Feeding Taranaki’s appetite for sushi
For the life of him, Matthew Ahn can’t work out why Kiwis eat sushi served cold.
In South Korea, where he is from, and in Japan where the dish originated, he says it’s served ideally at room temperature. “Sushi is not a cold food.
“When you cook rice, it’s warm, but here I don’t know why it’s cold.”
Whatever temperature it’s eaten at, sushi has become one of the most popular lunch options for Taranaki residents and is arguably as easy to find as a steak and cheese pie.
Ahn, who opened Sushi Cafe in the New Plymouth suburb of Blagdon five years ago, estimated there were at least 18 sushi shops in Taranaki, including 14 in New Plymouth alone.
Sushi – served as sliced rolls of vinegared rice with meat, fish or vegetables inside or on top – is available in most suburbs in the city and also in Bell Block, Inglewood, Stratford and Hāwera.
Late last month when the St Pierre’s sushi chain celebrated the opening of its second New Plymouth shop with free sushi, hundreds of people streamed to the Valley Mega Centre to get their share.
Eight years ago, when St Pierre’s opened its first store in New Plymouth, the city had just five sushi shops, some of whose owners expressed concern that the market was already saturated.
But since then, sushi shops have kept opening so that sushi, a dish you couldn’t find in the region 20 years ago, is now as ubiquitous as the baked goods available from hot bread shops.
But Ahn isn’t concerned there are too many. In fact, he’d encourage more to open. “Especially in smaller places like Ōpunake.”
At Sushi Cafe, the most popular dishes are sushi with salmon, avocado and cream cheese, rice balls with chicken inside, and grilled salmon.
“People are afraid of raw, so we grill the salmon,” Ahn said.
Down the road at Triple G Sushi & Asian Food, owner Ravuth Lam caters his menu to Kiwi tastes too.
Like many other sushi shops, Triple G serves a variation of what is known as a California roll.
This is rice wrapped around salmon or fried chicken with other fillings such as avocado, cream cheese or capsicum, which is then wrapped in a sheet of dried seaweed and sliced.
Lam also offers the likes of fried chicken and chips, which are always popular. “But I try and stick to Asian flavours.”
He acknowledged the growing number of sushi businesses in town but, like Ahn, he wasn’t concerned about the competition.
That was mainly because every owner had something different to offer, he said.
“I’m Cambodian; there are Chinese-run sushi shops, Korea, Japan, and each one has a different taste and flavour.”
That’s exactly what Lyly and Clint King at The Reef Coffee and Sushi Bar in Strandon pride themselves on.
They offer a range of sushi rolls, spring rolls, wraps, and rice dishes, and Lyly creates traditional Vietnamese dishes too.
When they opened 10 years ago, there were only a few shops in town. But as the population has grown, people’s tastes have evolved, the Kings said.
“All the old people thought sushi was just raw fish, but we have more elderly people coming through the door now who try our traditional Vietnamese food too,” Lyly said.
“They come here to try one thing, and [then they] try something else too.”
The pair pride themselves on offering healthy lunch options and are pleased to see people taking them up.
They have tradies coming in daily who might have started with chicken on rice but are now-ordering Vietnamese salads.
While the Kings acknowledge the sushi boom in New Plymouth, it hasn’t deterred them. They just keep their heads down and work hard.
And it’s working – the shop is consistently busy and sells out every day.
“We opened the store on bare bones when there were a couple [of other sushi shops] in town,” Clint said.
“It has become more competitive, but our thing is we never look outside or around us. We focus on ourselves.”