Loanwords in Japanese

Recently, I was eating in Sakura the other day and noticed something interesting on the specials menu, 黒豚ソーセジポトフ (kurobuta sausage potofu). Turning the menu over for the English side, all I found was the added word, soup, in parenthesis, which led me to believe that potofu was, indeed, derived from the French pot-au-feu. With that, I went ahead and ordered it, since the first and only time I had pot-au-feu, it was a delicious duck broth with seared foie gras and truffle oil. (thank you, Captain Jack!) Well, this one was not nearly so good - a rather bland vegetable mix with some decent sausage that tasted a bit more like hot dog than kurobuta, although in retrospect, I think that may be due to the rather unusual sweetness in kurobuta.

EDIT: This post wouldn't be complete without pointing you towards the wiki page on loanwords in Japanese, Gairaigo and the hilarious non-example "left-over", which refers to a "hit that goes over the left-fielder's head" in baseball rather than, well, leftovers. :)

What a week.

Does it make me a bad person that I am more upset that Sammy is leaving than about the $700 billion bailout?

It was not a happy experience to read about that in my RSS feeds this morning... *sigh*

I have some stuff in the works to talk about some other sushi places I went to recently as well as the season openers of both the SD Symphony (Lang Lang played Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto #2) and the SD Chamber Orchestra (mmm, Mozart), but I'm not in the mood anymore.

Sushi Ota

I've heard multiple people tell me that Sushi Ota was a place for good, cheap sushi suitable as an inexpensive alternative to Sammy Sushi. So, M and I, along with M's sister T, and her boyfriend went to check it out earlier tonight.

It was pretty busy, even for a Thursday night, with about a half dozen guys working behind the bar and maybe 10 waitresses. Mmm, gender stereotypes. Somehow, we were able to get a table immediately.

For a first-visit, I opted to get a variety of favorites spanning the culinary range. (nothing from the kitchen, though)

Here's what I ordered:
- ankimo (monk fish liver)
- live amaebi (sweet shrimp, sushi-style)
- toro special (tuna belly tataki style)
- salmon belly
- soft shell crab roll



The ankimo was priced at $7.50, about midway between Sammy Sushi and Izakaya Sakura prices. The texture was a little too smooth, and the subtle exotic flavors I'm used to just weren't here. Sammy's version is pretty top-notch in my book, although expensive, and Sakura's version is a very inexpensive alternative. For the price, I thought it wasn't worth it.



At the same time, I got my toro special. When I ordered it, I thought it would still be sushi-toro, with some special garnish or something. Instead, it was just toro served tataki style. I don't know why they didn't just call it toro tataki. Anyway, it still had that creamy richness of toro, but after searing, it had more of a steak-like quality. I feel that this kinda defeats the purpose of having toro in the first place. Moreover, the slices were all fairly thin, so there was only a bit of uncooked meat on the inside. So, it was actually more like rare or medium-rare toro than tataki-style toro than anything else. Next time, I think I'll just have the plain toro sushi.


Our big platter of sushi came next, including various rolls, sushi, and my amaebi. For the price ($10.50), two amaebi is a pretty solid deal. I'm more used to the $10 or $12 apiece that Sammy and Sakura charge. Then again, those are much larger amaebi, and the heads are deep-fried after being dipped in batter, something that makes the head much more easily eaten. Anyway, a general complaint we had about the sushi was that the rice wasn't soft enough. Actually, it was pretty standard rice, I think we just are used to sushi rice that is a little bit softer and maybe a slightly higher fat content to make it a little creamier, as well. It could be that the rice we got was just dry, but that's a poor excuse, at least at these prices. The amaebi was good, but there is a reason why the larger ones at Sammy and Sakura are more expensive, just having the large cut of meat makes those a much more satisfying order.



And the deep-fried heads were all right, they came with a ponzu-soaked shredded daikon rather than a dipping sauce, which is perfectly acceptable. Actually, the best would probably be a ponzu dipping bowl with shredded daikon and green onions, but no place that I know of does that, though Sammy probably would if I asked...

The rolls as a whole were disappointing. I think the variety of textures just wasn't there, and neither were the flavors. The Diego (spicy tuna, cilantro, sesame oil, with serrano peppers on top) roll we had just wasn't spicy. There was a mild kick at the end, but I was pretty much scooping the minced peppers into my mouth to no real effect. The soft shell crab roll was also a little funky, being wrapped in tofu skin. It was also very different texturally, than soft shell crab ("spider") rolls I've had at other places. I expected it to be crunchy and loaded with flavors, not really needing any dipping, but this one was more on the soggy, falling-apart end of things. Disappointing, given the potential for combining the ingredients successfully.

