Chomp!

By Ron Aiken
Columbia, SC
April 12, 2013

Two Sushi Items You Never Order That Your Chef Is Most Proud Of

By one of those happy accidents of spacial dynamics at Drip in Five Points, Shigeharu Kobayashi – cartoonist, dreamer, Columbia-Yeah! inventor, son of the owners of Camon Japanese Restaurant on Assembly Street and all-around nicest guy in Columbia – plopped beside me recently.

We got to talking about a movie we both had seen, Jiro Dreams of Sushi. (It’s thankfully available to stream on Netflix, and I highly recommend it.) In a nutshell, it’s about one of the most expensive and exclusive restaurants in the world, Sukiyabashi Jiro, a three-starred Michelin restaurant that operates in a subterranean mall serving the Ginza subway station and features only 10 seats that patrons wait months to occupy.

The titular character is an 86-year-old sushi master – the restaurant serves nothing else – who has been declared an official national treasure by his country and an unofficial pain in the ass by his employees and two grown sons who, as one might speculate, wouldn’t mind seeing the old man turn over the lucrative business to them one of these here days. In the film, one of the long-time assistants describes the agony of how it took years before he made a tamago, or omelet, that met Jiro’s high standards.

Much is made about how to tell the quality of sushi, and for our rather over-stimulated and over-salted Southern palates, the nuances can be indistinguishable. In fact, I’d wager there’s only a handful of people in Columbia that couldn’t be fooled stupid with a blind tasting of sushi from a restaurant or the grocery store. That’s not because the grocery-store sushi is terrible compared to restaurant sushi prepared by an expert, it’s because the differences are so nuanced we aren’t likely to pay attention, especially when we use too much soy sauce or wasabi and wind up drowning out all the subtle delicacy the chef worked so hard to craft and balance, elements which are the cornerstones of Japanese culinary sensibilities.

Having worked in his parent’s restaurant for years off and on (and by the way, ‘Camon’ roughly translates to crest in Japanese, and the design you see under the restaurant title is the actual Kobayashi family crest; it was chosen by his father as a way to distinguish to native Japanese diners his restaurant as being authentic versus the Japanese-style steak houses Kobayashi originally came to America to launch when the first wave of them broke upon U.S. shores…but more on that interesting story some other time), Shige says to tell how good a sushi chef is, ignore the routine choices and go straight for two that most people ignore altogether: the cucumber roll and the aforementioned tamago (pictured left).

Just as in the film, executing a perfectly constructed tamago – which is made using eggs, rice vinegar, sugar and sometimes fish paste and soy sauce – can be far more difficult than one would imagine, and when you get one that has been made with care and expertise, it is a joy beyond description. I took Shige’s advice recently and got one at Camon, and my mind exploded. I’d never ordered it before because I so love the sashimi, the octopus (or tako), the tuna and the eel that it would never occur to me to get an egg omelet piece of sushi, but I am here to tell you, the next sushi you get, make it an egg omelet sushi and thank me for the recommendation later. You will do this.

The second example of a sushi chef’s excellence is in executing the supremely delicate cucumber roll. In the hands of an unskilled chef, it can become a throwaway, almost tasteless. In the hands of someone like Shigeru Kobayashi, it becomes something flowery, fragrant, and intense in its penetration, in its exploration of the flavors of the cucumber that are virtually ignored in most of the ingredient’s traditional uses. Handled with care, the simple cucumber can be allowed to express a flavor profile that is as surprising as it is addictive, and whether a centerpiece or palate cleanser, you can tell a great deal about how seriously a sushi chef takes his craft by how well he executes this most simple roll available at any sushi bar in the world – or grocery store, for that matter. But don’t take my word for it; ask Shige when you see him out. And you will see him out, because I’m convinced there are like 17 of him in Columbia’s coolest places at any one time.

 

Southern Living Gets it Wrong…Again

On Tuesday, Southern Living magazine announced the winner of its The South’s Tastiest Towns contest for 2013, and the lucky locale was Durham, N.C.

It’s OK to vomit now.

