This is another one of my go-to places for a Japanese style bento. I never went to the Japanese deli chain when I lived in Tokyo because their food seemed less interesting compared to the other choices that I had, but in San Francisco, where my options are scarce, it’s a different story.

The day before I was to fly to Tokyo, my craving for Japanese was so strong that I headed to Delica in the Ferry Building. The bentos are expensive. One can either choose from a selection of deli items such as a sesame-spinach salad, Japanese fried chicken, and deep-fried tofu. They also have Japanese curried rice, but on this day, I was in a bit of a hurry, so I chose one of the pre-made bento boxes for about $10, with chicken meatballs, green beans in a sesame sauce and kinpira gobo (sauteed burdock root). It definitely satisfies Japan’s idea of a healthy meal, which should include enough variety that one is eating at least 30 different kinds of foods/ingredients in a single day. Delica has a second outpost in Japantown.

Delica
Ferry Building
San Francisco, CA
(415) 834-0344
Open: Mon-Fri 10am-6pm; Sat 9am-5pm; Sun 11am-5pm

When I moved to San Francisco from Japan, one of the most depressing things about it was the paltry lunch selections near my office. In Japan, we had a choice of endless restaurants specializing in an endless assortment of foods. There was a place we went to just for Chinese Mabo Tofu, and another for rice bowls cooked in a clay pot. Other favorites included Korean, Thai, ramen, sushi, and a number of traditional Japanese restaurants. In San Francisco, my choices were all of a sudden limited to a salad, a sandwich, Chinese takeout, or Mexican.

I go to Muracci’s when I’m feeling really nostalgic for the lunches we used to have in Tokyo. Their main thing is Japanese-style curry, which is very good, but I go there for the non-curry bentos they have. None of them are particularly creative, but that’s what makes them so deeply satisfying. All the items are traditional Japanese bento dishes - karaage bento (fried chicken), sake (grilled salted salmon), tonkatsu (deep-fried pork cutlet), oyako donburi (chicken and egg over rice) etc… The bentos come with whatever the main dish is, a potato salad, a green salad, miso soup and your choice of white or brown rice. At lunch time, the lines can get long because they prepare the food items after you make your order.

Two days ago, I went there and ordered a tonkatsu bento. Even in Japan, tokatsu can be a risky choice because the breading can disguise a bad piece of meat, but Muracci’s has it just right. It’s thin and crisp because they deep fry it to order, and it really hits the spot when nothing else will do but a taste of Japan. I sat at my desk and savored my tonkatsu and rice while I took sips of my miso soup in between bites. It was a short moment of bliss during my otherwise stressful and hectic day.

My other favorite bento there is karaage, but Muracci’s also has udon noodles with curry and an assortment of curry bentos. If you want the curry, I would recommend ordering it as is. They will ask you if you want it spicier, but that just means they add chili powder on top (which only gives it a one-dimensional spiciness that isn’t very authentic). If you don’t want to wait, call in your order ahead of time.

Muracci’s
307 Kearny St.
San Francisco, CA
Tel: 415-773-1101
Open: Mon.-Thu. 11am-6pm; Fri. 11am-5pm

Summer in Tokyo can get unimaginably hot because the city is essentially built of concrete, and it doesn’t cool down in the evenings. You can lose your appetite on the hottest days and dinner becomes a drag. On those nights, we sometimes had tofu donburi, a dish idea that my sister got from a restaurant. Making it is super simple. All you need is a good tofu, a hot bowl of rice and an assortment of refreshing, chopped condiments to mix. The only flavoring is a drizzle of soy sauce. The cold of the tofu, the crunch of some of the condiments and the warmth of the rice makes for a light, yet filling comfort dish.

I made it tonight after feeling nostalgic for our life there. To accompany it, we had a daikon and bean curd miso soup. Here’s a very rough recipe:

Ingredients (serves two):
2 cups white short-grain rice
1 Tofu (I prefer San Jose Tofu, which is made in San Jose, Calif. and available at select Japanese markets including Nijiya)
3 tbsp chopped shiso leaves
3 umeboshi (sour plums) - remove pits and chop into paste
4 tbsp chopped cucumber or 1 Japanese cucumber
1 tbsp finely chopped scallions
1 tbsp grated ginger
2 tsp roasted sesame seed
soy sauce to taste
Optional: 1 chopped myoga (type of ginger)

Directions:
1. Steam rice.
2. Put into two deep bowls (ideally donburi bowls but if not a salad or pasta bowl).
3. Crumble half of the tofu onto top of each bowl.
4. Place some of each of the condiments onto the top of each bowl.
5. Drizzle soy sauce to taste.
6. Mix it all together when you eat it. I prefer to eat this with a spoon rather than chopsticks.

