According to the US Census Bureau, more than half (49.3) of all Americans reported they did not “dine out” between Fall, 2009 and Fall, 2011. That’s the lowest percentage since 2007 and could be indicative of the pervasive economic malaise or perhaps of the uncertainty as to what constitutes “dining out.”  The Census Bureau did not define the term so it’s conceivable “dining out” was interpreted as a meal at a “fancy restaurant” with table service and a wine menu as opposed to say, a meal at a fast food restaurant or  picking up a burger from a food truck.

One data point the Census Bureau did not research is the percentage of people who don’t like sushi.  A sushi chef acquaintance tells me sushi isn’t something people merely just “like” or are indifferent to.  They either love it or hate it.  He contends that most, not all, people who claim to hate it have never tried really good sushi.  A quick perusal through Google seemingly contradicts his theory, revealing numerous sites and Facebook pages dedicated to the derision of sushi.  In almost all cases, the haters had tried sushi and found it not to their liking (to say the least). 

Not surprisingly, one demographic which loves sushi is white people.  Confirmation of this “unimpeachable” fact can be found in the amusing Stuff White People Like Web site.  Before you accuse me of xenophobia or racism, the author–a self-admitted “veteran white person”–employs generalizations and stereotypes in a humorous manner to poke fun at the most prominent American demographic to which he belongs (in other words, he’s trying to be funny).   The author contends that “regardless if you are vegetarian, vegan, or just guilty about eating meat, all white people love Sushi.  To them, it’s everything they want: foreign culture, expensive, healthy, and hated by the ‘uneducated.’ 

He further observes that there is a definite hierarchy of sushi loving white people, ranging from the “spicy tuna/California roll eaters” (who don’t really care about the authenticity of the sushi as much as they do the experience of eating it) to the “white sushi snobs” who “only sit at the sushi bar, will try to order in Japanese” and will complete the authentic experience by washing their sushi down with sake. One sushi restaurant which will appease all white people is the aptly named I Love Sushi restaurant at the Del Norte Plaza shopping center on San Mateo.

White people or not, visitors to I Love Sushi will be greeted with a warm “Irasshaimase,” the Japanese word for “Welcome.”  I Love Sushi has been making everyone feel welcome since it opened in 2000.  The 36-seat restaurant, a multiple-time “best sushi” award-winner in Albuquerque The Magazine‘s annual poll has become one of the most popular Japanese restaurants in the Duke City.  It’s been that way practically since it first launched, its popularity further cemented when in 2004, a teppan grilling station was added. 

While many diners visit I Love Sushi to watch the prestidigitation of the knife-wielding teppan chefs, most seem to gravitate toward the sushi bar where they can commune with the restaurant’s owner and sushi chef Tom Yun.  As personable a restaurateur as you’ll find in Albuquerque, he’s all business when deftly creating unique maki rolls, the likes of which few restaurants will attempt.  A wall of faux river stones and a stuffed marlin backdrop the sushi bar in which chef Yun plies his craft.

Shortly after being presented with the sushi menu, an attentive server will bring to your table, a warm bowl of traditional miso soup and a salad with orange-ginger dressing. Neither are particularly exciting, but then you’ll probably be so eager to get to the sushi that they wouldn’t leave much of an impression even if they were noteworthy. Appetizers are much more interesting, albeit fairly standard: Chicken Yakitori, Egg Roll, Fried Calamari, Vegetable Tempura, Shrimp and Vegetable Tempura Aged Tofu, Edamame and Gyoza.  The vegetable tempura is excellent, each succulent vegetable crispy on the outside and perfectly cooked inside.

The menu offers sushi, sashimi and a variety of maki rolls, but it’s an illuminated hand-scrawled menu by the sushi bar where you’ll find chef Yun’s most creative work.  This includes the aptly named Burrito Roll: spicy baby lobster, avocado and Kanpyo (gourd strips) encased in a warm egg roll skin and served with Sriracha, a semi-sweet and piquant Japanese chili sauce made from sun-ripened chilies.  The impression of “burrito” is more visual than it is from a taste perspective though the Sriracha does bear a resemblance to some New Mexican salsas.  The burrito roll is quite good.

