Sushi

Baltimore used to be the kind of town where people thought an ethnic restaurant didn't have authentic food if it wasn't a hole in the wall. Nothing illustrates how times have changed better than Harbor East's new Ra Sushi Bar Restaurant (1390 Lancaster St., 410-522-3200, rasushi.com). This is the area's first foray into rock-and-roll sushi. The Arizona-based chain is known for its high energy, hip music, contemporary decor and, not least, its sushi - both traditional and progressive. The executive chef is a Japanese native, Tai Obata, whose menu includes Pacific Rim appetizers and entrees like Black Pepper Filet Medallions and Yuzu Halibut as well as sushi, sashimi and signature rolls.

JAPANESE food sneaks up on you. It sounds so light, so full of vegetables and clear liquids. So you order a little sushi, a few steamed dumplings, miso soup, something tempura and suddenly, you're loosening your belt a notch or three to ease the pressure. The food at Maki Maki in Towson is no exception. There are so many tempting things on the menu, and they're served in such relaxed surroundings that you may be tempted to linger over several courses. Especially if you can snag a seat on the squishy green velvet couch facing the front windows.

An article in yesterday's Sun about sushi in Japan referred to "the late Craig Claiborne." The New York Times reports that its noted food writer "is very much alive."The Sun regrets the error.TOKYO -- The Japanese have been eating sushi since before the French had champagne and certainly centuries before the development of the crab cake -- to mention only two delights whose proper ingredients can cause national debate.In this century, the Japanese have made sushi their defining national dish, put restaurants that serve nothing else on every city street corner and battled European environmentalists who said it endangered the Atlantic bluefin tuna.

I have no idea why Panda Gourmet, the restaurant that occupied the Lake Falls Village space before Sushi Hana moved in, closed. It could have been the hidden location, the lack of a liquor license, the quality of the food or something I can't even take a guess at. But whatever it was, the new occupant seems immune. Early on a weeknight when we ate there, every table was filled. Who knew North Baltimore was so hungry for sushi? This is the second Sushi Hana - the first is in Towson - and owner Po Chan told me in a phone interview earlier this year that many of his Towson customers live in this area.

We arrived early at Joss Cafe on a recent Saturday night because we'd been told that the Japanese restaurant is very small and very popular. Even at 5:30, there were quite a few tables filled in the restaurants tiny front room. But the owners have added a larger dining room in back to cut down on the lines that sometimes form outside. By the time we left, there were no lines, but the place had been doing a brisk business for hours. A line outside would be justifiable. This still-small restaurant on Annapolis Main Street serves Japanese dishes cooked and raw that are fresher, more imaginative and more complex in flavor than any others we can remember having eaten in this region.

When I think of Towson, I rarely think "sushi." I might think of what swims in the closest body of water, the Loch Raven reservoir. Crawdad sushi? Catfish sushi? No, thank you. Even so, I spent an afternoon last week spearing pieces of tuna, salmon and shrimp in downtown Towson, touring some of the town's many sushi restaurants, trying to get to the bottom of why the suburb is something of a sushi stronghold. Even though Towson is awash with sushi spots, I confess that initially I had some trouble swallowing the notion that chopstick-wielding tourists would flock there, which the Baltimore County Office of Economic Development claimed during the tour.

Sushi, once exotic fare, has become as familiar as hamburgers. Case in point is Asahi Sushi, a comfortable old shoe of a restaurant that manages to delight customers while making few demands on them. This certainly isn't a place that requires dressing up or one that calls attention to itself with elaborate or overly garnished fare. It's a neighborhood restaurant, through and through, serving a seemingly effortless mix of Korean and Japanese food, simply prepared and simply presented. -- Poor:]

In the race to open more sushi restaurants per square mile than anywhere else in Maryland, Towson had been pulling ahead. But now, with the new Chiu's Sushi Japanese Restaurant in Inner Harbor East, I'm not so sure. Downtown seems to be staking its claim once more. Still, owner Tom Chiu says he decided on the location because "Downtown needs a traditional sushi restaurant." I don't want to get into a debate on a subject I don't know enough about, so I leave it to others to decide whether Chiu's is more or less traditional than Kawasaki, Shogun, Minato, Matsuri and the others.

Eight people in Maryland are among 93 across the country who have been sickened by a salmonella outbreak with a possible link to sushi, according to state health officials. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began investigating the outbreak in January, and the first Maryland cases were discovered last month, said Alvina Chu, an epidemiologist and chief of the division of outbreak investigation at the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The strain being investigated is salmonella bareilly , and infections have been reported in 19 states and the District of Columbia.

Upstairs in the dining room at Hana Japanese Restaurant in East Baltimore is a small flower bed. Unlike 95 percent of carryout restaurants I've ventured into, this one actually contains living plants. It's only appropriate, I suppose, for a restaurant named after the Japanese word for flower. But the live flowers confirmed my initial impression walking in that Hana is a restaurant that really cares. Hana opened about 10 months ago and is not related to Sushi Hana in Towson. This one sits between two beauty-supply shops on a busy block of East Monument Street abutting the Johns Hopkins medical complex.