It should be the time to discover some international food at Marblehead Weekly News. Sushi is a bay cuisine since it needs fresh material from the sea. I went to two places in town for the tasting, Junji Fine Japanese restaurant at 114 Pleasant St., and Fen Yang House at 40 Atlantic Ave.
The Junji Fine Japanese restaurant
It was decorated as a little kitchen where friends could gather to have some sake at night. With some wood bricks on the wall that customers could write their names on and leave their footprints, that show the popularity of the place.
I had a Junji maki which was recommended by the chef. It is a signature dish of the restaurant, chef Chai explained.
In the center there was fried shrimp tempura, covered by seaweed and rice. On top of that was spicy tuna and wasabi. The dish is a big collaboration from the sea, with a crispy bite and moderate hot.
The Fen Yang House
The Fen Yang House was connected to a bar, allowing it to open until late night with people watching sports. Besides Japanese cuisine it also provides Chinese food, as an asian cushion restaurant.
Chef Joe Chen brought the Hawaii sunset Maki to me. It was not a typical sushi maki I had before, there was no seaweed covering it. Instead, there was rice paper that brought more Vietnam flavor to the table. For rice paper the best sauce would be sweet chili sauce, as I was served. So it was not typical soy sauce as well, for the maki. Inside the rice paper roll, there were tuna, salmon, and avocado.
The specialty I have noticed is that they provide gluten free soy sauce at the Fen Yang House.