Kimi's Corner - Zen Shu

ZEN SHU, THE NAME SAYS A LOT, ESPECIALLY TO RESTAURANT OWNERS RYUJI NURAYAMA, JON TSUDA, AND WILSON CHAN.

The three friends came up with an idea to open a restaurant together about three years ago. Each of them had their own strength going for them in the restaurant world. Wilson was a dining room manager at The Banker’s Club, a high-end private restaurant of First Hawaiian Bank. Jon had bar and front of the house experience, and Ryuji was a well-known chef at the popular sushi restaurant Yohei.

Jon and Wilson enjoyed going to sports bars but found that good service and high quality food were not always present in that scene. They saw an opportunity to do something innovative. “I thought it would be nice to open a sports bar that is a little more high end and upscale,” said Wilson on the original idea, “but when Ryuji came aboard and joined the team, the idea evolved even more. We decided to incorporate authentic Japanese sushi and contemporary Asian fusion.” Thus Zen Shu was born.

Zen is a harmonic feeling of peace. To Wilson Chan, it is the definition of achieving the perfect balance of contrasting elements. The theme seems very symbolic of these three friends themselves and their idea of fusing high-end food and service with the casual fun vibe of a sports bar. The second part of the restaurant’s name Shu simply represents sake and they sure have a lot of sake to offer their customers. With over 25 different kinds to choose from, everyone can find something they like and even try special sakes that are offered nowhere else in Hawaii. My friends and I started our night at Zen Shu with a sake sampler and everyone agreed that each sip was satisfying and smooth.

Though the sake sampler seemed like a hard act to follow, the food that came next was even more impressive. My party chose to sit at the sushi bar and we all knew we were in for a treat when Chef Ryuji asked us if we would like to order for ourselves or have him prepare a menu for us. Naturally we let the chef do the choosing and the whole experience became an exciting adventure. I made sure to hint to Ryuji and let him know what some of my favorite sushi items and flavors were just so that he’d have a basic understanding of my palette. This really made receiving my food a fun and unique experience because I could tell that each dish was prepared especially for my own taste buds.

The first dish he served was Shima Aji, Japan ulua. Served as two pieces of sashimi, the ulua meat had been salted and garnished w/ lemon rind. The skin was left on and charred ever so lightly. The taste was exquisite. The silky saltiness coated my mouth first and I then started to taste the zest of the lemon. As I chewed I really appreciated the texture; it was firm yet tender. I could feel each bite to the tooth and still savor all the fattiness in between. Shima Aji has much more oil than one would expect from an ulua.

The next dish was Katsuo Tataki with ponzu sauce and garlic chips. This instantly reminded me of an upscale version of Ethel’s famous tataki from Ethel’s Grill. The main difference I noticed was the size of the fish used for such a cut. Ryuji explained to me that he hand-selected this prized Otaru and that he does that with all of his fish. If the Hawaii fishermen aren’t catching nice fish or if the fish from Japan aren’t in their peak season, he simply doesn’t serve such items. The quality of this nice aku was apparent from the moment I saw its deep ruby red color. Tasting it only confirmed what fishermen always say about tuna “the bigger, the better!” It’s flavor was so distinct and robust that I understood why such strong flavors such as garlic, onion and ponzu sauce had to be paired with it, and as I ate it, I was reminded all over again of the word “balance” and how this restaurant strives to create it for each and every customer.

I had mentioned to Ryuji as a hint that the mentaiko he had in the refrigerated display case looked really good. Mentaiko is something that I recently discovered and absolutely love. It’s the marinated roe of a pollack. It comes with the casing still intact and is usually bursting with flavor. Ryuji told me he buys the mentaiko from Kyushu and that he favors it for its creaminess. The mentaiko was served as a nigiri style sushi. The rice was topped with a scored piece of ika, the mentaiko, and a raw quail’s egg. I must admit that when I saw the two yellow yolks of the quail eggs staring up at me I heard a voice inside of me say “uh oh.” Though I know it’s common in Japanese cuisine, I’ve never been much of a raw egg fan and hoped that it wouldn’t interfere with the great flavors of one of my favorite delicacies. I found that it only enhanced it. The egg yolk broke and turned into pure silk as I chewed and mixed it with the spicy mentaiko. It really intensified that creaminess that Yuji had told me about. The raw ika was also a little slimy in texture but contrasted from the other ingredients because of its chewiness. The chewy texture seemed to give this otherwise weightless dish, a nice sense of gravity.