The Amigo Roll is another unique offering on the non-traditional menu, a beauteous maki roll made with tuna, salmon, red snapper, crab and roasted green chile.  The green chile is more piquant than the green chile offered at many New Mexican restaurants.  The uniquely named Yummy Crunch is even more unconventional.  It starts with a Japanese “nacho,” a single “chip” topped with tuna, salmon, cucumber, avocado, cream cheese and a “special” sauce.  It’s as much fun to look at as it is to eat.  Then there’s the “football,” spicy scallops inside a sweet fried tofu skin.  

There are a number of more traditional maki rolls on the menu and for purists who dismiss roll-style sushi as a flight of fancy, the nigiri-style sushi (particularly the mackerel, unagi (eel) and tuna) is fresh and delicious.  In the hands of a true master sushi chef, you don’t have to be a white person to love I Love Sushi.  It’s one of the Duke City’s best for sushi.

I Love Sushi
6001 San Mateo, Suite F-4
Albuquerque, NM
505-883-3618
Web Site

LATEST VISIT: 29 October 2011
# OF VISITS: 3
RATING: 19
COST: $$ – $$$
BEST BET: Burrito, Tuna Tempura Roll, Spider Roll, New Mexico Roll, Amigo Roll, Yummy Crunch, Salmon Tempura Roll,  Football, Mackerel, Unagi, Tuna

“If white wine goes with fish,
do white grapes go with sushi?”
- George Carlin

A reader once asked Washington Post humorist Gene Weingarten what he was a snob about. His reply, “I am also a snob about food. The other day, in Baltimore, I passed a sign outside a restaurant that said “Sushi Buffet!‘ and laughed out loud because it occurred to me that “sushi” and “buffet” are two words that should never appear together.”  His sentiment resonates strongly with sushi aficionados who adhere to the strict rules of etiquette which governs the way in which true sushi snobs enjoy sushi.

It’s a given that a true sushi snob would never eat at an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant nor would such a snob ever be found mingling with the rabble who sit in booths or receive table service.  Sushi snobs will only sit at a sushi bar in as close proximity to the sushi chef as possible.  They like to converse with the sushi chef, hoping to ingratiate themselves by asking the right questions to demonstrate they are savvy connoisseurs and not “trough-divers” like most of the crowd.  They treat the sushi chef like Magellan, their esteemed navigator on a culinary adventure.

Rapport with the chef established, sushi snobs will generally order Omakase, a term which translates literally from Japanese to “It’s up to you.” More specifically, omakase means the menu is left up to the chef. This gives the sushi chef the opportunity to showcase their skills, to serve what they think is good. Omakase tends to be quite expensive, giving the restaurant a nice profit margin. For the true sushi snob, this is all well and good. They accept that being a sushi snob ain’t cheap.

One Albuquerque sushi restaurant in which no true food snob would be caught dead is Sushi & Sake, an all-you-can-eat sushi concept which defies all the traditions to which food snobs hold fast. While the sushi snob may adhere strictly to tradition and etiquette, it is no longer a “losing face” taboo for sushi chefs to defy centuries old traditional path. Even sacrosanct training methods are starting to fall by the wayside. Perhaps it’s because these traditional training methods are so strictly regimented and rigorous.

For up to a year, training involves nothing but properly preparing sushi rice before a chef candidate is even allowed to clean fish. Cleaning and filleting fish involves comprehending the differences in the flesh and texture of each species. This phase of training can also take up to a year. By the time these chefs prepare their first piece of sushi, they will have mastered techniques designed to bring out the very best in each fish in terms of texture, taste and presentation.

Over the past quarter century or so, sushi’s burgeoning popularity has meant the dilution of the product. You no longer have to visit a Japanese restaurant for sushi. In Albuquerque, you can find passable to good sushi served in Vietnamese, Thai and Chinese restaurants. You can even find sushi in local organic food superstores throughout the city. It’s highly unlikely this sushi is prepared by chefs schooled in the traditional ways. This does not mean the sushi is inedible (although a true sushi snob could never choke any of it down).

