Zushi: No Reservations Required (CLOSED)

Two wonderful women

Years ago I was lucky to work with two wonderful women, one from Beijing, China and the other from Bangkok, Thailand. Both were employed as maids for the embassy where I cooked but both were also very accomplished cooks in their own right.
Sujin, from Bangkok, was renowned for her amazing Thai cooking and was occasionally called upon to cook a full Thai spread by the ambassador. Over three years she taught me what I know about Thai cooking.
Suxia was not as flamboyant a cook but had mastered some amazing dishes like dumplings, which she patiently taught me how to pleat.
These are not women who have been sent to cooking school when they could not decide what they wanted to do in life. Their cooking came from tradition and skills passed from generation to generation. A profound respect for the food they love to eat and the methods to cooking consistently delicious dishes. To taste their food was to taste their mothers’ and grandmothers’ food before them.

Lahaina, Hawaii

It has been years since I have had the pleasure of eating Sujin’s incredible spring rolls or fried chicken, made from the oil used to fry the spring rolls, but recently we met a woman who was cooking very much like Sujin in a little restaurant in Lahaina, Hawaii.
Zushi’s is an absolute hole in the wall in a strip mall in the middle of Lahaina. Across from it, a Mexican joint is pimped out with all the taco shop swag, tourists make pilgrimages from their hotels to eat Mexican food in Hawaii. Little do they know that in the slightly dilapidated and modest Zushi across the way, some amazing local food was being prepared and all by one woman.

Reopened for dinner

We arrived at five o’clock when she reopened for dinner but the closed sign was still up. It turns out, in fact, that the closed sign is left up often and could contribute to why we ate alone the first time. Zushi was busy writing a few notes and we patiently waited for her to take our order. Eventually we decided on fried chicken and chicken katsu mixed plates (served with rice and mac salad or veg). With our order in hand she turned around and grabbed her apron, tying it around her waist, as she walked to the kitchen and immediately got to work. Her kitchen was like her instrument with everything arranged so she could easily work, her favourite cooking implements all at hand, some wrapped in tinfoil.
Her movements were all calculated and economic from doing them over and over again. She reached for each item as she needed it and started from scratch making the batter for my chicken and dredging Nat’s in Panko for the katsu.

We continued watching as she prepared to fry things up while quickly checking the rice cooker and then ladling up two steaming bowls of miso soup for us to start our meal. Back at the stove, with her back to us, she dropped chicken pieces in oil and tended to them with a long pair of chop sticks. Knowing exactly how much time she had until our chicken was ready she started a phone order and took another and then turned to remove our chicken from the oil and onto our awaiting plates.

Turning to us she smiled to indicate that dinner was ready and we met at the counter to take our food.
“Arigato, arigato.” she said, smiling and bowing slightly.
“Mahalo” I said and then we sat to enjoy our dinner while we watched her go back to cooking.

Your Japanese grandmother

Zushi’s food is like your Japanese grandmother is in the kitchen, incredibly simple but from the heart. At her age, to be committed to cooking and her business like she is, inspired me and her food joined the ranks of Sujin and Suxia, humble, honest and delicious.

On our second visit I had to have the fried chicken again but needed to have a couple of tempura shrimp also. Nat went for the “lady’s special” with tempura shrimp and California roll. Again Zushi (the Zush’ as we now secretly call her) was back in the kitchen, alone, working within a world of her own making scratch cooking look easy.
If you are looking for a white table cloth or anything fancy maybe Zushi is not for you but if mouth watering food cooked by expert hands trumps all, there is a seat for you at Zushi. But make it quick, rumour is she’s retiring soon.