Finally, the salmon belly, a sushi that I am in love with at Sammy's, was the worst. The cut resulted in more fish than expected, but in the lengthy direction, so you had this long piece of fish trailing behind the rice. The second piece I had was also chewy, which of course is a far cry from the firm, creamy goodness I expect. It's a little cheaper than Sammy's at $4.50, but I'd much rather spend the extra dollar to have a delicious version.

I will probably go back and give some other things a whirl, along with the kitchen, but I'm not terribly impressed so far.

Sushi Ota (reservations recommended, restaurant not so much)
4529 Mission Bay Drive
San Diego CA 92109
(858) 270-5047
(858) 270-5670

Tajima I

On Tuesday, after promises of Shabu-Shabu and an otherwise good presentation on UCSD's limited program to get more mathematicians and scientists into middle and high schools as teachers, we went to Tajima 1. (the one on Convoy) Also, we had heard good things from Kirk and some other labmates.

Well, I hope that Tajima 2 (the Mercury St. location) is doing much better, because I was severely disappointed with my meal. The Chicken Kara-age was bland and a little soggy, and my Chashu Ramen was frankly not as good as some instant ramen I've had. However, as the ever-skeptical scientist, I have some hypotheses:

1) Tajima 1 is crappy, but Tajima 2 is ok/good.
2) Tajima 1 was having an off-night.
3) I just don't like how they do their broth.
4) $2 more ($8.95 vs $6.95) is worth the cost of three small thin slices of flavorless tough pork.

I'm sorry; the Santouka in SD may not be as great as the ones in LA, but even the chashu in their plain ramen is significantly better than what I had earlier this week.

Regardless, I am willing to give Tajima 2 a shot this weekend. Hopefully I will remember to bring a charged camera. If you're curious about the quality of the food my friends have, their judgments ranged from mediocre to average. Given the price, which is also about average, I can't really recommend this place. What can I say? I'm willing to put up with high prices and slow service if the food is good, but if my primary goal is to socialize with friends and have some food in the process, I could go to any number of good pho places in SD for a fraction of the price.

Tajima Restaurant (1)
4681 Convoy Street
San Diego, CA 92111
858.576.7244

Sammy Sushi

For the first couple months in SD, I languished without the comfort of relatively close-by Sushi Komasa back when I was at 'Tech and the summer when I took the metro to Long Beach for work. (Sushi Komasa is in one of the main plazas in Little Tokyo, a couple blocks east of the Civic Center Red Line Stop and the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Also, expect an upcoming post on Sushi Komasa.)

Googling for Sushi Komasa yields Kirk's website, which is lucky for me, since Kirk is based in San Diego. Hell, if his wife loves albacore as much as I do, then their sushi recommendation must be pretty good. They also love Ba-Ren, which dishes up some pretty good szechuan. (Expect that in an upcoming post, too.) [Edit: part 1 is up now]

Anyway, word has it, Sammy Sushi is on their regular rotation, so I decided to check it out. Overall, the feel of Sammy Sushi is more laid-back than Komasa, where there is what amounts to a musical chair-like rush for seats when they open. Sammy is slightly pricier, but on par for San Diego, where food is generally more expensive than in LA; in fact, I think Sammy might even be slightly cheaper than some other non-generic sushi bars. Regardless, I have always thought the nigiri at Sammy's is particularly fresh, especially whatever specials he happens to have. You can't go wrong with Albacore, Aji, or Toro when they're on special. Here is the Aji (Spanish mackerel, NOT to be confused with Saba, the standard mackerel) :


Aji has a creamier flavor, I think. Generally, I just don't like Saba, but Aji is totally different.

Because of his Korean ethnicity, Sammy also offers a Kalbi BBQ bento in addition to the standard teriyaki and katsu bentos. For $12.95, you get a lot of food. Here is the chicken katsu:


They ran out of pork, so my tonkatsu got turned into a torikatsu. It doesn't make that much difference to me, normally, but the chicken was overdone, not juicy, mostly tough inside, with a little too much crunchiness. I always enjoy the sesame-flavored salad dressing, the California rolls are standard, and the tempura was piping hot when this got served to me. This explains why there is half a tempura shrimp missing. :)

Oh yes, it also comes with miso soup.

