Nippon

For Eastern cooking fans, Wickenden Street offers twice the eating pleasure

by Johnette Rodriguez

231 Wickenden Street, Providence
331-6861
Open daily for lunch, 12-4 p.m.;
for dinner, 4-11 p.m.
Major credit cards
No handicapped access

For some families in the restaurant business, the long hours bind them together into a formidable force in a very competitive market. For others, competition simmers in the kitchen and spills over to form two separate restaurants.

Wickenden Street has seen this before. Take the case of the cousins who owned Taj Majal and Taste of India. Now the reshuffle is in Japanese restaurants.

While the Tokyo Restaurant has moved up the hill and is run by Leiko Lau, the Nippon Restaurant, opening a few months ago where the Tokyo used to be, is run by her ex-husband, Mr. Haru.

Stepping into the tiny front room of Nippon, we were surprised to see only two booths and a small table. But then we were quickly led into the Tatami Room, where eating takes place at low tables with flat pillows to sit on.

Workday stress, along with shoes, was left at the door of this calming room, with its two levels of gray carpeted space. The upper eating area accommodates 20 or so people, while on the lower level, the waiters slip out of their sandals before sliding along on their knees to serve you.

Nippon has an impressive list of sashimi appetizers (raw fish or seafood, which becomes sushi with the addition of layered fish or wrap-around rice) and maki, in which chopped vegetables or fish is rolled with rice and a thin sheet of seaweed (nori). There are more than two dozen each ($2.75 to $5.50) and another 10 "chef's specials" -- larger or innovative makis, such as the Philadelphia maki filled with cream cheese, smoked salmon, and scallions.

We sampled the sushi first and then moved on to other realms. Staying clear of the raw fish that evening, we chose a yam maki ($3.50) and a spicy unagi (eel) maki ($4.75), which seemed adventurous enough for us. The eel was too strong for me, but my companion gobbled it with gusto. I stuck to the tempuraed sweet potato.

For dinner, my partner speared the "tuna teriyaki" ($11.75), a generous portion of fresh tuna, marinated, grilled, and topped with sesame seeds. Sticky rice and vegetables -- green beans, carrots, and baby corn -- kept it company, along with shredded daikon and round yellow noodles sprinkled with sesame oil. A Japanese jambalaya of a plate!

In the mood for noodles, I selected the yaki soba dinner ($9.75), a mound of flat noodles tossed with sauteed onions, carrots, and cabbage. Although soba are usually made from buckwheat, Mr. Ko, our host, explained that Nippon orders the less expensive, white-flour variety in order to offer students a heaping plateful (enough for three of four of them I would guess from my portion.)

Prior to my noodles, I'd sipped a miso shiro, a traditional broth flavored with fermented soybean paste (miso), and had picked clumsily at my salad with chopsticks (trust me, I am improving) while luxuriating over the six squares of chilled silken tofu on their bed of soy sauce and rice wine (hiya yako). I know, I know, eating "raw" tofu is an anathema to many of my acquaintances, but they might try to think of it as savory Jell-O. I loved it.

Never too full for the proffered dessert with dinner, we sampled one dish of red bean ice cream and another of green tea. The red bean was sweeter, with bits of crunch from the beans (adzuki), while the green tea ice cream had more of a palate-cleansing effect similar to really good coffee ice cream.

The service at Nippon was prompt and friendly. Now back at the cutting board and grill, Mr. Haru is a welcome edition to Wickenden.