A sushi menu at a Chinese Restaurant is not uncommon. It is even less common to find a Japanese owner, let alone chef at a Japanese restaurant. Authenticity and having a well-trained chef of any ethnicity is the key to the restaurant’s success.
Chinese “take out” venues have split the restaurant’s name and menu to accommodate both cuisines. At 97-17 Jamaica Avenue, a Woodhaven eatery bares two names: Cheung King Kitchen and Ginza. The Chinese “side” offers Cantonese and Sechuan fare while Ginza specializes in sushi and a few other Japanese goodies.
Ginza delivers and prompted me to sample their menu during lunchtime (11 a.m. to 4 p.m.). There were two specials, one of which was a Bento Box, consisting of an entrée choice of Teriyaki (beef, salmon, shrimp or beef), Beef Negimaki (scallion wrapped in thinly sliced beef with teriyaki sauce) or Unagi Don (eel bowl). Adding to it is rice, a California roll, spring roll and either miso soup or soda, for the price of $6.95 (tax included).
That sounded fine to me until I read what was listed underneath. You get to choose from a list of any 3 maki rolls, 3 pieces of sushi from their menu and either miso soup or a soda for $10.95. I opted for rolls of Shrimp Tempura, Eel Avocado and Spicy Salmon Crunchy (using masago). For those of you who are not up on terms, “sashimi” is slices of raw fish; “sushi” can be anything sitting atop a clump of seasoned sushi rice, “maki rolls” are made by placing rice and other ingredients (raw or cooked) on a sheet of “nori” (dried seaweed), rolled and sliced, whereas “hand roll” is basically the same but in a cone shape and eliminated the rice. Got it?
As for the sushi, it was mackerel, striped bass and white tuna as my selection.
Chef Huang learned to master the art of sushi making while working at a few Japanese restaurants. For those of you who chicken out by ordering a California roll, it consists of imitation crabmeat (kani), avocado and cucumber. How boring.
Search the menu for a list of “Special Roll” to indulge in Huang’s creativity. At this point I have only been able to sample three of them. Spider Roll consists of using deep fried soft shell crab, avocado, cucumber and a spicy mayo. Godzilla Roll got me shrimp tempura and avocado on the inside topped with spicy lobster. Magic Roll had a crunchy spicy tuna on the inside (the “crunchy” also tends indicate the use of fried tempura flakes) with shrimp, avocado, eel and masago (orange-colored roe) on the outside.
There were a few other menu items that struck my curiosity. Tomiyama Soup, a spicy soup with shrimp, mushrooms, and Chinese cabbage was a bit like having the Thai rendition of Tom Yom Soup. I would describe the Tomiyama soup as being “peppery” vs the use of chili. I’m not one for “spicy” and all that I sampled satisfied my craving and taste buds.
Kani Salad takes the shredded crabmeat stick and julienne cucumber, mixes it with mayo and tops it with the masago.
Then there came the most creative idea for an appetizer, Sushi Pizza. Start with a scallion pancake as the “crust”, add seaweed salad and spicy mayo, top it with the “sashimi” tuna, salmon and masago for a “personal pizza” unless you’re not too selfish to share.
I stopped in days later to sample more beginning with a sushi platter of: shrimp (ebi), tuna (maguro), salmon (sake), white tuna, eel (unagi), and scallop (hotatege). I love the eel sauce and the scallop was "inventive" with two seasoned scallops and a mushroom slice atop the rice.
Since I was there, I thought I might as well check out some of the Chinese cuisine as well beginning with two different spring rolls. One had the common shrimp and vegetables in that thin crunchy skin, while the steak spring roll had that beefy flavor with the added vegetables.
Chef Huang prepared the prepared two entrees. Sesame Chicken can be found at most Chinese restaurants. Huang has discovered "umani", that extra taste. Aside from the chicken pieces being cooked with just the right crunch and juiciness, the sauce had a sweet, sour, salty, and slightly spicy kick to attack all of my taste buds.
The other entree was a Seafood Mei Fun. Mei Fun are thin rice noodles vs the Chow Fun which are wide and thick. Here is where I got to test his calamari cooking and was timed just right. I also noticed that the Chinese food was not "oily".
Gee, I'm getting hungry just writing this. I think I'll call for a delivery!
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