Let’s roll

While it’s probably too early to pronounce the California roll as passé, rolls have gone way beyond that mere trinity of ingredients. It’s now possible to order a roll of pan-seared, dry-rub spiced duck breast with roasted portobello and garlic mayo at Zen Toro, or a roll with salmon skin, cream cheese, asparagus tempura, wasabiko (flying fish roe with wasabi), quail egg and blueberry sauce at Taka’s, or an eel and cucumber roll with avocado and macadamia nuts at Sushi on the River.

Duck breast? Blueberry sauce? Macadamia nuts? When did this happen? Not since puberty have such unwelcome and confusing changes rocked one to the very core. But alas, the tide of the last few years has brought in an ever-increasing, sophisticated selection of rolls. Taka’s, when it opened in 1998, offered 15 different types of them. At its Fair Oaks location, Taka’s now offers 30. The explanation, at least according to one of the restaurant’s sushi chefs, is simple: A lot of Americans still don’t eat raw fish, so you have to be creative. And rolls are easier to eat. Just be aware that this is an American trend, and not something you’ll easily find should these nouveau rolls inspire you to go visit Japan.

Having accepted that roll eating has come into its own, it seemed fitting to go hunting for the best, wildest roll that Sacramento has to offer, with the caveat that I would eat no roll with blueberry sauce on it. Let the roll-off begin!

But first, a quick word about the aforementioned restaurants.

Of the three, Taka’s feels the least fancy. With a lot of plain tables in a smallish dining room at its S Street location, Taka’s is usually bustling with gregarious diners. Occasionally, Taka’s plays host to the “sushi drunk,” a guy, usually a fraternity-type guy, who’s had a bit too much sake or several oversized Sapporos, who will be a loud, boisterous presence to others.

If Taka’s has the occasional single sushi drunk, Sushi on the River might be their spawning place. The restaurant-on-a-boat off the Garden Highway is usually teeming with large parties of revelers, making you feel as if you came to a New Year’s party rather than a sushi restaurant.

Zen Toro graciously leans the other way. Zen Toro, which calls itself a Japanese bistro and sushi bar, possesses an ambience that exudes tranquility.

The first roll we tried was Zen Toro’s Spicy Beef Tataki ($7)—a mixture of rare beef, grilled portobello and roasted garlic cream, which came topped with crispy slivers of onion ring. This roll seemed the most “American,” with its beef, mushroom and onion-ring combo. Fresh cucumber added a nice crunch. Honestly, this roll could be eaten in lieu of a western bacon cheeseburger. It had a slightly sweet, tangy flavor, and the roll leaped to the top of our chart.

The next roll was Sushi on the River’s Vegas Roll. At a hefty $12.50, it was an impressive conglomeration of tempura tuna, yellowtail, salmon, whitefish and avocado, rolled with spicy crab. It came with its own mysterious red dipping sauce, which had a pungent flavor, possibly of sun-dried tomatoes and chilies, and a hint of fish sauce. This roll took a few tries. At times, its ingredients competed with one another and even cancelled each other out, but with the sauce, there seemed to be better harmony and a more distinct character to the roll. It was a commendable effort, but not as good as the Spicy Beef Tataki.

The last in our roll competition was Taka’s Benny Roll: fried shrimp, crab, cucumber, scallop, avocado, cream spicy sauce and masago (small, orange eggs harvested from the salmon family) for $11.50. The verdict? I like fried shrimp and I cannot lie. And, yes, the fried shrimp lent the roll a most un-fishlike quality. The scallops that gently hugged the roll on top and the crab in the middle were also technically un-fishlike. With the cucumber and avocado, Benny seemed like a second-generation California roll. In fact, many of Taka’s rolls could be described as such, with the exception of the roll with the blueberry sauce (called Kings).

It was a close call, but if I had to sort it out, I’d put the Spicy Beef first, Benny second, with Vegas just a hairbreadth behind. While none of these delicious rolls might be considered authentic Japanese eating, like puberty, it’s really not bad once you give it a try. So roll with it.