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Sushi Tango
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| Sushi to Dance for | Theory ‘S’ | |
| Sushi near the center of (land)mass
of a continent the scale of North America? It’s not too long ago that
even an adventurous consumer would have opted for discretion over valor
at the prospect … yes, a butterly, utterly perfect slab of toro has
few counterparts, of which one can be captured succinctly by the
equation
toro : sushi : : foie gras : French cuisine, but whereas a poor goose can be forcibly gorged on corn anywhere, you won’t find any tuna trolling in Lake Mille Lacs. One asymmetry relates to another one … the hell of food poisoning is much, much worse than that sense of being in paradise when you eat the perfect morsel of your favorite food is good. In other words (and symbols),
I don’t know when the first sushi restaurant opened in the Twin Cities, but I do recall one place on 51st and France¾ authentic down to the plastic displays of menu items in its windows¾ that wasn’t able to sustain itself, even with don buri and udon noodle dishes for the "I won’t eat raw fish" set. It was called Su-zu-me … and part of the problem may have been an assumption by customers that the name, in Japanese inflection, may be referring to the attitude of the owners in case of gastrointestinal problems arising from any raw fish that wasn’t sufficiently fresh (i.e., "so sue me"). Today, sushi isn’t even a novelty. You can get it in a large number of restaurants, in all corners of the metro area; you can pick it up at Byerly’s and Lund’s grocery stores; I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re serving it in school cafeterias (okay, so I would be surprised, but who wants to bet that within a few years a luscious piece of raw octopus, on sticky rice with a delicate ribbon of nori, will be on cafeteria trays next to the 2% milk … mmm, that’s a tasty combination, he says, as he reaches for a barf bag). But there’s sushi and there’s sushi, and for the latter kind there’s been one place to go: Origami. When B said that he’d had excellent sushi at Sushi Tango and that we should check it out, I was in two minds. There’s the location, Calhoun Square (when was the last time this mall contained a good restaurant?) … there’s the name (will we shortly be consuming unagi around a dance floor?) … but Ms Moskowitz, whose recommendation carries more weight than B’s, rated it the best sushi place in town last year (2003 brought the reanointment of Origami). After one abortive attempt¾ we showed up at the place a few weeks ago, early in the week, only to discover that it’s only open for lunch Thu-Sun (we ended up having another Calhoun Square restaurant experience at 101 Blu then)¾ our schedules and Tango’s finally managed to intersect this week.I walked in to the restaurant to find B comfortably ensconced, a glass of sake already somewhat depleted and takeout menus already obtained from our server¾ a tactic that saves us the hectic and too-obvious scribbling down of menu details. It was the drink menu that I looked at first too. About ten brands of sake are listed and some two dozen bottled beers (the Japanese ones are the standard Asahi, Kirin, and Sapporo along with one that I’ve never sampled, Yebisu). We were both in a sake kind of mood. B had opted for one of the sweeter varieties; I went with a drier one, Onikokoshi "devil killer" (so the menu says). Drier, yes, but not really that dry … it was rich and a bit unctuous. If you like clean, crisp sakes, I’d opt for a drier one yet. (A pleasant sesame aroma was lingering in the air from the hot tea at the table next to us … there wouldn’t be anything wrong with doing a boozeless lunch either.) For that matter, you could do a sushiless lunch too. Don buris (rice bowls) and noodle dishes (soba, udon, and ramen) are available¾ five varieties of each¾ and a selection of entrees may appeal if you’re in one of those "where’s the beef" moods. Even more variety can be found in the appetizers. These are grouped into hot, cold, and vegetable categories, and include tempuras, tatakis (lightly seared beef/tuna), and dumplings. And of course we have the sushi, which comes in 33 nigiri choices and almost as many makis (rolls). B did the sushi thing and I ordered the katsu don (breaded pork with vegetables and egg on steamed rice). I tried some of B’s sushi, though, and it was excellent. The hotate (raw scallop) was fresh and clean and, if you can imagine it, slimy in a wonderful way. The unagi (grilled freshwater eel) was just-crispy on the outside and equally-wonderfully-gooey inside. The spicy yellow tail maki was also very good, the spiciness a notch higher than what I’ve found typical. The gari (sliced ginger) accompaniment was cut into juicy, thick slices rather than the delicate shavings one usually sees. My don buri merits praise too, albeit not to the same level. The pork was cooked to the right level of doneness and was tasty, but a crisper breading would have improved texture. The vegetables¾ quite a variety of them: onions, celery, carrots, mushrooms, cabbage, red peppers¾ were quite good and there was a ginger infusion thing going on with them. The moisture in the dish had settled at the bottom, so it was dry until I stirred up the ingredients. There may be little to quibble about the food, but I found the ambience and décor of Tango unappealing. The space is one large squarish room, the back and center of which is taken up by a large sushi-bar-cum-server-prep space. Tables and chairs are arranged along side walls and in front. Windows with irregular grids look out onto drab Calhoun Square hallways. The walls are a conventional cream-yellow but the ceiling is a half-white, half-black admixture¾ acoustic-tiled-false-ceiling over the bar area, black-painted-exposed-ductwork look over the rest. The same old, even if new, art glass light shades that you’ll now see in every restaurant that’s opened in the last few years (or so it seems) can be found here too¾ although the track- and spot-lighting around the bar is distinctive. No points for charm, in my book, but when it comes to sushi, Sushi Tango » Origami. A
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Those of us who came of
age in the eighties were bombarded with images of a successful Japanese
blitzkrieg over our collective economies. Even if you took a single
college-level business course you couldn’t help but be exposed to
Theory Z (a young man—it is very gender specific—is employed for
life by a corporation becoming the ubiquitous "salary man").