This is my go-to Japanese grocery in San Francisco, where I buy everything from staples like soy sauce, miso and bonito powder to fresh fish for sashimi and sushi. I even get my favorite Shiseido shampoo called Tsubaki here. They have a good selection of fresh Japanese vegetables, a wide range of frozen goods and even locally made natto (fermented soybeans) and tofu. When I shop here, I inevitably go home with an impulse purchase that reminded me of Japan — a bottle of my favorite tea, a snack food, or Japanese pears. There’s a second Japanese grocery called Uoki also in Japantown, but it seems that most Japanese I know who live in the city prefer Nijiya. If you park in the Kinokuniya building, don’t forget to take your parking ticket with you because the store will validate it.

Nijiya
1737 Post St.
San Francisco, CA
Tel: (415) 563-1901
Open: daily 10am - 8pm

Things picked up though after we were seated at the sushi bar. The wait service was okay — after they came by to take our drink order, we had to hail someone down each time we wanted something. But we were able to get immediately comfortable with the sushi chefs — Proprietor Osamu (Sam) Sugiyama and Chef Koichi Ito. They were super busy yet they never lost their cool, and took the time to interact with customers in front of them. They also didn’t blink when I started speaking Japanese to them. None of these traits may seem particularly special, but it was notable to me because we’ve been to many Japanese restaurants where this isn’t the case.

As with most sushi places we go to, we asked for “omakase” (chef’s recommendations). They asked us how many pieces we wanted (12) and whether there was anything we couldn’t eat (no). Then they started plying us with sushi, two pieces at a time. The extremely casual atmosphere reminded us of the kaiten sushi (sushi on a conveyer belt) joints in Japan. Like at those places, Sushi Sam’s lets the plates pile up at your seat and the staff doesn’t clear anything up until after you’ve left.

But the food is serious. We started with a deliciously fresh baby bluefin tuna and a kind of sweet shrimp. That was followed by things like seared toro, hamachi, aji, tai snapper, sawara and Copper River Alaskan King Salmon, which they said only becomes available for six weeks out of a year. Like in Japan, each piece came flavored, sometimes with a brush of soy sauce or a sprinkling of salt. Other times with a special sauce like a tobiko mayonnaise on the blue lobster or a dash of sesame oil with pine nuts and a little bit of alfa alfa sprouts. The sushi rice was perfectly cooked, not too soft, and with the right amount of vinegar. At the end, I asked for extras — fresh squid, uni and the edge of the flounder. Bliss.

In addition to sushi, the restaurant has many other items on the menu including standard appetizers like edamame and various fried things like chicken and baby squid legs. We focused on the sushi though I did order an agedashi tofu (fried tofu), which came bubbling hot right out of the fryer — I couldn’t speak for awhile after I popped one in my mouth.

Most surprising, however, were the desserts which are not to be missed here. Most Japanese restaurants don’t do much in the way of desserts, but Sushi Sam’s has two specials in addition to their standard menu of Japanese-style custard pudding, almond tofu, green tea ice cream and green tea tiramisu. The specials this month was a panna cotta with a cherry sauce and something they called pina colada which came with roasted pineapples. Everything is made from scratch, including the almond tofu, which is almost never the case even in Japan — the refreshing dessert is typically made with a store-bought powder, but Sam told us that he actually makes that himself, using the pit of a special apricot (the name of the dessert is actually a misnomer).

We had the panna cotta and the almond tofu after Sam insisted that the portions were modest and we definitely needed to try two. We were glad we did because he they were delicious, not too sweet and reminiscent of the sweets we used to enjoy in Tokyo.

Sushi Sam’s is not a place to go to for a business dinner, and the ambiance reminded us more of Hong Kong than Tokyo. But the food was most definitely authentic, and sitting at the sushi bar is a pleasure. Sam and Ito-san’s cheeriness made us feel right at home. We’ll definitely be back.

