I'm still wrestling with the concept of ordering a smoked salmon pizza in one of Baltimore County's best Japanese restaurants, but I can come to terms with it because San Sushi's new chef produces such a fine smoked salmon pizza.
A little background is in order. A few months ago, San Sushi in Cockeysville, the restaurant that spawned the estimable San Sushi Too and Thai One On in Towson, brought in a new chef, Paulie Choonhawongse. His background is in Western haute cuisine, not Japanese food, so he produces five or six specials -- usually fusion dishes -- that are listed on a blackboard near the front of the restaurant. If they aren't of interest, you can order from the regular menu of sushi, teriyaki and noodle dishes.
Choice is always good, but I'd be surprised if customers are keeping Choonhawongse as busy as he should be. For one thing, a small strip shopping center restaurant without a liquor license isn't your usual setting for food this expensive. (Entree specials the evening we were there ranged in price from $17 to $25.)
That's not to say San Sushi doesn't have its own neighborly charm. The two pleasant dining rooms share an expansive sushi bar and a color scheme of green and cream. An Asian mural runs along one wall, and the tables are neatly set with linen. The downer is a large-screen TV in the main dining room, which was playing the Cartoon Network the first night I was there. Your waitress will turn the sound off if you ask, but I couldn't talk her into turning off the picture.
Cartoons aren't what I want to look at when I'm eating -- and paying for -- filet mignon and creme brulee. Of course, cartoons aren't what I want to look at when I'm eating reasonably priced Japanese dinners, either. But on the other hand, I like the fact that kids these days are just as happy having sushi for dinner as spaghetti, at least judging from the number of families who were eating there.
But back to the specials. The point is that now there's an alternative when not everyone at your table wants Japanese food. That smoked salmon pizza, with its fine crisp crust, two cheeses and fresh tomatoes, is every bit as fine as you might get at some trendy trattoria. A seafood minestrone overflows with a neat dice of shrimp, salmon, scallops and crab, buoyed by delicate bits of carrot, tomato and onion, all in a near perfect seafood broth. A dark, winey sauce caresses an enormous hunk of rare tenderloin that is prettily paired with two fat, golden shrimp tempura.
