Sushi for Erfurt

A spontaneous decision found me eating sushi at an Asian restaurant, the Asia Drachen Phoenix. Why Asian? Let's just say, the German hubs displays an even more Asian palate than I do 😀 and so, here we are. 

Ordinarily, this restaurant has a buffet spread as well as an ala carte. Normally, I make a beeline for their buffet spread, simply because I like food variety and nothing screams "variety" more than a typical Asian buffet spread. Due to current pandemic times though, the buffet spread has been taken away as a safety precaution. Since that wasn't available, I decided to try something on their menu I haven't tried before - the sushi options! 

You must understand something. If I want sushi, I won't go into a normal Asian restaurant to have some. I would go to a Japanese restaurant or a sushi bar. It is quite entertaining for me to see many Asian restaurants here combining the two, most probably for economical purposes. But still entertaining 😄 simply because both cuisines requires very different skill sets and ingredients, some of which are almost in total contrast to each other. One requires high heat, the other low (or even none). In one kitchen, the cook chops, the other, slices. One kitchen would have a lot of smoke and oil, the other much less (or even none). Even the rice is different. The only similarity they share would probably be that in both kichens, rices need to be cooked (again, different types of rice with different flavours and served differently). In other words, they're actually very different kitchens. You get the picture. 

So, here I am ordering my Sake Don with salmon, surimi, seaweed salad and rice (again, sushi rice. Let's get that clear).  

I must admit, I was a little taken aback when it came on a flat plate. Japanese rice bowl dishes are typically served in a, well,  bowl, and the picture on the menu also showed it would be in a bowl. So when this came, I was a little, umm, surprised? But it was pretty, so I got over it pretty much soon. 

You can see the salmon slices with surimi (shrimp slices) and a good dollop of fish roe, all sitting on a foundation of (sushi) rice. On the sides, I had a generous serving of seaweed splattered with sesame seeds (the green stuff), shredded carrots and cucumber slices, sliced pickled ginger and a serving of wasabi. I love salmon, shrimp (like I mentioned in my earlier blogs, seafood is a big part of my must-eat diet), fish roe and seaweed, and I had them all served to me. On one plate. 

I must admit, when the plate was set in front of me, I couldn't wait to dig in. And so I did. 

I poked my chopsticks into the rice to get a mouthful. My first reaction was one of puzzlement: the rice was sticking to my chopsticks a little too much and that isn't normal. By sticking too much, I mean the rice was sticking in chunks. Definitely not normal, not for sushi rice. My conclusive impression? A little too sticky for sushi. 

Let me explain. At the base of any sushi dish is the rice. Sushi rice is different from ordinary rice - it's somewhere between glutinous, sticky rice and normal rice (like those eaten with fried/curried vegetables or meats). Texture-wise, it falls into neither category of rice; hence, its name - sushi rice. The grains are also finer than normal rice and often, they smell a little different too. To make things even more complicated, there are different types of sushi rice for different types of Japanese rice dishes. Most share the same texture, except for those that are made into porridge or soup. 

So, when eating the rice with chopsticks, it shouldn't be so sticky that it sticks to the sticks like glutinous rice. I'm not an expert on cooking sushi rice, so I can't say what went wrong in the kitchen. What I can say is that the sushi rice was way stickier than typical sushi rice in Japanese restaurant or sushi bars. And that kinda took the thunder away from the sushi rice bowl dish. 

Moving on to the other highlights of my order. The salmon slices were generous - I counted about 6 or 7 slices (and they weren't thin slices too!), plus eating fresh salmon is always a lovely experience so my mood perked up considerably. Eating the fresh salmon dipped into Kikkoman soya sauce was absolute enjoyment. I swear I saw my tummy smile.  

The shrimp slice was good. Unfortunately, I can't say too much because there was only one. 1 solitary sliced shrimp. I won't have minded another (thin) slice because one was, well, a little lonely. 1 gulp, and it was gone. So, uh, there. 

Next was fish roe. I'm not squeamish about eating any kind of seafood (at least, I haven't found a seafood I won't try. Yet). Fresh fish roe is really delicious, regardless of how it's cooked. Today's fish roe seemed fresh enough, and coupled with the rice, was a good meal enhancer. I loved the crunchy-ish tiny bits that get mingled with the rice when you eat them together and their taste that's neither sweet nor salty. I can't put a specific word on the actual taste but if "crunchy" was a taste, I would say it tasted crunchy (?) 🤔 

And now to the sides. The seaweed with sesame seeds was the first I attacked from the Gang of Four on my plate. Whatever initial disappointment I felt from my first moment with the rice and shrimp was gone in a flash. The seaweed was fresh, didn't smell wonky and the dash of sesame seeds was a nice touch of difference in what would have ended up as a simple delicious gloopy mess. Delicious, but simple. With sesame seeds, simple just got upgraded. The fact that sesame seeds are nutritious just adds to its appeal. 

The shredded carrots and cucumber slices were also fresh and perfectly done. Some flavouring was done on the cucumber, I detected some vinegar, perhaps (?) and the carrots, while stringy, didn't annoyingly stick in between the teeth during the chewing. Perfect. 

I'm not a fan of pickled ginger and wasabi. Both carry flavours that, for some strange reason, I can't appreciate, through no fault of their own. In this case, the pickled ginger was generously sliced, and I'm a big fan of generous. The wasabi was pretty much standard wasabi, so there really isn't much to say about it. In fact, both didn't seem to be made in-house, so I will just say I'm glad they weren't sub-standard. 

The menu offering here is pretty varied - there's noodle and rice dishes, duck, pork, beef, chicken and a sufficient selection of fish and shrimp. They have other Japanese subsets too; some sashimi, ramen, udon and maki - some custom-made upon order, while others are prepacked, made-to-go. 

For drinks, I decided to have a combination of both my German and Asian lives - I ordered a Tsingtao ( typical German drink with an Asian-sounding name. You have to admit you like the joke in this one). Plus, the last time I had a Tsingtao was in Kuching, my hometown on Borneo and that was a good 1.5 years ago. Nobody says you can't have the best of every world you're in, did they? 

Yes, it went very well with the meal. And yes, do try it (if you haven't already). 

Owned by a friendly Vietnamese couple, naturally they serve Pho too. Pho (pronounced "fir") is the signature Vietnamese soup dish, and this comes in many variations. In fact, the hubs ordered his chicken pho, which I had a mini taste of, and it was good.

 

Unfortunately, I will have to actually eat the whole dish before I can objectively say anything more, so I will leave that for another day's adventure.  

Or maybe, you should try it yourself. And I might just join you.