Sushi Sam’s Edomata
218 E 3rd. Ave.
San Mateo, CA
Tel: 650.344.0888
Open: Tues-Sat: 11am-2pm; 5pm-10pm

You would think then that it would be easy to dismiss. I did until I took a look at the menu. The Japanese fusion restaurant had the usual kinds of tapas items — beef tataki, edamame, agedashi tofu (fried tofu), etc. — but the tataki was made from actual Japanese Kobe beef, and as a special it also had a fresh green salad with veggies from a local Japanese-owned farm, known for the high quality of produce. It’s sushi menu in the meanwhile consisted of a wide range of items including expensive hard-to-find delicacies like bluefin tuna, abalone, and giant clam. This was a restaurant that cared about its food.

My sister and I, who were in the area to shop, were famished by the time we arrived for our 7:30pm reservation, and we quickly ordered the green salad, the shrimp and lobster tempura with a “sweet and spicy” miso aioli, two rolls and some sushi. The green salad was everything we expected — exceedingly fresh with green beans, fava beans, tomatoes, and almonds. The fried shrimp and lobster had a batter that was too thick to be called tempura, but still crisp and tasty. The rolls we have to admit were guiltily ordered since they were the farthest thing from authentic. But if you set aside the fact that they’re not really Japanese, they can be quite enjoyable. We ordered the “Surf and Turf — a lobster, crab, avocado and cucumber roll with kobe beef and a garlic ponzu sauce on top — and “Oh-No but Oh Yesss!” — a panko-crusted soft shell crab, crab, and cucumber roll, topped with slices of ono, citrus soy sauce and garlic chips. There’s little that can go wrong in these combinations, and both the rolls were enjoyable, particularly with the garlic flavoring.

The real test came with the pieces of the sushi that we ordered. Here I’m disappointed to say that they failed. I was impressed with the cuts of fish, but the rice, which is the most difficult part of sushi that traditionally take years of training to get right, lacked enough vinegar flavoring. In fact, it hardly had any taste.

According to the Nozomi Web site, its chef Ken Lee, has been making sushi for 12 years and was trained at Sushi Ota in San Diego, which I’ve never been to, but is well-known among Japanese expats. But the sushi we had made me recall a Japanese television program I was watching recently about a sushi school in Tokyo that purportedly trains students in the art of sushi making in a month. Many of the students shown were foreigners, and many had aspirations to open sushi restaurants outside of Japan.

If I had a choice of Japanese restaurants, I probably wouldn’t choose Nozomi, but I would go back if I were in the area and was in the mood for something Asia with a (very) slight touch of Japan. It’s a decent place to eat if you forget the fact that it’s supposed to be Japanese, close your eyes to the almost-offensive fake-Japanese ambiance, and stay away from the traditional sushi. If you really have your heart set on the fish, have it as sashimi and ask for a plain bowl of steamed white rice to go with it.

Nozomi Japanese Fusion
3050 Pio Pico Dr., Suite A
Carlsbad, Calif.
Tel: 760.729.7877

We first tasted Hiro Sone’s cooking at a Japanese dinner we were invited to, celebrating the 50th anniversary of UC Berkeley’s Center for Japanese Studies last year. In a tag team of four chefs, Chef Sone was in charge of the appetizer course and he served a chawan-mushi, a savory steamed custard dish, with seafood like sea urchin, abalone and lobster inside. The delicate dish was so perfectly made that it immediately transported me to Japan as well as to my childhood when my mother used to make it as a special treat.

So when one of my sisters came to visit, Chef Sone’s Michelin-starred Ame restaurant at the St. Regis was a natural choice. The food, I must say, was good, though pricey. I enjoyed the chawan-mushi again, and I think I had a great wagyu steak. What we remember more though was the disappointing service. Our dinner was a three hour affair, mostly because it took forever to get each course (our server explained midway that a couple staff called in sick). By the time we were done, we were exhausted and antsy with all the sitting and waiting. As an aside, the ladies room was trashed and all the stalls except for one was out of toilet paper.

