
The only Jap restaurant I would recommend in Ottawa is Suisha Gardens…. for the food… not service, not presentation…. But also for the venue and atmosphere… very traditional
Japanese…. All the japs go there… The fish is fresh… But there are others… which have since closed because they can’t compete with the chinks…
Genji… on Canada Day….
My test for sushi is to order Toro (tuna belly), then Uni (sea urchin roe), but when they don't have fresh Tai (snapper).... I start to wonder...
The night I was there they only had Maguro (tuna and a very poor quality one at that), Himachi (yellow tail) and Saki (Salmon).... By the way, Salmon is a recent western phenom for sushi as in teppanyaki.... The japs don’t eat it, why should we…? Salmon also has
the highest bacteria content of all raw fish consumed in the world…(that nice pic with the orange-y colours is salmon).
The sushi chef and cooks are chinese.... sorry I wouldn't try fugu (blowfish) here.... (cute pic found on wiki of fugu, for those who may never try …).
On the positive side this is a great value restaurant for the price of what we got in terms of their packaged dinners for one or two; miso soup is good, hot stuff not bad... but fish is not good... I had their seared tuna, which was essentially tasteless…..
Presentation great, service great, prices great... very good value…. but not raw fish... or even slightly cooked fish... think the fish is just not fresh enough....something to do with the chefs, I’ll wager..... And their tempura surprise called Medusa sucked! The melange of veggies in the deep fry came out to taste like deep fried....
Interesting thing in this place is the Jap/sushi Pizza (see pic) and something else that was unusually… modern fusion… sushi sandwiches I think it was…. But did not try….
And Takara in the market:
Takara has been around a long time as one of the favorites in the market area... I have been there countless times…but it is run by chinese... not japs, and the sushi is ....well so so ... (their eel, unagi, is terrible…!!!)
I think it is more the market rah-rah and atmosphere that spills over from Kinki's... which is another Jap restaurant run by chinese ... you know Stephen Vardy worked at Kinki's....
For really good sushi... one must have a jap chef (not only the knife action…, but also the purchasing function…) ... and Suisha Gardens and Festival Japan are the only two traditional places... (latter being run by an east indian who stole the chefs from Suisha's) There was one in the Tunney's Pasture area, run by jap women, but they have since turned viet....
Ichiban is the other one that I can think of ... and I have not tried Totoya yet.... that are actually run by Japanese.
As you know, I am chinese by the way, in most parts... so it has nothing to do with race and everything to do with the taste of the food....
2007 07 03
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