I've enjoyed Japanese food and sushi in particular since I was first exposed to it as a teenager. There was something intellectually and culinarily thrilling about the delicate, simplistic nature of raw fish over rice. But when comparing the way Japanese people and knowledgeable chefs spoke of Japanese food (I grew up on a steady diet of Iron Chef) with its delicate flavors and textures to what I was actually eating in American sushi restaurants, I couldn't help thinking that something was missing.
Perhaps, I surmised, it was the quality of the soy sauce being used or the type/freshness of the fish? And yet, far too often sushi (even at highly rated restaurants specializing in sushi), while tasty, felt like little more than plain rice and fish to be dunked in the salty brine of soy sauce. It was almost like the flavor was 90% soy and 10% fish & rice. And the much-touted texture, the crowning feature of many Asian cuisines, felt similarly lacking. Soft fish over soft rice. Was my palate broken? Was Japanese cuisine as a whole simply beyond my appreciation as an American who favors a bold smoked brisket over a delicate steak tartare? I started exploring less common, more strongly flavored options for my sushi experiences just for some variation in texture and flavor. Not that I disliked tuna over rice dipped in soy sauce, but it wasn't the experience I was longing for.
Then... oh THEN... I ate at Zen House, a cozy, unpretentious Japanese restaurant in Duluth's Woodland neighborhood. I'd heard good things. It was a bit of a drive (through gulp college territory, complete with all its trendy shops and restaurants) but that made it a good candidate for a "try it once" sort of place just to say you've been and sampled the local favorites.
Our first visit was on a rare date night. I asked for a recommendation from the server, a lanky bespectacled gent in a grey hoodie with an appropriately "Zen" vibe about him, and ordered his recommendation: udon noodle soup with ribeye ($14) as well as a couple of sushi-place staples (eel roll and tamago). My wife, true to form, ordered salmon and tuna nigiri and the sweet potato roll with sweet chili sauce along with a miso soup. The soup was phenomenal with a capitol NOM. And I am NOT a soup guy. Most soup is relegated to the category of "almost food" along with breakfast cereals and nachos with no toppings. This was not a mere mortal's soup. This was savory, hearty, fragrant magic in a bowl. Then there was the sushi. My eel roll (unagi for you purists) was covered in white and black sesame seeds and had no eel sauce! Ack. What is this devilry? Seeds and no sauce? Ah, but fear not sweet child, the sauce was hidden... underneath. A light smear of eel sauce upon which the seeded roll was set to absorb the sauce from beneath. And not a LOT of sauce, either... but enough. How, you say, when eel sauce could easily be consumed as a beverage? Because the eel inside the roll and the rice itself was so sumptuously and perfectly flavored as to require no more than a drip or a dash of condiment. The tamago revealed still more with a light dip in the soy sauce. The egg omelet itself was good. Sweet but not too sweet, a good texture, not burnt. But this is where the rice really shone through. Something... was different... different but wonderful. The rice had a certain delicate quality to it. It was not too sticky, not too loose. Not too sweet, not too salty. It was balanced. Delicate. Delicious. Perfect. And the pairing with fish? Oh. My. Yama.
My dear friends, patient reader, and those unfortunate enough to have expected something interesting at the end of this review: this restaurant alone, out of the many I have eaten at across the US (alas, I have never been to Japan), gave me what I most desired from Japanese food -- tastes and textures that matched the descriptions and praise of those Iron Chef judges and commentators.
The fare at Zen House is simple, balanced, and beautiful. Also... oddly enough... very affordable! Today was our 3rd visit as a couple and we will...
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