Contemporary sushi chefs, even many from Japan, craft their own creative variations to their sushi, in essence creating the antithesis of the “purity” for which traditionalists strive.  Another sushi tradition which has started to fall by the wayside is the prohibition of female sushi chefs. Several reasons, the most plausible having to do with traditional gender role assignments, are given for the scarcity of female sushi chefs.

In the Duke City, the restaurant with the most creative sushi offerings is Sushi & Sake on Central Avenue. It’s also one of only two sushi restaurants I’ve seen employing a female sushi chef.  In 2010, a second instantiation of Sushi & Sake launched, the scion being located on Academy where Tomato Cafe once held court for more than a decade.

The Central Avenue Sushi & Sake occupies part of the building which houses the Korean BBQ House and is owned by the same people. It launched in January, 2005 and has been a very popular draw as it probably will be for a long time.  The restaurant features an “all you can eat (AYCE) in an hour” dining concept, but unlike American buffet restaurants, takes precautions to minimize waste. Aside from having only one hour to consume all the sushi you can handle, you’re permitted only one re-order and will be charged for sushi left unconsumed.

The AYCE includes one “chef’s special” per person. The menu lists twelve chef’s specials, each one seemingly a greater departure from tradition than the other. A picture of each special illustrates just how creative and colorful sushi can be when taken beyond traditional boundaries…far beyond in some cases..

Okay, I’m not talking sushi with peanut butter or chocolate here, but when is the last time you had sushi with mango. Mango is the featured ingredient on Sushi & Sake’s “Mango Tango” maki roll. Nestled inside its rice bed is tempura battered shrimp, but atop the rice are strips of tangy mango sprinkled with Masago, the small eggs of a smelt-like fish. These eggs are a different, almost luminescent, shade of orange than is the mango.

The dressing accompanying the Mango Tango is a citrus and wasabi combination. A tangy sweetness is the prominent taste on this roll. It’s probably not one you would want to dip into your wasabi and soy sauce mix and maybe not even one you might order a second time, but it’s a very interesting piece of sushi.

Another unique special from the chefs’ fertile minds is the Amigo roll, perhaps the sushi equivalent of a chile relleno. Get this–a New Mexico green chile (spelled “chili” on the menu) is actually stuffed with crab meat then nestled within sushi rice. No wasabi is necessary to spice this one up. It is served with a spicy dressing that seems to include both wasabi and chile.

On yet another maki roll chicken, not fish is featured–and it’s pretty darn good. So too is the “pizza roll” which is actually a California roll with salmon on top and which is baked in a small casserole dish. The “pizza sauce” seems to be a caramelized teriyaki sauce sprinkled with sesame seeds. Take it slow with this one because it comes straight out of the oven and can singe your tongue and the roof of your mouth.

The “Albuquerque special roll” looks more like a Vietnamese spring roll than it does a hand roll. It features crab, shrimp, avocado, cucumber and lettuce enveloped in egg roll wrapper.

Perhaps as if to ingratiate itself upon local diners, Sushi & Sake also serves a Green Chili Roll in which the flavor of roasted green chile is prominent despite the restaurant’s abhorrent spelling: “chili.” For some reason, the roasted green chile effect seems so much more pronounced on sushi than on most New Mexican food dishes.

The two-page AYCE menu includes many of the standard sushi items you’ll find at almost every other sushi restaurant in town, but you’ll also find some uniquely prepared and distinctively non-traditional pieces of sushi. The traditionally schooled sushi chefs might not approve of some of them (and the sushi chef never would), but Albuquerque diners seem not to care. It is, after all, sushi and it’s all you can eat.

Sushi and Sake
3200 Central, N.W.
Albuquerque, NM
338-2425

LATEST VISIT: 18 June 2011
# OF VISITS: 3
RATING: 18
COST: $$ – $$$
BEST BET: Teriyaki Chicken Roll; Mexican Roll; Pizza Roll; Green Chile Roll

For generations, traditional New Mexican food as it had been served for generations by Hispanic families in Northern New Mexico was surprisingly rare in restaurants throughout the Land of Enchantment.  Many restaurants throughout the state served “Mexican” style food similar to what our neighbors in Arizona and Texas offered.  That meant insipid chile lacking the flavor and piquancy which has become a hallmark of New Mexican cuisine.  Once restaurants such as Rancho de Chimayo began serving traditional New Mexican food, the genre immediately made tremendous inroads, quickly usurping the popularity of the interlopers.

