Sushi everyone?

By JEANNE MALMGREN

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 11, 2000

This bite-sized import from Japan isn't just for restaurants anymore. More and more grocery stores are selling it, freshly made.

ST. PETERSBURG -- They cluster around the sushi chef, three young gentlemen in Canterbury School uniforms, fascinated by the flash of a large knife and a man in a white hat.

"You guys like sushi?" asks Khin Maung, grinning.

He proffers a sample, cooked seafood and vegetables wrapped in dark green seaweed.

Two of the boys back away, making retching sounds. No way they're eating that stuff.

The third boy steps forward bravely. Zach Hirsch, 9, is no stranger to sushi.

Salmon nigiri

"Good," he declares, his mouth full of rice. "Hey, do you have any California roll?"

Zach's mom, Linda, is nearby, taking packages of sushi from a refrigerated display case and dropping them in her shopping cart.

"I put sushi in Zach's lunch box," she explains. "It's healthier than the Lunchables. I buy it twice a week so I know it's fresh."

Fresh is a mantra here in the land of raw tuna and uncooked eel. Fresh is crucial. So is convenience.

This sushi doesn't require an expensive night out at a restaurant. It's right there, neatly packaged and modestly priced, in the grocery store.

Wasabi (green horseradish paste)

Gari (pickled ginger)

"Most people grab and go," says Maung, 44, manager of a walk-up sushi bar inside the Publix store at the Northeast shopping center. "But if they want something special, we can make it for them."

Robin Boatwright of St. Petersburg special-orders her favorites twice a week. While she waited one recent Friday evening, a white-clad chef -- one of Maung's four employees who, like him, are Burmese -- laid crimson slabs of salmon on top of rice. Boatwright walked away with two packages of sushi, 18 bites in all, custom made for her at half the price she'd pay in most restaurant sushi bars.

"I'll eat some tonight and have the rest for lunch tomorrow," she said.

The Publix sushi bar is one of several like it in the Tampa Bay area. There are 750 others across the United States and Canada, all owned by the AFC Corporation of Compton, Calif., and all inside upscale supermarkets and health food stores. In each case, the host store receives a percentage of gross sales from the sushi bar.

Sushi speak Where to buy carry-out sushi Points to remember when buying carry-out sushi

The letters "AFC," by the way, stand for Advanced Fresh Concept.

"You can pick up sushi for dinner right while you're shopping for groceries," says Maung.

In addition to the Publix sushi bar, Maung operates one at Nature's Finest Foods on Central Avenue. The native of Burma immigrated to Los Angeles several years ago and went to work for AFC in 1998, even though he knew nothing about sushi or food preparation. After completing AFC's training, he was sent to Florida to open the Nature's Finest sushi bar. The Publix bar opened in spring 1999.

Since then it's been a blur of rainbow rolls and seaweed salad. Maung says the Nature's Finest sushi bar sells about 70 to 80 packages a day. Publix customers snap up at least 200 every day. Everything is made fresh each day, usually minutes before a shopper selects it from the display case. At the end of the day, any unsold sushi is thrown away.

"They give a good value," says Jeff Till, assistant meat manager at Northeast Publix. "Their portions are very generous."

The Publix sushi bar is in a strategic position. As shoppers emerge from the deli, bakery or produce section and move toward meats -- while entree-buying is on their minds -- they see a trio of white-garbed men toiling behind a counter.

[Times photo: Pam Royal] Myo Aung, left, and Khin Maung are among the chefs who prepare sushi daily at the Northeast Publix in St. Petersburg.

SUSHI, reads a banner hanging overhead. FRESHLY MADE ALL DAY.

The shoppers slow down. They pause, leaning forward to inspect the sealed packages.

Nigiri sushi catches the eye first: Slabs of colorful raw salmon, tuna or eel are laid atop mounds of rice. In some packages, bright orange roe is sprinkled like confetti. One of Maung's best sellers is the Marina Plate ($7.25), a combination of salmon, tuna and octopus.

tekka (tuna) maki

For the squeamish, there are plenty of cooked fish choices. The Publix Special is nine pieces of sushi filled with tempura (batter fried) shrimp ($7.25). Grilled salmon and cooked crabmeat are other options. Vegetarians can choose the Vegetable Combo ($4.40 for nine pieces) or Tofu Roll ($4.40).

All-American variations include the ever-popular California Roll ($4.40), which contains cooked imitation crab meat, avocado, shredded carrot and cucumber. Cream Cheese Roll ($4.80) comes with either imitation crab or smoked salmon, plus a dollop of cream cheese.

In each package, rounds of sushi are lined up like little soldiers. On the side is a packet of soy sauce, a modest pile of pickled ginger and a green dab of wasabi, the infamously fiery Japanese horseradish.