The next two dishes defined balance and really made me appreciate how much thought goes into each dish at Zen Shu. There was the oyako nigiri which means “mother and child”, very appropriate because the two main components were Salmon and Ikura (salmon roe). The dish that came after that was hirame (flounder) served on its own bones. The bones were fried to a crisp and looked like a potato chip, completely different from the soft slice of hirame flesh that blanketed it. I believe that the harmony in dishes like these exists because the ingredients, no matter how distinctively diverse, are all related because they came from the same source.

We ended our night of sushi with what Ryuji calls the “Godzilla”. It’s a shot glass filled with all of my favorite things. Beautiful layers of raw oysters, ikura, scallops, tobiko and uni looked more like a colorful piece of art than an actual shot. Ryuji instructed us to shoot it and eat everything at once, but the colossal size of the shot and the smirk on his face told me something different. Though I know that all of these ingredients would have tasted heavenly together, and I also realize that I’ve been preaching fusion and balance throughout this whole article, the Godzilla conquered me at first sight. I realized, along with the rest of my party, that in this case it was perhaps best to pick each of these fine ingredients out with chopsticks and simply enjoy them one at a time!

About the Sushi Chef:

Ryuji Nurayama has been living in Hawaii since the age of three. He attended Kaimuki High School. His mother noticed early on in his education that though he was not a very good student, he had many respectable skills and characteristics. Rather than forcing him to become more of a scholar, she gave him a different type of motherly advice, “My mom told me that if I grabbed a knife, I could go anywhere in the world. Why waste time in school if you are not a good student? Everyone has different skills. She told me that I had people skills and that I was very obedient and humble. She said that because of that, people would want to teach me things and that I could expand my knowledge that way.”

So Ryuji listened to his mom and dropped out of high school and began working at the restaurant Sada at the age of 15. “I was hungry, and my mom could sense my hunger. She was right. From the moment a chef grabs a knife it is his dream to open his own restaurant. Everyone has a dream. Mine was to one day have my own castle, my own restaurant- just like a doctor might dream to have his own office.”

Ryuji’s hunger and his mother’s advice served him well, as he eventually landed a job in the highly respected sushi restaurant, Yohei. “Yohei is a part of me. It always will be. I trained there for 15 years,” says Ryuji. He credits Yohei as being the pioneer of bringing in seasonal fish from Japan to the tables of customers in Hawaii. “It will always be my job to make sure that what I learn from Yohei still goes on,” he says. “I learned from Mr. Obara, the sushi, and from Mr. Fuji, the kitchen. They give me their recipes and tell me not to copy them but to change them and make them better. But it’s hard to beat the masters.”

While working at Yohei, Ryuji often found himself changing many recipes and adding many twists to traditional dishes. “The Yohei style was from the olden days of you eat what I make you. I found that people in Hawaii liked having a choice even if it wasn’t traditional and I enjoyed changing it up a notch and adding a twist to it, whether that meant adding ponzu or mayo or sesame salt.”

Ryuji’s contemporary flare and modern twist on things made him stand out and become very popular with customers. “I remember the first time a customer requested a sushi shooter. We weren’t supposed to use shot glasses, but I made the exception.”

Soon Ryuji got the attention of Wilson Chan and Jon Tsuda, his present business partners. They instantly became regular customers of Ryuji and soon the three became friends and started golfing together as they contemplated the idea of opening up a restaurant. “I guess I have a newer generation style, where I mix a lot of things together, authentic with modern. I feel that I take the Yohei style and add my own modern style to make Zen Shu.”

“My mom still cries and says, ‘Finally you got your own castle.’ It took a while but I am happy.”