Though tradition has certainly not gone by the wayside, New Mexican food has both grown and evolved over the years largely through the influence of “Santa Fe style” whose genesis may be rooted in the confluence of Pueblo adobe style and Spanish territorial architecture, but whose influences have branched to other aspects of the city’s laid-back culture of joie de vivre and self-expression.  Mark Miller, the high priest of Southwestern cuisine and other inventive chefs recognized the potential for chile, the centerpiece of New Mexican cooking, to be used in ways heretofore unexplored.  They have revolutionized the use of New Mexico’s official state “vegetable” and in the process expanded the diversity and popularity of New Mexican food.

As far as I know, there has been no popular backlash against the adulteration and metamorphosis of New Mexican cuisine.  Nor have a phalanx of abuelitas steeped in the traditional ways protested vehemently against perceived injustices done to New Mexican food. New Mexicans, renown for our “live and let live” attitude, have acceded to the new genre with the recognition that traditional New Mexican food continues to exist and thrive on its own.  We recognize that there’s a place for the traditional and the unorthodox.  Credit it to our characteristic tolerance and laissez faire, but don’t underestimate our pride in tradition.

When it comes to pride and haughtiness in culinary traditions, the Japanese may be unrivaled.  They do not take lightly the effrontery being heaped upon their culinary culture and traditions.  The Japanese consider their cuisine  a time-honored and highly-developed art involving all the senses–from the aesthetic to the olfactory.  Their passion for authenticity is reflected in the use of timeless ingredients prepared by chefs who undergo rigorous training regimens.  To see Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese and Thai restaurants offer “Japanese” cuisine or to see supermarkets proffer inferior sushi is an insult to this prideful culture.

According to the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, there are more than 24,000 Japanese restaurants outside Japan and they account for $22 billion in revenue a year.  The number of Japanese restaurants in the United States  alone doubled in the decade of the nineties to more than 9,000 with no surcease to their popularity.  Unfortunately, the global demand for highly trained Japanese chefs  can’t be met by the tiny nation.  That accounts, in part, for cooks from other Asian nations being brought in to prepare “Japanese” food.  Heck, in an episode of “No Reservations,” host Tony Bourdain profiled a Mexican sushi chef in Laredo, Texas.

The use of chefs who are not properly trained and steeped in the culture behind the cuisine has rankled the ire of Japanese chefs, prompting the creation of advocacy groups, even within the United States, aimed at protecting their highly traditional and exquisitely artistic form of cooking.  They’ve got their work cut out for them.  Most people outside of Japan wouldn’t recognize traditional Japanese food, particularly sushi.  In fact, much of what Americans consider traditional sushi, was actually developed because Americans were so wary of “raw” fish.

When we peruse a sushi menu offering California rolls, spider rolls, salmon sushi and rolls engorged with Philadelphia cream cheese, most of us don’t stop to consider whether or not they’re traditional (they’re not).  We only know how much we appreciate the melding of flavors and the pleasure they bring. Maybe that’s what it’s all about.  While purists may lament the burgeoning onslaught of Pan-Asian and fusion restaurants serving sushi, they can’t ignore the popularity and imagination which goes into the creation of the faux sushi enjoyed by so many.

The Japanese Kitchen, one of Albuquerque’s most venerable sushi restaurants, actually offers the very best of both worlds.  In addition to offering Omakase prepared by Japanese trained sushi chefs, the Kitchen also serves the whimsical sushi Americans love so much.  Omakase means the chef decides the menu and prepares it according to strict and elaborate rules, presenting a series of plates beginning with lighter far and proceeding to heavier, richer dishes.  At the Japanese Kitchen, you can trust the chefs.

The Japanese Kitchen is actually comprised of two separate and distinct restaurants separated by the Park Square courtyard in Albuquerque’s uptown area.  The main Japanese Kitchen restaurant is the elder sibling, a pioneer of Teppan grilling  in Albuquerque, while the Japanese Kitchen Sushi Bar, a free-standing restaurant opened in 2001.  Owners Jeff and Keiko Bunts expanded the restaurant in 2006, adding a Robata Bar.  Robata, which translates from Japanese as “fireside” honors yet another centuries-old form of Japanese cooking.  Robata is served as small appetizers, allowing diners to pick and choose as many combinations as they wish.

