Audio By Carbonatix
Eating healthful food lets us live longer. That’s something everybody agrees on. But what exactly is healthful? Scientists can’t agree on which kind of fat will kill us. We hear that alcohol is bad for us, and then nutritionists tell us to drink one or two glasses of wine each day “for our well-being.” Virtually every cuisine has been dissected at some point by medical groups, warning us about the perils of the high-fat land mines found on every restaurant menu in town.
Sometimes, it seems it simply isn’t safe to go in the kitchen.
Unless it’s the kitchen of a Japanese restaurant like Haiku.
Japanese food is just about the only food that hasn’t yet been molested by scientists, nutritionists and investigative reporters from local news programs.
What’s not to like? Japanese staples like green tea and soy contain phytochemicals, considered beneficial in lowering cholesterol, fighting cancer and even slowing the effects of aging. Complex carbohydrates like rice and high-fiber vegetables such as carrots and broccoli are considered to be premium fuel, giving the body long-lasting energy. Lean meats, chicken and fish are fine sources of protein that contain all the essential amino acids. Fish, in particular, is excellent for sustaining well-being, containing Omega-3 oils, or heart-healthy polyunsaturates. All these foods are mainstays of Asian dining. And in Japanese fashion, they’re served simply, without heavy sauces, butter or excess fat.
Eating healthfully doesn’t need to be a challenge. And when the food is as good as it is at Haiku, it’s an outright joy and a privilege.
Haiku has been open about seven months now, nestled in the Safeway shopping center on the northeast corner of Scottsdale and Pinnacle Peak roads. The creation of chef-owner Tabanobu Miura, the place is surprisingly small, with perhaps 10 tables and a compact sushi bar. For a breath of fresh air, try one of the dozen or so tables out on the patio.
This is Miura’s second restaurant; his first was Yama Sushi in south Scottsdale, which lasted for about a year and a half until it closed last May. Perhaps it was the location; the restaurant may have been easily overlooked, tucked as it was inside China Gate near Miller and McDowell roads. The new Haiku should bring in more traffic, and even better, customers with a lot of money to spend. The neighborhood isn’t exactly low-rent.
Certainly it couldn’t have been the food that caused Yama Sushi’s demise. I never made it there myself, but if it was even half as good as the dishes served at Haiku, it would have been above-average. Haiku is, in fact, one of the most exciting Japanese restaurants in town.
The restaurant’s focus, the menu tells us, is a blend of “poetic food and art.” Haiku is Japanese poetry, the “sentiments of emotion to admiration of the seasons,” the menu says. In keeping with the theme, the only art in the sushi shop is boards attached to the walls, to which customers are invited to affix their own penned creations with clothespins. Empty sake boxes take on a personal touch, too, stacked on a shelf near the door and decorated with doodles by happy guests. Music’s a mixed bag; on one visit, we’re bopping to Cyndi Lauper and Janet Jackson, but appreciate another visit more when the station’s been changed to light jazz.
Someone has taken some time to come up with a clever menu concept, too. A thick metal slab holds multiple staggered sheets labeled “tsumami” (appetizers), “zen” (main courses), “shiru” (soups), “tsumtai sara” (salads) and “menrui” (noodles), sushi and more sushi. We rip off a sheet in each category, check the appropriate boxes and hand them to our server. It’s fun, and certainly efficient for the kitchen, although the bolts holding the sheets to the slab need to be rethought; they’re too big and tear the top part of the pages off.
My dining companions, who love Japanese food as much as I do, come in one evening, stomachs rumbling and almost dizzy from hunger. In this job, I don’t often get too hungry, but I’ve purposely starved myself all day in anticipation of this feast.
The discipline is worth it. An appetizer of tonkatsu — a meaty pork cutlet dipped in panko batter and deep fried to a nearly greaseless golden brown — is terrific. It’s served in traditional fashion, with sides of shredded cabbage and an assertive tonkatsu sauce (a tasty blend of ketchup, rice wine, soy, Worcestershire, mustard and spices).
I’m also impressed with New Zealand mussels, stuffed with real crab and a creamy mushroom sauce, then slid under a broiler. Four beauties come to our table lounging in a big bowl, gently browned on top and gooey warm. I like the strong seafood flavor, and especially enjoy the unexpected bonus of salty smelt roe served on top.
Firecrackers are another unanticipated, quite creative delight. A sweet, mild chile pepper is stuffed with chopped yellowtail and hot spices, whisked through a light batter and fried. It’s not “hot, hot, hot!” as the menu proclaims, but carries enough of a kick; we dip it in tonkatsu sauce and declare it a winner.