As shoppers peer at the goods, one of the chefs brings out new packages of sushi, made moments before, and restocks the display case.

California rolls

"Friday, Saturday and Sunday are our best-selling days. And evenings," says Maung. "People are more relaxed, maybe they're having parties."

At least one party platter is always on display, usually the $16.50 Sunrise Special, a 20-piece medley of oversized California rolls, spicy rolls (raw tuna, smoked salmon or cooked shrimp, dressed with chili-laced mayonnaise), rainbow rolls (a slab of raw fish and fish eggs draped over a California roll) and several pieces of salmon and tuna nigiri.

Sudare (bamboo mat)

If a customer calls ahead, Maung and his crew will put together even larger platters, up to 52 pieces.

Enthusiasts who want to try sushimaking at home can pick up all the ingredients here: sushi rice; nori seaweed; sushi vinegar; pickled ginger, wasabi paste, tamari soy sauce and small bamboo mats used for rolling sushi.

Once a month, Maung steps out from behind the counter and does a sushi demonstration with free samples. As Publix shoppers watch, he lays out the makings of California roll: cooked rice; paper-thin sheets of nori seaweed; shredded carrot, avocado strips, slivered cucumber and imitation crab meat.

ikura (salmon roe)

A small crowd gathers, including an elderly couple, a young woman with a baby in a carrier on her chest, a dad with two children riding inside his shopping cart, a teenager in baggy shorts and a Cleveland Indians baseball cap.

"You makin' California roll, man?" the teen asks.

Maung nods as he shapes the sushi on his cutting board, deftly rolling it with a small bamboo mat. He sprinkles sesame seeds on the finished roll, then cuts it into two dozen bite-size portions and puts each one in a plastic sample cup.

Within seconds, the California Roll is gone.

One man heads straight to the sushi display case, selects a package and drops it in his shopping cart, next to the Cheez-Its.

Dinner is served.

Sushi speak

• sushi -- literally, "vinegar rice"
• maki sushi -- traditional roll of fish (either raw or cooked) and vegetables encased in vinegared rice and seaweed, then cut in bitesize pieces
• nigiri sushi -- slice of raw fish atop a mound of hand-formed rice, sometimes wrapped with a thin strip of seaweed.
• inari sushi -- fried soybean pouch filled with rice
• temaki sushi -- hand-shaped sushi, often in a sheet of seaweed wrapped like an ice cream cone
• nori -- paper-thin sheets of dried seaweed used to wrap sushi rolls.
• wasabi -- Japanese green horseradish paste used as a spicy condiment for sushi
• gari -- pickled ginger, sliced paper-thin and served alongside sushi as a palate cleanser
• edamame -- cooked green soybeans, often served as a side dish to sushi

Source: AFC Corporation

Where to buy carry-out sushi

You'll find AFC sushi bars inside these Tampa Bay stores:

• Publix, 1930 E S.R. 60. Brandon, (813) 684-1758
• Publix, 525 S Belcher Road, Clearwater, (727) 799-3316
• Publix, 3400 East Lake Road, Palm Harbor, (727) 785-7473
• Publix, 33343 U.S. 19 N, Palm Harbor, (727) 789-1920
• Nature's Finest Foods, 6651 Central Ave., St. Petersburg, (727) 347-5682
• Publix, 200 37th Ave. N, St. Petersburg, (727) 895-1670
• Publix, 10496 Roosevelt Blvd. N, St. Petersburg, (727) 576-5858
• Publix, 5295 34th St. S, St. Petersburg, (727) 867-0146
• Publix, 4655 Gulf Blvd., St. Pete Beach, (727) 360-7091
• Kash & Karry, 2100 W Swann Ave., Tampa, (813) 254-6800
• Publix, 243 Bayshore Blvd., Tampa, (813) 251-3709
• Publix, 19034 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., Tampa, (813) 631-1911
• Publix, 11502 N 53rd St., Temple Terrace, (813) 988-1980

Points to remember when buying carry-out sushi:

• The sushi sold at AFC sushi bars is made fresh daily. Each morning, the chef throws away any packages not sold the day before and cooks a new supply of rice. Sushi rolls are assembled continuously throughout the day. Often the package a customer selects from the display case was made only minutes earlier.
• AFC suggests that customers serve their carry-out sushi within 24 hours. If you don't eat it as soon as you get home, it should be stored in the refrigerator.
• All the fish used at AFC sushi bars is caught by Japanese fishers in the Pacific Ocean, then flash-frozen and shipped frozen. Within a month after capture it will be defrosted and made into sushi at individual sushi bars around the country.
• If you're still squeamish about eating raw fish, AFC sushi bars offer several options with cooked fish (grilled eel, broiled salmon and batter-fried shrimp tempura, for example) or vegetable-only sushi rolls.

   

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