70 kinds of maki rolls. El’s Japanese Fusion in Calgary offers an astonishing 70 different rolls to select from. The last time I was here, I was so gosh darn excited there were no pictures taken, heck I barely knew what I was eating (mostly because I didn’t order). A perfect excuse to revisit!
This time it was different. I made confident, informative decisions, and I took note (and pictures) of what I was eating. Our party was smaller, but no matter, we still managed to eat the majority of 5 different rolls. Here is what we ordered:
1) Blue Dragon Maki: fresh water eel and avocado – my favorite of the bunch. It was prepared very well, the eel was smooth and sauce was sweet. Simple yet tasty.
2) Super Star Maki: deep fried Spider roll (soft-shelled crab) with scallop on top – also incredibly delicious, although I oddly thought the ratio of crab to rice was too much… nobody else seemed to mind.
3) Rainbow Maki: crab meat, salmon, tuna, scallop, prawn, mackerel, avocado – beautiful and fresh tasting.
4) W-Spicy Maki: spicy tuna and spicy salmon – sounded like an excellent idea in theory but once eaten was slightly disappointing. The tuna and salmon were undistinguishable.
5) El’s Maki: deep fried scallop, sweet prawn, crab meat – delicious
To my surprise, I had already tried 3 of the 5 rolls with a completely different group of diners during my previous visit, and it was as delicious the first time as it was that day.
Another reason to love this small family owned shop is honesty. One of our guests had previously tried El’s tasting menu. Within that menu he ate a delicious Japanese seafood egg custard called chawanmushi. In an attempt to share this experience, we asked if it could be made on such short notice. To our surprise, the chef agreed. When the individual cups of smooth steamed custard arrived, it tasted comforting and delicious, but our guest thought something was missing. We were told, voluntarily, that because of the time constraint saki was not included in today’s order, and that if we called ahead next time, our chawanmushi would be prepared to perfection. Now that is a chef who cares about what he serves his customers.