My second visit was on a Wednesday and a vast improvement from the previous visit. The chawan-mushi was slightly changed with lobster, clams and mushrooms, but just as flavorful and delicate as I remembered it. My companion and I got a tasting from the sushi bar for our main course, which included a couple seafood salads, snapper carpaccio, uni bruschetta with lardo and Lissa’s staff meal, which is a mixture of squid, uni and salmon roe in an umami soy sauce. I had an amazingly fragrant viognier while my dinner partner had a glass of Chenin blanc. Our meal was delicious and the service was top-notch. Our server was attentive, friendly and knowledgeable. He knew when to leave us alone, yet was quick to notice when we wanted to ask for the check. (The bathrooms were also much cleaner this time)

Chef Sone is a top-notch washoku (Japanese) chef, and though some of his creations are Asian-fusion, they’re done in a Japanese style (such that you might see in Tokyo). Theoretically, there should be other restaurants that can serve this kind of meal for less, but we have yet to encounter one in San Francisco. It’s not the kind of restaurant you can go to casually, but I would consider going there again particularly for a business dinner. Or maybe if I develop a craving for his chawan-mushi.

Ame (inside the St. Regis Hotel)
689 Mission Street
Tel: (415) 284-4040
Hours: 6pm - 9:30pm (Mon-Thurs); 5:30pm-10pm (Fri-Sun)

We arrived at La Ciccia a few minutes late for our 9pm reservation. We needn’t have worried though because the tiny restaurant was packed and there were no open tables. After waiting by the door a few minutes, we wandered over to the bar area to order some wine. Though such situations can be aggravating, we were able to feel relaxed and sip our wine, thanks to Lorella, the proprietress, who came over frequently to reassure us that she hadn’t forgotten about us.

After about 20-25 minutes, she came over to us with a proposition. Lots of people had arrived late, and it was going to take a little longer than she had expected before a table would open up. If we didn’t mind sitting at the bar and eating, she would buy us dinner, minus the wine. She felt terribly about the situation, and wanted to make things right. Patrick and I actually like to eat at the bar, where bartenders tend to be much more attentive than waiters at many restaurants, so we were happy to oblige. The experience at La Ciccia was no exception. The bartender took care of us, Lorella stopped by often, and the chef would also wander in and out of the kitchen to chat with us as well as the other couple sitting at the four seat bar. We also splurged and ordered a 1997 Barolo to drink with our meal.

We started with a plate of Sardinian flatbread (with parmesan and rosemary) and a huge plate of prosciutto that was so sweet and fragrant that Patrick, who doesn’t usually like pork, ate more than half of it. As we dug in, the chef came over and brought us complimentary slices of the center part of the prosciutto which he told us was very special. Next came the baby octopus cooked in spicy tomato sauce, which was as tender as you could ever hope for in such a dish. That was followed by fresh spaghetti with garlic and bottarga. The spaghetti was al dente and chewy in the way that it can be only if it’s fresh, not dry. For our main course, we had shrimp in a garlic tomato sauce and fava beans on the side. Though we were nearly bursting with food and drink, we managed to find room enough to share a trio of sorbets (black cherry, blackberry and strawberry) and coffee. The chef wandered over midway to pour us a complimentary glass of dessert wine to go with our dessert. The other couple were offered a different kind of wine to go with their semifreddo dessert. I can’t remember the last time a restaurant put that much thought into a complimentary offering, even in Japan.

We’ve always thought Italian cuisine has many similarities to Japanese, both of which play up the natural flavor of the meats, fish and produce. They also share some of the same delicacies - sea urchin, bottarga, and various shellfish to name a few.

But eating at La Ciccia helps one understand at a non-cerebral level, why there are also so many great Italian restaurants in Tokyo. Two different continents, two different cuisines, but identical spirit. When Patrick and I go out, we also look for an experience. When we were living in Japan, it wasn’t that hard to find, but we’ve found few restaurants that measure up from that standpoint in San Francisco. La Ciccia doesn’t serve sushi or tempura, or anything remotely Japanese, but I could see us going there when we crave the special dining experience that we’ve come to enjoy in Tokyo. The people here care deeply about food and they care deeply about their customers. This may be the first restaurant that we’ve come across since moving from Tokyo that we felt like we could have a relationship with.

