Positive Energy

This column recently noted that expansion within some restaurant genres has become clonal. Successful new dining concepts seem to inspire copycats rather than innovators. In the last ten years the metro added lots of new sushi joints, Chinese restaurants and sports bars with little differences among them. When Skybox tried offering radically different sports bar cuisine, they went quickly out of business. It doesn’t need to be this way. Cityview’s recent Ultimate Pizza Challenge revealed that our pizzerias serve a rather amazing variety of pies and yet they all have legions of loyal fans. That would suggest that Des Moines would respond to a bold soul willing to buck the cloning trends.

Meet Jay Wang. He grew up in southern China, moved to New York City as a teen and later went to Japan to study its cuisine under masters. He says that English is his sixth language. He’s been running Japanese and Chinese restaurants in Philadelphia and New York but after starting a family he decided to move to Des Moines for a less hectic life style. He brought some of his well trained staff with him and opened Wasabi Chi last month. While that restaurant emulates a recent trend of combining Japanese cuisine with popular Chinese and Thai dishes, it does so with original methods and personalized style.

As the name suggests, Wasabi Chi observes principles of feng shui (the flow of “chi,” meaning energy) with thoughtful division of spaces and placement of waterfalls, mirrors, colors, and furniture. Wang’s kitchen creates its own positive energy. Tempura dishes came with ginger aioli in addition to the usual accompaniment of dashi (fish based soup stock), mirin (rice wine) and soy sauce. Shrimp had been treated with salt and pepper before being battered. Dumplings were cooked in home made wrappers. Squid salad was made with black fungus and cucumbers that had been completely seeded and peeled.

Crispy rock shrimp were served on fresh mesclun with a sauce made of sweet potatoes, honey and spiced cream.

A shrimp mango salad included ripe mangoes, fresh mesclun and cashews that had been pan toasted in honeyed oil.

Divine ceviche included tender octopus, shrimp, whitefish, tuna and salmon bathing in a sweet acid bath of lime juice.

Sushi and sashimi were spectacularly presented.

One plate that combined the two styles was served on bamboo leaves and adorned with giant mint and edible orchids.

A simple sashimi lunch platter was served on a rack constructed of bamboo twigs raised on a core of compacted cucumber seeds.

Thick cuts of raw fish had been subtly treated - some briefly marinated in saki, others in sea salt, peppers and black sesame. Sushi rice was also treated with more than just rice vinegar. While recipes were familiar, execution was exceptional on Godzilla rolls (spicy tuna and fresh avocado with a panko crumb sprinkle),

Ocean 3 (spicy tuna, salmon, yellowtail and avocado in a roll that was rolled in tobikko) and Pacific rolls (blackened tuna, avocado, tobikko).

Hibachi dishes were distinguished by good cuts of beef but lackluster broccoli. Japanese fried rice was flavored with garlic, a near blasphemy within the subtle cuisine of Japan but not inappropriate for Iowans.

Noodles hinted of garlic too. Cocktails were also served with considerable style.

My only complaints have been that wasabi is inconsistent, sometimes spicier and fresher than others, and that pickled ginger is not the best. Customers are responding well. Dinner business has been so good Wang‘s recruiting an additional chef.

Bottom line - This is the new benchmark for sushi/Asian fusion in Iowa.

Wasabi Chi

5418 Douglas Ave., 528-8246

Mon. - Thurs. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m., Fri. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 11 p.m., Sun. noon - 10 p.m. A daily happy hour (3 - 5:30) offers half price appetizers & sushi rolls.

Side Dishes

Orange Leaf frozen yogurt opened new stores in West Des Moines and Urbandale… Scooter’s Coffeehouse announced a new Yoji frozen yogurt shop in their new store in Urbandale.

Servicing Niches

My mail suggests that restaurant customers care less about food than service - perceived bad service anyway. Some complaints seem more justified than others. Over the last three winters I was informed about four places that readers considered amiss at shoveling their sidewalks or parking lots. I found three of those walkways still covered with snow days later. None remain in business today. I also heard from someone who thought a busy restaurant had dishonored a friend’s contract to use their place, on a Saturday night, for a wedding reception. That restaurant’s partners told me that they only said that they “would work with” the wedding party and only before hearing that they wanted to bring their own food and that their previously quoted budget was for an entire wedding - not just the reception. Good service is in the eye of the behooved.

Two new Latino restaurants define service rather differently. On my first visit to El Centro Americano the door was locked during normal operating hours. I called to make sure they were still in business. Someone told me that he had only closed briefly to pick his daughter up at school and that he would be open the next day, unless he had to pick his daughter up again. I made sure I had plenty of time for my next visit. That was wise.

El Centro Americano had a delightful, immaculate look including new murals but I waited over an hour to be served. The owner, a personable young man named Jose Kino, provided a charming explanation. “I am so sorry for the delay. My chef today is my grandmother and I can’t tell her to rush just because we’re backed up. She’s my grandmother.”

Grandmother’s cooking was worth the wait. Plantains were stuffed with beef, Honduran cheese and mild salsa.

Pupusas were considerably less oily than most around town, stuffed with chicharones (pork skins), beans and cheeses, and served with freshly made curtido (cabbage, onion, carrot and chile slaw) and salsa roja (tomato, lime and chile).

Vigoron presented fried yucca root paired with fried chicharones, with meat attached, and another curtido.

The piece de resistance though was pollo con crema. Large pieces of tender chicken breast were covered with a rich sauce of peppers, tomatoes, Salvadoran cream, and chicken stock. That was plated with a salad, yellow rice with corn, and mashed black beans. A full bar kept people content while waiting for Jose’s grandmother.