I usually get the Tomato Roll (tuna on the outside, spicy scallop on the inside) since I am a fan of tuna, scallops, and spicy foods. I'm not sure who came up with this roll, as a friend of mine has mentioned that it is available in other sushi places, but it's not very common, but very very tasty. This time, however, I switched it up and went for #13 (shrimp tempura, avocado, cucumber on the inside, spicy scallop and tempura flakes on the outside with a sweet sauce):


If you see this on the menu, you will agree with me that the picture in the menu does not do this roll justice. It is quite delicious, although a little sweet for my tastes. I also recommend the Caterpillar, although what exactly is in it escapes my mind at the moment.

Sammy is also famous for his "One Night Stand" roll, where he or Kira (his sous-chef) comes up with something new, with the promise to not remember how to make it the next day. :)

Of course, this means, Sammy will also do custom requests, so if you have a particular roll you like that is not on the menu, they will be glad to make it for you.

BTW, I also had an order of Toro, which was some of the best I've ever had, very very melt-in-your-mouth creamy. Alas, it was so good, I forgot to take a picture. :)

Sammy Sushi
7905 Engineer Road
San Diego, CA 92111

Izakaya Sakura

One usually does not go wrong with a restaurant that Kirk recommends. When it became part of their "rotation" and I realized that it had received multiple posts, I put a visit to this place on my to-do list.

Apparently, Sakura is in the Izakaya style, which I guess is something similar to a tapas bar. Anyway, I went during lunch since I needed to do some shopping in the area. (namely, chives, ginger, and dumpling wrappers for some gorgeous ground kurobuta pork)

I was eager to try the beef in sesame sauce, but it appeared to be absent from the lunch menu I was given. I settled for the ribeye steak, which is something that is only served on Sunday. (My hypothesis is that they get their shipment of beef on Sunday, and any leftover steak is turned into something else for the week.) But first, I started off with some appetizers.

First up was the agedashi tofu: three smallish pieces of deep-fried tofu, topped with a generous helping of grated daikon and shredded green onion and in a light broth. My first impression upon tasting it was that it was much less flavorful than the agedashi tofu at Sammy's (that post is probably coming in a month). My second impression was "ouch, I think I burned my mouth". Weakly-flavored food usually means one of two things: either the cook thinks the patron can't handle the flavor (ala "weak" mapo tofu) or the cook is confident in the flavor of the ingredients and doesn't feel the need to mask anything. The latter seemed to be true here, as the broth for the chicken kara-age was very similar, but somehow, worked really well for the deep-fried breaded chicken.

While the mayonnaise w/ cayenne? pepper is probably a more traditional sauce for deep-fried meats, the light broth with daikon works extremely well. I am unsure what is in the broth, since the daikon is a little overpowering. It ends up tasting very similar to the broth when my mom makes a slow-cooked beef with daikon soup, so I wonder if it isn't some form of pork or beef broth given that Sakura does have a slow-braised pork dish on the dinner menu. Either way, it makes me sad to hear that the sauce does not accompany the chicken during dinnertime.

Last up was the steak special. It looked fantastic, and flavorful enough without the accompanying sauce. The sauce this time was a strong ponzu, again with grated daikon. What looks like mashed potatoes on the side there, is probably mashed mountain yam, as you usually don't get stringiness with regular mashed potatoes. The miso was a little bland for my taste; I don't think the light flavor works so well for the miso as it does for the agedashi tofu or the chicken karaage sauce. The salad came with a home-made sauce, which you might be familiar with if you've ever had that sort of salad in a Japanese restaurant. This one had hints of egg and daikon, so I'm guess the main ingredients are probably mayonnaise, rice vinegar, cooked egg, and daikon. Since the sauce for the steak was so strong, I ended up just straining it for the daiko and using that to top the steak, which worked rather well. The steak was pretty good, no $40 filet mignon, but pretty good for a restaurant steak, if just a little bit overcooked in my opinion. For a piece of meat that thin, it really only needs a few minutes to bring it to a nice medium. At least the garlic on top wasn't burned as that is usually what happens when I try to cook steak without a real grill.

Overall, I was very pleased with the food, and the service was excellent. I had a friendly chat with one of the waitresses when they realized I spoke some Japanese, and they were very apologetic and nice about fixing my bill when I pointed out the miscalculation (in their favor).

The crowd was pretty large for lunch on Sunday; I would say that it was about 3/4 Japanese, and 1/4 asian-looking students. I guess business is going pretty well, and that word-of-mouth works for them, as they do not have a sign on the outside denoting the location. At some point I will have to return for dinner, as it seems that their sushi is also pretty good and to see what the dinner menu has to offer.

Izakaya Sakura (in between the military recruiter and the chiropracter)
3904 Convoy St #121 (same plaza as the original pancake house)
San Diego, CA 92111