American corporations, on the other hand, were interested in quarterly
results, which dictated their level of employment. We thought the Japanese
evil, they would sell without buying, and the trade deficit ballooned in
their favor. The excess cash was invested in buying up prestigious
properties around the world that included film studios in Hollywood, sky
scrapers in New York, and—amazing as this might seem—River Place in
our own fair city of Minneapolis. The Nikkei Average climbed over the
twenty thousand mark and it seemed we were all driving Japanese cars,
watching Hollywood films (now owned by the Japanese) on Japanese made
TVs. And then it all came to an end. The Yen started to strengthen, the
real estate market softened, properties that were considered trophies
became shackles and were being snapped up at fire sale prices. The
savings and loan scandal allowed us to cleanup our banking system,
whereas the Japanese banking system is paralyzed with a staggering
number of bad loans that run into billions. The Nikkei is at levels not
seen in forty years and whatever the government does, short of dropping
banknotes from an airplane over Tokyo, it can’t get the Japanese
consumer to part with their Yens. Theory Z has been a failure; it has
made Japanese corporations less nimble and unable to adapt to change,
which because of all the foot dragging is going to be even more painful.
Theory Z may have been a woeful failure but I am here to tell you that Theory S[ushi] is taking the world by storm! The Lunch, this week, goes to Sushi Tango and amidst economic musings wonders if there is a more perfect food than sushi? How can you top this morsel size delicacy with the sudden burst of flavor? You can’t and in Sushi Tango you have one of the finer exponents of this culinary art. The restaurant is located on the second floor of Calhoun Square and is an energetic little dynamo, reflecting the energy and vision of its founder, Teng Thao (the Tango in the name is a pun on Teng), which is "eat good sushi and wash it down with plenty of alcohol." It’s only open for lunch from Thursday to Sunday and on this day was only moderately busy. We were quickly seated in a space that isn’t very large. There is a sushi bar (the three sides of a square) and a regular bar. Lights hang low from a black ceiling. The color scheme is a yellow-green with Asian artwork on the walls. Sushi Tango’s kitchen is open till midnight and it seems that the party atmosphere starts at dinnertime. Try eating sushi to the disco beat! The (nice) unorthodox extends from the attitude of the wait staff to the sushi. If you’re a (sushi) traditionalist you’re likely to arch your eyebrows at the number of "designer," specialty maki: salmon skin (grilled salmon skin, avocado, asparagus), spider (deep fried soft-shell crab, cucumber) and 9-½ maki (shrimp tempura, cucumber and spicy mayo, wrapped on the outside with smoked eel). You get the idea. I started with a glass of sake, a Masumi (very clear sake), which is semi-sweet and as the name suggests, very clear in a medicinal sort of way. Perhaps out of our eagerness to get stuck into the sushi we didn’t order any appetizer even though the menu lists quite a few hot (gyoza, soft shell crab among others) and cold (oysters, ebi su, etc.) appetizers. From the sushi menu I ordered unagi (fresh water eel) and hotate (raw scallop). From the specialty maki I chose the spicy yellow tail (chopped yellow tail, garlic, chili pepper, sesame oil, kaware, cucumber and leaf lettuce). Since I ordered the sushi A chose a katsu don (breaded pork with vegetables and egg on a bed of steamed rice). My sushi was outstanding. The unagi was delicious, crisp on the outside and soft on the inside a bit like a pate if you need something to compare it to. The hotate was creamy and melted, almost like butter, in the mouth. The maki was spiced up with the chili powder; the chopped yellow tail and the crushed cucumbers worked well together making this a tasty and substantial dish. I tried A’s katsu don and found the breaded (cutlet-like) pork firm and quite delicious with the rice and vegetables. On other occasions I have had the other items on the sushi menu and have found them exceptional. My favorite is a white tuna nigri. Look for specials that are chalked up on a white board behind the bar. Remember to try Sushi Tango for your late night dining. It’s quite an experience. As the evening progresses waitresses going off duty do shots with the bartender and possibly the chefs partaking as well! It is claimed that it took George Bernard Shaw—an Irishman—to show the English how to write good prose in the English language. Can we similarly claim that it has taken Teng, a native Hmong, to teach the Japanese? Well perhaps not, Origami and Nami are pretty good, but Teng has made sushi sexy and more accessible to people who might normally be daunted by it. If the specialty rolls can attract them perhaps they’ll stay for the sushi. B
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