La Ciccia
291 30th St (Cross street is Church)
Tel: (415) 550-8114
Hours: 5:30pm - 10pm (closed Mondays, holidays)

The menu offered seasonal fish like “nore sore”, “masaba”, “shima-aji”, “madai” and “medai”. They clearly only serve what’s fresh because on our most recent visit (mid-May), they had no “uni” and they only had big-eye tuna which is nothing like bluefin tuna. Sebo is into sustainable fish, so they wouldn’t serve wild bluefin tuna, but they’ve had farmed bluefin tuna on previous visits. Patrick and I had an excellent meal there last Saturday with two friends. The hotate scallop from Hokkaido was scrumptious, the masaba was flavorful and the ikura salmon roe was delicately sweet. They also had crunchy and sweet mirugai giant clam, which one of our companions declared was her new favorite. On a previous visit, we happily sat at the counter, where Chef Masa served us an omakase course with his recommendations.

But we’re not going to go back again, and here’s why. Sebo doesn’t take reservations, so in order to get a counter seat, one has to arrive early before the place opens at 6 p.m. We don’t have a problem with that. What we did have a problem with is that they refused to seat four people at the six-person counter even though we got there a half hour early and were first in line. They claimed that it was policy, but if it was, it was not written anywhere (including on their Web site). What we thought made this particularly egregious was that Sebo is also very expensive (They price items at $4-$6 per piece of sushi). For the four of us, our bill came to more than $600 including the tip. We’ve paid more than that for many a meal in Japan, but at that price point, the unwritten seating rules are unacceptable.

The Japanese eating experience is supposed to be about the combination of excellently prepared food and equally excellent service. I understand why a chef in America would feel a need to set seating limits. A foursome might outstay their welcome on very little sushi. And American diners tend not to eat enough to begin with. In Japan, a visit to a sushi establishment involves a few appetizers, some sashimi and then a selection of seasonal sushi. It may be a customer’s prerogative to choose how much they want to eat, but there’s a certain etiquette about sitting at a counter, and that is that the customer will eat enough to make it worthwhile for the chef. Rolls don’t count because they’re generally cheap.

In Japan, we’ve taken American guests to fancy sushi restaurants, and even if they only ate cucumber rolls, we quietly paid $50-$100 for that person because the understanding is that you’re paying for the seat as much as the food. Think of it as a private room — no matter how small the party is, that room costs a certain amount of money. Same idea.

BUT, it would be unconscionable to set these kinds of rules at this level of establishment. And if one must have this rule, it would be completely unacceptable to not spell this out because in a society that values harmony, it’s not very harmonious to spring a surprise rule on a customer after making them wait for 30 min. Yes, they would not be happy if you ordered cucumber rolls the whole evening, and yes, they might tell you on your next visit that they can’t seat you at the counter, but they also understand the relationship and the service level that is expected of them. And there are lines that one doesn’t cross in both directions.

It’s true that Americans often don’t know the proper etiquette at a Japanese sushi restaurant, and I understand that can be annoying for an establishment that is serious about providing an authentic culinary experience. But it’s aggravating when the restaurant appears to take advantage of that ignorance by setting unilateral rules that would be unacceptable in Japan.

Sebo is certainly not the only restaurant we’ve been to that does this, but it’s all the more disappointing because their food is so perfectly authentic.

Sebo
517 Hayes Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 864-2181
Hours: 6-10pm (Tues-Sat for Sushi); 6-11pm (Sun for Izakaya)

I’ve eaten sushi all my life, and even I didn’t know that sushi was shaped in such a profound way. It was news to me too, until I looked in Wikipedia, that the origin of sushi is actually believed to be in Southeast Asia, where salted fish was wrapped in fermented rice to preserve the fish. The Japanese Wikipedia notes that the first mention of sushi in Japanese literature was in 718.

What’s interesting is that in Japan, it’s still possible to get a taste of what the first “sushi” might have been like. Sushi today is recognized by the slices of raw seafood over vinegared rice, but in some fancy Tokyo restaurants (strangely enough they tend not to be sushi restaurants), one might see an item called Funazushi — a smelly dish of fermented fish and rice — that will neither look or taste anything like any sushi you’ve had before. I’ve been told that it’s an acquired taste, and if that’s true, I’m still waiting to acquire it after having tried it twice. But people I know, including my mother, get tremendously excited about it.

If you are a huge sushi fan and come across it, I strongly urge you to try it. It might not taste good, but you’ll taste a little bit of history.