Abelardo’s won me over.

When they first opened, I resented that prices on menus differed from cash register prices and that employees couldn’t refund the difference. They fixed that problem but for awhile I preferred frequenting local taquerias instead of this Nebraska chain. It’s hard though not to admire Abelardo Gonzalez. He started his first restaurant ten years ago when just 21 years old. In today’s economy, he’s managed to open three restaurants in Omaha, one each in Wichita and Spokane Valley, and now two in Des Moines. His restaurant on Ingersoll is open 24-7 and becomes quite busy, yet efficient late at night.

Abelardo’s food ranks with that of our better taquerias too.

Carnitas have been consistently both tender and crunchy. Egg dishes were cooked perfectly as ordered. Tongue and beef cheeks added creative variety and adobo had a New Mexican style tang.

Chiles rellenos were made with whole, stem-on Anaheim or poblano chiles. Chicken, shrimp and fish dishes were all bargain priced.

 Abelardo’s condiment bar - with three fresh salsas, pico de gallo, and pickled carrots with chilies - might be the best in town. Soft drinks, even Coke, were made with cane sugar while four kinds of horchata/fruit punch were also available.

Abelardo’s

2510 Ingersoll Ave., 243-3743

Also opening any day now at 300 Grand Ave. in West Des Moines

Open 24-7

El Centro Americano

2811 S.E. 14th St., 288-3799

Tues. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 8 p.m.

Side Dishes

Casey’s extended the hours at six metro stores to 24-7... Raccoon River Brewing Company introduced prix fixe menus with optional beer pairings.

Some restaurant genres have expanded rapidly in the metro without adding much quality or variety. For instance, dozens of barbecues followed Kin Folks and Flying Mango to Central Iowa but none put out the all-wood, slow love products of those pioneers. Similarly a dozen sushi joints followed Miyabi 9 to town without bringing any discernable new level of quality to the community table. Two new restaurants in familiar downtown Des Moines haunts have hopefully reversed this trend.

City Bakery took over the space formerly known as Bagni di Lucca. Steve Logsdon, who also owns Lucca, sold the place to his brother Joe, Joe’s wife Christina and Nico Pecheron, their long time right hand man at La Mie. The new owners tweaked the pizza recipes and began featuring a limited version of La Mie’s menu, with about five sandwiches a day, all served on focaccia, and some seven salads. Specialty beers, an excellent selection of inexpensive wines and European soft drinks were also featured. City Bakery’s state of the art Pavailler ovens will allow Pecheron and Joe Logsdon to expand their French baking operations too.

Last week, I found vegetable & Mozzarella, tuna & avocado, turkey & Swiss, and hot ham sandwiches. Salads included Roquefort-beet, apple-avocado, Caesar, albacore tuna, fresh salmon and fruit.

Pizza choices included tomato basil, meatball mushroom, sausage pepperoni, spinach ricotta, artichoke olive, and four cheeses. The sandwiches, all priced $5 or $6 dollars, were generous bargains compared to similar fare downtown.

So were salads, all $6 or $7, and pizza which was sold by the $4 slice, a rather rare thing in Des Moines, or priced $7.50 and $14.50 for small and large pies respectively. An extra two dollars provided a side salad. I learned during Cityview’s Ultimate Pizza Challenge that pizza taste differs wildly from one tongue to another but I’m pretty sure anyone who likes thin, crisp crusts and fresh ingredients will be hard pressed to find another pie they like more than these. In the near future, City Bakery will also open for breakfast and serve more La Mie type fare, i.e. pastries, desserts, croissants, etc. that can take your breath away.

Bagni di Lucca’s former baker Cameron Keller moved across the river and opened Keller’s Bakery, Deli, Café in space that was formerly home to Funky Pickle. Before that it was the spot where George Formaro got started in the restaurant business, selling sandwiches with his South Union breads. Appropriately, Keller bakes exquisite artisan slicing breads (five grain wheat, pain au cereal, Bordelais, roasted garlic and sometimes Irish rye, potato and oatmeal pecan cranberry) as well as epis and baguettes. He also makes divine stocks for soups - I tried excellent French onion, clam chowder, and red pepper crab bisques, each just $2 when added to a sandwich order. He also serveed breakfast sandwiches, burritos, cinnamon sugar toast, Irish breakfasts (eggs, sausage, bacon & beans) and salads.

His trump cards though were two neglected deli legends.

Homemade meatloaf (beef & pork) was served with caramelized onions on toasted garlic bread. Better yet, Keller brines his own corned beef briskets, including deckles. No other corned beef in town compares for tenderness and flavor.

He offers corned beef sandwiches in regular and “Gotham” sizes, the latter daring a comparison to Carnegie and Katz delis in New York. (Think about Meg Ryan’s famous orgasm in “When Harry Met Sally.”) Cheese cakes, mousse cakes, lemon cake, brownies and ice cream sandwiches were also served.

Bottom line - both these new places have something quite special going for them.

Keller’s Deli Bakery Café

625 Grand Ave.,, 280-5112, www.kellerbreads.com

Mon. - Fri. 6 a.m. - 2 p.m.

City Bakery Café

407 E 5th St., 243-0044

Mon. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Side Dishes

Lucca extended its lunch hour until 4 p.m. and its chef Fidel Macias began teaching Saturday morning cooking classes… Lori Olsen-Hopkins opened Le Gourmet, a specialty foods store on University in Clive.