Japanese fare taken beyond sushi
By Eliza Ridgeway, Town Crier Staff Writer
 Chef Yoshiyuki Maruyama specializes in grilled chicken, or yakitori, and prepares thigh, liver, heart and skin skewers, crisp from the charcoal. |
The first part of the Sumika adventure is finding the place - there is no neon sign to point the way. In fact, proprietor Kuniko Ozawa handpicked the obscure location off Third Street in downtown Los Altos so that customers will actively seek the restaurant out.
When you stumble across the modest facade of the new Japanese restaurant, you will discover a new twist on an old tradition. The art of preparing the grilled meats Sumika specializes in - kushiyaki, or grilled skewers - is a finely honed and venerable skill. But for Americans used to sushi and little more, Sumika’s traditional Japanese cuisine, including homestyle soups and rice “casseroles,” offers a novel eating experience.
The flavors are simple but highly refined. The organic, locally raised chicken thigh, rubbed with Japanese salt and cooked over smoldering charcoal, is a particular standout - the chicken flesh, with its smoky, rich flavor, is framed by the salty taste and juiciness. This most elemental yakitori (chicken skewer) made me question why sauce should ever be necessary.
Similarly simple preparations of Kobe beef and prosciutto-like slices of black pork, wrapped around vegetables, get the grill treatment. The $3 to $4 skewers can be combined to make a meat-heavy a la carte meal, but they typically are eaten as a gourmet first course, followed by a more filling rice dish.
The oyako-don dish is the best bet for picky eaters, specifically those new to Japanese cuisine or those with a cautious palate. Small-grain rice, slightly sticky, is mounded in a bowl, then topped with a casserole or stew of chicken, broth, fresh greens and cooked egg. This is comfort food, pure and simple. The sweet, soft flavors will taste subtly familiar to diners with any culinary preference.
Ozawa, a Los Altos Hills resident, worked in high-tech sales and marketing in Silicon Valley before she reinvented herself as a yakitori maven.
“I always thought, ‘Why has only sushi been introduced?’ (Kushiyaki) is more traditional Japanese food, everyday, after-work food,” Ozawa said. “I wanted to focus on only one thing, so that it can be the best - the best yakitori in California.”
Ozawa met her head chef, Yoshiyuki “Maru” Maruyama, when he visited California on his honeymoon, and it took her more than a year to steal him away from his previous restaurant in Japan.
The kitchen and wait staff hails almost entirely from Japan, and the dining room has a distinctly bilingual feel. Ozawa has been gathering customers of Japanese-descent from around the Bay Area via word of mouth, but said she loves the diversity represented in the dining room on any given night.
“It’s part of my life goal to introduce our culture in a very sophisticated way,” she said. “(Sumika) is very casual but very authentic, just like in Japan.”
She picked a small, out-of-the-way space in Los Altos because, she said frankly, “Not everybody will like our food. We’re not expecting walk-in customers. People need to find us - it’s part of the fun.”
The red miso soup will provide a sophisticated surprise for diners accustomed only to the bland white miso served in most restaurants. Miso, a salty, grainy paste made from soybeans, blossoms in warm water to create a cloudy soup with an earthy taste. The deep, musky flavor of the red miso is a more “adult” taste, Ozawa said.
Chef Maru works his art over a long, slender grill piled with oblong hunks of charcoal imported from Japan. The cherry-wood charcoal attains a high heat, turning a powdery gray-white color with glowing orange centers.
He grills some of the more exotic cuts of meat popular in Japan, including heart, liver and skin. Chicken skin turns crisp in the heat of the grill and, Ozawa said, is very popular with women in Japan because of its high collagen content, thought to be good for the skin.
All the diners in Sumika’s compact space can watch Chef Maru at work, because the kitchen juts into the center of the dining room, separated by a tall, glass window. Along one side, a case displays the selection of meats, labeled with little handwritten Japanese signs. A wall of tall, ornate sake bottles lines the rest of the bar.
The nicer sakes, or rice wines, are served chilled in a special glass, a modified shot glass. The clean, flowery taste of a medium-range sake like the Yowano Tsuki will win new converts to the beverage. If you have only tried heated, low-end sake that tastes like paint thinner, this flavor will come as quite a surprise; it is more reminiscent of a western white wine.
Ozawa offers a $10 early-bird three-course menu aimed at locals, which includes red miso soup and oyako-don. Reservations are accepted and are a good idea for later in the evening, especially on weekends.
Sumika is located at 236 Central Plaza, between State, Main and Third streets. It is open for dinner from 5-10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and 5-11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
For more information, call 917-1822 or visit www.sumikagrill.com.