It’s a good thing Haiku gives us a half-dozen gyoza; to send out fewer would cause serious squabbling at our table as we fight over bites of the delicious dumpling. As it is, there are enough of the gilded bundles to appease us all, stuffed with pork and dipped in an energetic, quite peppery soy vinaigrette. A half-dozen ika furai are crowd-pleasers, too, dredging thick slabs of calamari in a whisper-light batter and deep frying them to a pleasing crunch. We spritz them with the lemon chunk served alongside, the fruit cut into a snail shape.
Avocado on the half shell is an unusual item on a Japanese menu, but it works nicely, thanks to pristine fruit and a generous topping of salty, shredded crab (shrimp can be substituted for crab, too). A side of wasabi ketchup packs a nice punch, cutting through the dish’s soft, sweet flavors.
Anyone questioning how stimulating a simple salad can be needs to sample Haiku’s seaweed creation. What a thrilling little number — match-stick cuts of cucumber, seaweed strips, daikon (radish) sprouts and smelt roe tossed in ponzu (a spirited sauce uniting rice vinegar, soy sauce, sake, seaweed and dried bonito flakes). The textures are magical, with crisp cucumber and crunchy roe contrasting silky seaweed; the flavors are sublime, kicked up with very peppery radish stems.
Another salad, tuna tataki, is less remarkable, mainly because the sesame-sprinkled seared ahi is barely cooked. The thin slices are too red and soft, more like warm sashimi nested on cucumber slices and daikon sprouts. A puddle of garlic sauce underneath is much too flat — I prefer the traditional tataki sauce of sesame oil, red wine, puréed onion and soy.
Miso soup, though, is wonderful, a lovely rendition of a favorite Japanese staple. This cloudy broth of fermented soybean paste makes for a delicate, mellow soup that’s all the better because it’s extremely nutritious, rich with B vitamins and protein. Haiku’s version is better than most in the Valley, floating with generous chunks of slippery tofu and leaves of seaweed so large we can really taste the green goodness.
If pursuing a strict for-my-health diet, I could sustain myself forever on sushi and sashimi, in all their splendorous variations of fish, rice and vegetables. Haiku’s offerings eat like poetry, with sparkling-fresh seafood and lusty portions. Maguro (tuna) is bright red, trimmed perfectly and meaty. Spicy yellowtail rolls are punched with chili. Eel rolls and soft-shell crab sushi are salty, just as I like them. Whitefish, as a member of the salmon family, shares its rich, mild-flavored firm flesh, and here it’s carefully selected for top quality. And Haiku’s salmon itself is an all-out star, stunning us with some of the silkiest sources of vitamin A, B vitamins and Omega-3 oils we could ever hope to consume.
The best way to sample Haiku’s fishy finest is to order the rainbow rolls, a serpentine tube of sushi rice stuffed with crab, avocado and cucumber. It comes topped with a colorful array of maguro, red snapper, salmon, whitefish and shrimp, spliced with slices of avocado and seaweed. It’s as gorgeous to behold as to bite into.
Another rule of healthful eating is to manage portion sizes, difficult to do in most modern restaurants. Not so at Haiku. Entree portions (and, fortunately, prices) are restrained, easily satisfying the average diner but without leaving a speck of leftovers. Tempura is the largest entree on the menu, sliding in with a tumble of big, firm shrimp, asparagus, shiitake mushrooms, bell peppers and, on one visit, yams, coated in dainty batter and deep-fried.
Stir-fried egg noodles are a pretty toss of scallions, mushrooms and shrimp, while sashimi zen glitters with three rosettes of maguro, three slices of salmon, two yellowtail pieces and two strips of whitefish. Dig into the fluffy, sticky white rice and miso soup served with it; they help fill any gaps left by this ultra-light meal.
Heartier diners will turn to the Haiku steak, an ample grilled sirloin competently cooked to order and served on a bed of grilled onions and shallots. The toothsome meat comes topped with a cross of grilled asparagus and shiitake mushrooms under a drizzle of enoki mushroom sauce.
Butterfish, by its very nature, isn’t too big (an average of eight ounces), and Haiku gives us the whole portion, trimmed into a nice oval fillet. It’s one of the higher-fat fish in the ocean, and Haiku prepares it with delicious respect, marinating it in miso and gently grilling it so the luxurious, sweet fish shines through. A side of pickled vegetables is the perfect partner, lending a much-welcomed sharp bite between forkfuls of tender fish.
Even with the compact portion sizes, the fare at Haiku is so sumptuous, so satisfying, no one pushes back from the table feeling the least bit deprived.
Let the scientists quarrel among themselves, determining what’s safe for us to eat on any given day. We’ll be quietly, happily planning a long, healthy life at Haiku.