For my gorgeous cousin Andrea, it’s all about sushi and the Japanese Kitchen is her choice.  She’s such a sushi buff that at a recent family gathering, she referred to tortilla pinwheels as “New Mexican sushi.”  She also chided me for the length of time elapsed since my last visit to her favorite sushi restaurant.  Considering she’s the only other person in my family who will eat sushi (unless it’s called something else and looks and tastes like Mrs. Paul’s fish sticks), her opinions carry a lot of weight with me…and she’s of the opinion that tradition is nice, but what matters most is how great the sushi tastes.

With a similar open-mindedness, our sushi order was almost entirely nontraditional–a succession of inventive rolls seemingly crafted as much for their pleasing aesthetic qualities, but for flavor profiles which cleverly meld ingredients for optimal deliciousness.  The “Green Earth” maki roll, for example, is crafted with green chile tempura, avocado, cucumber, asparagus, spinach and shrimp all wrapped in soy paper instead of nori (seaweed) or rice.  The most unique aspect of this roll, however, was the green chile sauce pooled at the center of the plate. This is a roll designed not to be consumed with soy sauce and wasabi.

Also unique is a surprisingly delightful and wholly whimsical maki roll.  It’s only fitting that it’s named “Baja California” because it was the original California roll that began the Americanization of sushi in the 1970s and which was instrumental in the growth of sushi’s popularity across the country.  While the California rolls take on uniqueness was only slightly more than substituting avocado for toro (fatty tuna), the Baja California expands that permissiveness tenfold.  The inside is fairly traditional–real crab leg, cucumber and avocado, but outside, the roll is topped with sliced mango, tuna, a shaved strawberry and mango sauce.  In the middle of the plate is a sweet and sour sauce.  Consider this a dessert sushi if you will, but don’t write it off until you try it.  It’s surprisingly good.

There are two pieces of sushi which define most of my visits to sushi restaurants. One is the grilled unagi (eel), a nigiri style sushi, which is said to have stamina-giving properties.  Containing 100 times more vitamin A than other fish, unagi is believed to heighten men’s sexual drive.  Japanese wives would prepare unagi for dinner to suggest to their husbands that they want an intimate night.  After waddling out most sushi restaurants, intimacy is the last thing on our minds. The other is any roll in which green chile plays a part. It baffles me that sushi restaurants often use a green chile with a better roasted flavor than you’ll find at some New Mexican restaurants. That’s the case with “Jewel,” a maki roll with fried soft-shell crag, green chile tempura, avocado and cucumber on the inside and a creamy gren chile sauce on top.

Even better is the albacore green chile roll atop of which is delicately placed a small strip of roasted green chile.  There’s something magical about the dual-heat combination of green chile and wasabi.  The Japanese Kitchen’s rendition of the crunch roll is also quite good with its fried tempura batter sheath enveloping other ingredients.  Perhaps no roll is more ideally suited for the wasabi and soy sauce mix than a crunch roll.

Perhaps figuring we had already thumbed our noses at tradition, we opted to end our meal with a wholly Americanized Japanese dessert–tempura ice cream, icy cold vanilla ice cream on the inside and a crispy tempura coating on the outside.  Though a nice end to a great sushi meal, perhaps more fitting would have been green tea ice cream or even better, a plum sorbet (alas, not on the menu).

The Japanese Kitchen Sushi Bar adheres to some timeless Japanese traditions while giving Americans the experience they crave.  It’s one of Albuquerque’s most revered and esteemed purveyors of sushi and so much more.

Japanese Kitchen Sushi Bar
6511 America’s Parkway, N.E.
Albuquerque, New Mexico
(505) 872-1166
Web Site
LATEST VISIT: 22 January 2011
# of VISITS: 3
RATING: 21
COST: $$$
BEST BET: Jewel, Green Earth, Baja California, Alcabore Tuna Green Chile, Crunch Roll, Unagi, Tempura Ice Cream