Hongkie sushi

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The King is in town for a few days, and I was invited to join his dinner with our mutual friend. I know very well that our friend has a fairly short list of restaurants he frequents, so I was pretty surprised when Suzhi Zinc was chosen. I know a number of friends have been there, but since I don’t eat much sushi in Hong Kong (or in general), I just haven’t gotten the urge to check the place out. So tonight I finally had occasion to do so.

I was apologetic to my friends prior to arrival at the restaurant, as I thought I would run a few minutes late… and I know it’s customary to start service on time and start times are often simultaneous for all customers – so a late customer means EVERYONE at the counter waits for you. Well… I need not have worried. Not only was I not late, but the other customers all arrived later than I did.

After everyone has arrived, service began with a series of otsumami (おつまみ):

Sweetfish (鮎) – this was an interesting preparation inspired by the classic Chiuchow dish of “chilled fish (凍魚) / fish rice (魚飯)”, where the fillet was lightly seasoned with salt and served chilled. Served with crunchy lily bulb from Hokkaido and garnished with some local oxalis for a bit of acidity.

It’s pretty interesting that we’ve kinda got the whole fish here… as the skin remained on both sides so we just had the head, tail, bones, and innards removed.

Cold chawanmushi (冷やし茶碗蒸し) – apparently made with corn coming from Hakata (博多) in Fukuoka (福岡), although I had no idea anyone grew corn in the middle of the city… So steamed egg custard was based on a broth made with the cob, silk, and husk of the corn, then topped with some grilled corn. Chef Zinc stressed that “not a single crystal of sugar was added”. Well, I love corn, especially Japanese corn with their high sugar content, and this was nice and refreshing.

Mantis shrimp (蝦蛄) – apparently caught just hours ago around Ninepin Group (果洲群島), this was battered and deep-fried and carried some roe. Pretty nice texture, and tasty as is or with a dab of salt to make the sweetness even more prominent.

Giant clam (蛤) – the filling in the tart was made with the skirt of the giant clam, edamame, and Marscapone. Topped with blanched clam and seasoned with some fresh sansho (山椒), which brought a very nice fragrance and was equally effective in numbing my lips.

Now the nigiri portion begins, and Chef Zinc’s specialty is using local varieties of fish:

Honeycomb grouper (花頭梅) – aged for 2 weeks, and served with just a sprinkle of seaweed salt and lemon zest. First hit was a bit of the salt, although it wasn’t too strong. Then one gets the very fragrant zest of the lemon. The neta (ネタ) was thick with slight chewiness, and the shari (シャリ) felt warm against the cold temperature of the neta.

These were the local citron (香水檸檬) from Ping Che (坪輋) that was used.

Chinese silver pomfret (鷹鯧) – from Po Toi Island (蒲台島) and given the ikejime (活け締め) treatment. Beyond the fragrance of the lemon zest, there was also the smokiness from the soy sauce. The texture of the neta was also more firm.

These were the green lemons used.

Ark shell (赤貝) – again with the green lemon. This was better than most of ark shell I usually get, with less of the iodine flavors I dislike.

Pink sea urchin (赤雲丹) – from Hamanaka-cho (浜中町) in Hokkaido.

Horse mackerel (鯵) – with some perilla flowers. This was VERY fishy. Not good at all.

This crab has been sitting around for show since before I arrived…

Japanese horsehair crab (毛蟹) – served with a broth made from the crab shell, with shavings from the chef’s own karasumi (唐墨) that had been marinated in plum wine (梅酒).

Next up we’ve got a fresh abalone that has been simmered…

…and we also had dried Yoshihama (吉品) abalone from Japan...

…which was shaved on top of rice that had been cooked in abalone broth.

The final plating included a slice of the abalone, with the shari on the side, and a reduced abalone sauce made with kombu. I found the sauce a bit salty, and of course the shaved dried abalone on the shari was also salty.

Star snapper (石蚌) – from Lamma Island (南丫島). Instead of doing the classic urokoyaki (鱗焼き) with the fish scales, the scales were actually removed and Chef Zinc used thin Japanese yuba (湯葉) to mimic the feel of the fish scales. Served with some namayuba (生湯葉) in a thickened sauce made of soy milk and fish broth. Interesting that the sauce tasted a little on the sweet side. Garnished with local fennel flowers.

Instead of serving the usual cold somen (素麺) in the summer, Chinese yam (長芋) has been shredded into thin strands to mimic the feel of noodles. Served with the adductor muscles (小柱) of surf clams (馬鹿貝) and tosazu (土佐酢), then garnished with perilla flowers.

There was a nice amount of sweetness from the kobashira, and this tasted pretty vibrant and lively thanks to the acidity of the vinegar.

I didn’t inform the chef of my usual dietary restrictions, so I ended up having tuna today…

Marinated lean tuna (赤身漬け) – there was a lot of smokiness in the soy sauce used.

We saw Chef Zinc finish smoking with straw in front of us…

Medium fatty tuna (トロ) – this came in a very thin but very large slice that was folded over. Served with minced garlic from Aomori Prefecture (青森県).

Mackerel bozushi (鯖棒鮨) – the mackerel came from Oma Prefecture (大間県), and we had kanpyo (干瓢) inside the roll.

Egg (玉子焼き) – served with a dashi made with kombu, katsubushi (鰹節), magurobushi (マグロ節), and dried abalone. The egg was a little sweet.

Japanese whelk (つぶ貝) – lightly blanched and served with some kabosu (かぼす) juice.

Tonight’s dessert was made with these local figs grown in Ping Che…

Fig tempura (無花果天ぷら) –

We took it very easy tonight with the alcohol. I just brought along one bottle of sake.

Dewazakura Tokubetsu Honjoso Karesansui 1990 (出羽桜 特別本醸造 枯山水 悠久の風), H2BY - seimaibuai of 55%. While there were some savory, oxidative notes that comes from aging, this was surprisingly fresh and clean. Naturally very, very smooth on the palate.

This was an interesting meal for sure. I can see that Chef Zinc spent a lot of effort charting his own path, sourcing a lot of local ingredients - some of which aren't traditionally Japanese. It's not what I'm used to, but I was happy to have had the opportunity to see younger chefs being creative.