You need to try this Hawaiian plate lunch
I’m a sucker for Chula Seafood, whether it’s the original seafood market and restaurant in south Scottsdale or the bigger, flashier storefront in Uptown Plaza in Phoenix. Both locations offer daily specials so appealing there’s a legitimate reason to visit one or the other every day of the week.
My newest and best reason to drive to the Central and Camelback location is the Hawaiian plate lunch, a chef ’s feature offered exclusively at Chula Uptown on Fridays.
As with so many other dishes on the Chula menu, Uptown chef Kyle Kent takes a beloved standby and gently tweaks it, creating a dish that’s a little more playful and elevated than the original.
Chula’s plate lunch is a twist on the Hawaiian classic
Yes, Chula’s version bears similarity to the classic Hawaiian plate lunch, which traditionally includes two scoops of sticky rice, one scoop of macaroni salad and a protein reflective of the Islands’ melting pot — Hawaii’s Kalua pork, Korea’s kalbi, the Philippines’ chicken adobo or Japan’s teriyaki chicken.
This plate lunch doesn’t look or taste quite like the meat-centric plate lunches you’ve eaten before, but if you’re a sushiphile, you’re sure to love it.
For the protein portion of the plate, Chula Uptown uses sushi-grade albacore to create a Japanese-style katsu. A shortened version of the transliterated word for “cutlet” in Japanese, the fried dish called tonkatsu is made with pork loin, while Chula’s katsu is made with fish loin, the prime slice of the fish fillet, cut daily from whole albacore.
After it’s portioned, the tuna loin is breaded in potato starch and panko
breadcrumbs, then flash-fried to a medium-rare crunch.
At first blush, the dish looks like golden-brown tonkatsu, cut in thick slices for presentation. Inside, however, the flesh is rosy-pink and bears the translucence associated with fish.
The texture is silky, but firm — almost steak-like — and its flavor exudes buttery richness.
Tasty details make this plate shine
The traditional accompaniment to katsu is Bulldog sauce, a bottled product that conveys the sweetness, tang and depth of Worcestershire sauce. Chula’s citrusy house-made version, scented with ginger, is lighter and brighter. It complements the fish without overpowering it. Fair warning, it’s a little addictive.
With a traditional plate lunch, the mound of sticky white rice plays tabula rasa to the various sweet, soy-based meats. But here, the rice is strewn with nori goma furikake, a popular Japanese seasoning of toasted sesame seeds and nori expressly designed to kick things up a notch. The result is another layer of ocean flavor, nuttiness and crunch.
Hawaii’s mayo-heavy macaroni salad is another integral part of the plate lunch experience, and as a firm believer that mayonnaise makes everything better, I’ve always loved it. It’s a testament,
then, to Chula’s crazy-good coleslaw, offered as a substitute, that I don’t miss the mac salad a whit. Bound with classic Kewpie mayonnaise, togarashi spice, fresh citrus and sesame oil, it exudes more heat and nutty complexity than any coleslaw I’ve ever eaten.
Sitting atop the fish is a ramen egg, gently boiled in soy broth until the white has firmed and turned the color of weak tea, its yolk the consistency of custard. Sprinkled with chopped green onion, it’s a lush accompaniment to both fish and rice.
Alongside the katsu rests a dark glob of onion-jalapeño jam, so spicy and sticky-sweet I’d like to buy it by the jar and put it on everything.
Kent said he learned to make it from Japanese chef and early mentor Jack Suda, who grew up farming chiles in the West Valley. Suda’s family roasted the chiles at the end of harvest every year, cooking them down with mirin, sake and soy to create a condiment that seamlessly and deliciously bridged East and West. Now that Kent heads his own kitchen, he has used the Suda family’s chile-jam as inspiration for Chula Uptown’s Hawaiian plate lunch, honoring both Suda and his culture-melding tradition.
Details: Hawaiian plate lunch $24 at Chula Uptown, 100 E. Camelback Road, #172, Phoenix. 602-354-3599, chulaseafood.com.