 KOI KAWA
Make mine Japanese
By RON BECHTOL
Photography JANET ROGERS
It's 7 o'clock on a Friday, and the
sushi bar at Koi Kawa is buzzing
with activity, while the dining room
is still relatively empty - except for
dutiful Dining Companion, of course; she's
always early, and I've given up trying to
break her of the habit. The early arrival is
useful in this case, however,
as she spent three years
living in Tokyo and has had
at least a little time to
peruse the menu.
We both agree on one
thing: For the most part,
the dinner and a la carte
fare, typical of Japanese
restaurants in this country,
is of little interest. We
decide to ignore the standard sukiyakis,
teriyakis, and flattened and breaded cutlets
of chicken and pork.
Instead, we embark on an ambitious
program of what we come to call Tokyo
tapas, searching the menu for smaller, but
more compelling-sounding dishes, and
after a good 15 minutes of cogitation, we
have come up with a list.
Smug, and with a certain satisfaction,
we convey our sushi-to-shishamo desires
to our server. Oops; one-by one, the
word comes back: no grilled black cod (I
was really looking forward to this one);
no uni sushi (sea urchin roe is a bellwether
item in my book); no Kobe beefsteak
(well, it was $25, so maybe we didn't
really need it after all).
And so we substitute - and speculate.
Is this symptomatic of the current
economy, in which risk-taking regarding
ordering of products is discouraged? But
with the arrival of the first plates, speculation
ceases and inspection begins -
along with enjoyment. The orange smelt
egg sushi bordered with green-black nori
is stunningly beautiful, and the masago
has a tingly, almost tinny saltiness that
bursts on the tongue with the pop of
each tiny, buckshot-sized roe.
 (Here's a suggestion while it's still early
in the game: Ask for both the light and the
regular soy sauces, adding in wasabi
[horseradish] paste at will. Some dishes,
such as the smelt egg, are best served with
the lighter and less salty soy; others can
use-and even require-the more powerful
punch of the full-flavored brew.)
Silvery mackerel, a favorite of DC and
currently in season, is simply placed atop a
lozenge of sticky sushi rice,
and it has a clean, almost
pickled taste (it's often marinated)
that goes well with
the stronger soy dip.
The most artful package
of all, however, is exemplified
by the deceptively simple
tamago, or "omelet"
sushi. In Japan, tamago is
considered a test of a sushi
master's art, and patrons have been
known to order it first, only to leave in a
huff of indignation (and without paying) if
it didn't meet their exacting standards.
At Koi Kawa, a slab of golden omelet
is bound to the rice with a narrow band
of nori, and though the layers of egg are not paper-thin, as might be considered
optimum in Japan, the cold egg mixture
is appropriately and lightly sweet, and
the light soy with a hint of wasabi suits it
to a "T." It should be mentioned, by the
way, that at two pieces per order, Koi
Kawa's sushi is very fairly priced.
No wonder the bar was crowded.
We are most impressed, however, by
the kai no sakamushi, steamed clams in
sake served in a blue Imari bowl. The
warm, almost nutty, sake-infused broth
plays beautifully against the briny clams
- and offers a nice contrast to the cold
Hakkaisan sake we had ordered to drink.
Served in a clever carafe with a "pouch"
for ice (DC thinks they would be great for
martinis), the sake is at once yeasty and
lightly floral, and the cool temperature
keeps everything in balance.
We have avoided ordering both an
exceptionally expensive sake (the economy,
you know) and a cheaper, unfiltered
brew, the latter being rejected not so
much for its price but because, confides
DC, "it's what we used to drink warm at
all the sumo wrestling matches." Funny;
she doesn't seem like the sumo sort.
An order of three small grilled smelt
(the shishamo, called "salt water fishes") is
Zen-like in its simplicity, and the fishes are
especially good with the sake-but might
be considered a little austere by many.
 Somewhere in the parade of plates, a
dragon roll also appears. Despite the fact
that elaborate rolls aren't part of the classic
canon, they can be fun (especially with
names such as "bank roll"), and the dragon
is a kind of catch-all, containing spicy
tuna and smelt eggs inside, and barbecued
eel, avocado and eel sauce on the outside.
Smoky eel is a personal favorite, but in this
instance it seems to overwhelm all the
other ingredients: Neither the spicy tuna,
the masago nor the avocado has a chance.
We determine that for both visual and
taste reasons, some green "scales" would
have been good (maybe the avocado
applied on top of the eel sauce), but in the
long run just dunk each piece in the strong
soy-wasabi blend. "If we weren't pleased
with something, we just used the strong
soy," says DC of her Tokyo years.
No palliative measures are needed
with our Kobe substitute, the plate of
beef yakiniku ordered Japanese barbecue
(not teriyaki) style. Perhaps marinated,
and certainly simply grilled, the thin
pieces of flank-like beef have a great,
lightly smoky flavor and a nicely yielding
texture and are just the right amount to
split after all that had gone before -
which, by the way, had also included two
tempura-battered soft-shell crabs. With
their delicate coating and just-richenough
taste, the crabs land near the top
of our evening's favorites list - along
with the clam broth and the yakiniku.
You may safely leave without ordering
dessert, but in case something
slightly sweet seems required, here's
our take on the mochi ice cream.
Wrapped in a rice-based skin, the green
tea model has a perfumed flavor that
neither of us liked, but the earthy and
lightly sweet red bean version is right
on target - with the subtle sake.
Soy and sake, depending on how you
use them, thus become partners in one's
exploration of a Japanese menu. May
you never run short of either.
KOI KAWA
4051 Broadway
(210) 805-8111 |
