Aside from the beautiful land, what I love most about Canada
is our diversity and that we’re generally a country that celebrates
multiculturalism. Being a child of immigrants, my parents left their families
and travelled here for university. Of course, it wasn’t easy – getting
comfortable with the language and having to work harder to prove their worth –
yet, they love their decision and would never return to Hong Kong … Canada is
home.
Hence, when it came time to celebrate Canada’s 150 anniversary,
forgoing the typical BBQ and celebrating with Shoushin’s special Canada omakase
($150), served until the end of July 2017, seemed like the patriotic thing to
do.
The first bite from the dinner is the mozuku, a refreshing start with finely cut seaweed slivers mixed
with a sweet vinegar. Its consistency is a bit slippery, but since the seaweed
has little flavour, it’s not off putting. Garnished with tomato pulp, grated
ginger, and daikon slivers, these add a nice crunch and additional flavours to
the starter to keep it interesting.
As a first experience goes, the lobster sashimi wasn’t
horrible. Although it’s not something I’d want to eat again, the east coast
crustacean actually had a crunchy consistency and wasn’t soft and gummy as
expected. Chef Lin notes that lobster sashimi is really about the texture as it
has little taste. He was right; while it was simply adorned with seaweed salt
and wasabi, I still couldn’t taste much sweetness (something that seems to
develop when it’s cooked).
The aroma emitted from the grilled unagi is heavenly, the
perfume of sweet caramelized soy that makes you want to dig in right away.
Since the eel is from Quebec, it’s much larger and hence meatier than the
typical unagi found on rice or
topping sushi. Glazed with mirin, soy
sauce, and chocolate (if I heard correctly), it’s sweet and peppery thanks to
the chilli berries on top. It would have been even better if it were cooked a
touch less as I found one piece a tad chewy and dry.
Before the sushi procession begun, a bowl of nyumen arrives, the kelp and bonito infused broth swimming with silky
somen noodles, crunchy snow peas, and
earthy re-hydrated shiitake mushrooms. The dish is simple but wonderful, the soup ideal for readying the palette for
the raw seafood that follows.
Starting light, the first piece of sushi was a Japanese
flounder. While it’s a meaty fish, there’s an interesting almost fluffiness to
its consistency.
Though the west coast big reef squid’s slightly sticky chewy
texture isn’t the greatest, it’s not repulsive either and likely due to the thicker slice given. After
getting past the consistency, it’s a nice light squid with the main flavours
stemming from the swipe of soy on top.
The golden eye snapper is always a treat, even as a milder
fish, there’s still a prevalent flavour to it and pairs rather nicely with the
vinegar mixed into the rice. As commended in a previous post, Shoushin makes
excellent rice: it’s heavier on the vinegar so that grains actually have
flavour and the temperature is spot on (warm enough to enhance the fish without
changing the temperature).
Shoushin also makes amazing horse mackerel sushi! Since the
fish is cleaned so well any gamey fishiness is removed. On this occasion, they
added a healthy sprinkle of green onion on top creating an extra zip to the
sushi. It’s by far the best horse mackerel I’ve had.
Midway through the 11-piece sushi meal the tuna parade
starts, following the leanest to fattiest sequence. The lean blue fin tuna has
that vibrant red colour that’s so mesmerising. Meanwhile, the warmer rice with
the medium chu toro was fantastic,
causing the tuna taste to cover the tongue and linger even after the piece was
finished.
Typically, the fattiest piece of the tuna comes from the otoro or tuna belly. In this case, Shoushin
introduced me to the fattiest part of the tuna’s back, which still melts in the
mouth and has a much stronger flavour.
After such lovely pieces of tuna, the gizzard shad was out
of place. Having had it before, this piece was overly salty and the skin too
thick – it felt like I was chewing forever when I just wanted to swallow the
salty fish down.
The east coast surf clam wasn’t any better. At first it had
a crunchy texture emitting a sweetness, but as chewing continued, the clam
finished off with a fishy aftertaste. Take my advice: chew and swallow quickly,
this isn’t one for savouring.
Thankfully, the following east coast scallop was better:
with a hint of seaweed salt and lemon on top, the ingredients helped
augment the scallop’s sweetness. Not having been blow torched, you could still
taste the seafood in a delicate manner.
In lieu of the traditional hand roll, a piece of sushi
topped with pop-in-your-mouth Canadian fish eggs arrived. With a light dusting
of yuzu zest on top, it was a cold and refreshing ending.
Of course, we were also served a piece of tamago, which Shoushin does so well. The
beautiful layers and rich delicately sweetened egg is the perfect bridge between
sushi and dessert.
Whenever they serve some sort of rendition of a green tea pudding,
that’s what I have for dessert. The matcha
flavoured jelly is generally accompanied with a sweet red bean paste (a
staple in Asian sweets) and a chewy unfilled glutinous rice ball. In this case,
the Canadian theme continued with the pool of maple syrup on the bottom,
helping to add a sweetness to the dessert.
While not as impressive as their general Yuri tasting menu, this one was still
decent. However, for something classified as a special “Canada celebration” menu, it’s disappointing that less than
half of the dishes were made from Canadian ingredients.
Understandably, sourcing an entire Canadian menu for sushi
may be difficult, but at least the individual courses such as the seaweed (from
Okinawa) and somen noodles (presumably from Japan) should be Canadian related.
Either they could be sourced from Canadian ingredients (wouldn’t we produce
seaweed?) or replaced with something signifying our country (an Angus beef tataki would have been delicious).
Without a doubt, I love Canada for its diversity. Nonetheless,
perhaps refined sashimi and sushi should be left for other days of the year.
How To Find Them
Location: Toronto, Canada
Address: 3328 Yonge Street
Address: 3328 Yonge Street
Website: http://www.shoushin.ca/
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____________________________
Gastro World's Grading System
- Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
- 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
- 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
- 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
- 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
- 10 - absolute perfection!
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