Ten Southern culinary capitals were considered, and finishing behind Durham in the rankings were, in order of finish: Memphis, Asheville, Atlanta, Austin, Charleston, Greenville, Louisville, Miami and New Orleans. That’s right, Charleston, the undisputed mecca of New South cuisine in the 21st Century, finished sixth, and Greenville (yes, OUR Greenville), finished ahead of New Orleans.

How could such a thing be? Because the magazine contest was decided by that time-tested, scientifically approved measure of accurately identifying something’s true quality: fan voting.

A disappointed Memphis, the foodies of which apparently orchestrated several high-profile get-out-the-vote campaigns, was understandably crestfallen Tuesday afternoon finishing second to a town best known for a minor league baseball team.

Writing in Hungry Memphis: A Very Tasteful Food Blog, Susan Ellis (who, it has to be noted, wrote that Greenville was located in South Caroline), opined that the vote was close, and proudly proclaimed the new energy of the Memphis scene.

The rankings will appear in the magazine’s May issue, which hits newstands April 19. You should be able to find one most anywhere in South Caroline.

In case you’re wondering, last year’s winner (in the contest’s inaugural year) was Lafayette, Louisiana.

It’s OK to vomit now.

 

Sustainable Chefs Showcase! 

Indie Grits, the independent film festival put on by our very own Nickelodeon Theatre (South Carolina’s only non-profit art-house theater, by the way), is in its seventh year and continues to get bigger and better every year as it cements its status as a big-time regional event.

This year, the wonderful – and I mean that sincerely – slow food folks in town have partnered with Indie Grits for a Sustainable Chefs Showcase that will take place this Sunday, April 14, from 4-7 p.m. at 711 Whaley, which is just beside the 701 Whaley building.

Fourteen of Columbia’s best chefs will be participating, and if you haven’t been paying attention, this roster is as good as it gets and one I’d put up against any city, anywhere. Showing off their creativity with local ingredients will be Mike Davis of Terra; Kristian Niemi of Rosso Trattoria; Tim Peters of Motor Supply; Benoit St. Jacques of Rosewood Market; Joseph Jacobson of The Oak Table; Scott Hall of Bone-In Artisan BBQ; Sean McCrossin of Drip Coffee; Alex Suaudom du Monde of Baan Sawan; Blake Fairies of Saludas; Jessica Shilatto of Spotted Salamander Catering; Brian Dukes of Blue Marlin; Andrew White of Tombo Grille; Joseph Stover of Whole Foods Market; and Corey Paul of Jake’s. If you’re not excited by that, well, you don’t get excited about anything, and that’s a personal problem I don’t care to hear any more about.

There will be a cash bar provided by The Whig and featuring local beers and wines from AdVintage, and additionally, the brewmaster from Columbia’s new Conquest Brewery (conquestbrewing.com) will be on-hand to chat about the new effort with guests. For the delight of your ears, the Greater Columbia Society for Preservation of Soul will man the turntable to provide musical goodness.

Simply, this is perhaps the coolest thing in the world, anywhere, featuring the best people in Columbia, or anywhere. If you do not choose to attend, well, that’s for you to live with, not me.

Tickets are $20 for general admission, $15 for members of Slow Food Columbia or The Nickelodeon, and $10 if you bring a potluck dish with one local, sustainable ingredient that can serve 20, and in keeping with the mission of Slow Food to celebrate local and seasonal ingredients, flavors, dishes and chefs. You may purchase tickets at www.indiegrits.com/food. (Note: festival passes include Slow Food at Indie Grits tickets.) Get your tickets ASAP, however, because the event sold out in 2011 and 2012 and the event will accommodate approximately 200 people

Got questions? Call another of Columbia’s action team superstars, Tracie Broom of Flock And Rally (with the equally awesome Debi Schadel) at 415-235-5718 or [email protected]. Broom says if you feel inspired from this event to join Slow Food Columbia, you may do so by going to slowfoodusa.org and signing up under the Columbia, S.C., chapter. If you email the confirmation number to [email protected], Tracie will email you the discount code to use when purchasing your tickets. So join already! You could already have done so by the time it took you to read this! And also, thank you for reading this.

 

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