ICHIBAN

48 - Friday, July 5, 1985 - North Shore News

Entertainment

A taste of Japan in West Van

JACQUES COUSTEAU would not be amused,

but, in my humble opinion,

fish in its unadultered

state is one of life’s supreme eating pleasures.

does not require

This
swallowing live goldfish, it

requires abandonment of
North American cooked-to-
cardboard philosophies and
exploration of Japanese
culinary minimalism.

In West Vancouver, resting
one storey up at 1405 of the
Marine Drive strip, is the
Ichiban restaurant, a home

Like a diner lifted from the
back streets of Osaka,
Ichiban is a crowded 50-seat
Japanese eatery divided into

table hopping

for lovers of Japanese cuisine
and a holy shrine for the
hordes of daily converts to
the joys of eating fish in the
raw.

Ah, before you faint, the
fish, not the customer is in
the raw: Sushi, Sashimi,
Maki, and Negitoro. Oh
dear, you still feel like fain-
ting? Persevere.

by Timothy Renshaw

booths, sushi bar stools, and
private eating rooms. Each
has its attractions: booths
make for Western-style face
to face eating informality in
the midst of swirling Jchiban
activity; sushi stools give
ring-side eyeviews of sushi
chefs practising the age old
Japanese art of slicing raw
fish into visual and comesti-
ble masterworks; while the

Dorothy steals

WHEN WALT Disney Pic-
tures announced that it was
making Return to Oz and
putting the ruby slippers of
Judy Garland on the feet of
nine-year-old Fairuza Balk
of Vancouver, lovers of the
1939 classic The Wizard of
Oz were scornful and even
angry.

By COLIN LAMONT

They need not have wor-
‘ried.

Disney Pictures were wise
enough to leave the classic
on its pedestal and turn to
the 1980’s for the talents of
executive producer Gary
(Star Wars) Kurtz. Based on
the books Return to Oz and
Ozma of Oz by Frank L.
Baum, Kurtz helped produce
a film that has its own
merits.

Fairuza Balk was a smart
casting choice for the part of
.Kansas farmgirl, Dorothy.
The tiny .tot has a serious
pout on her face that could
drop a wicked witch at 30
paces. When she smiles it’s
the smile of a little girl

pleased with some praise of-.

‘fered her. -

In Return to Oz Dorothy
is back on-the Kansas farm
after her adventures in The
Wizard of Oz. The freckle-
faced youth has not slept a
night through for six mon-
ths. Tossing and turning she
daydreams of Oz, worrying
her Aunt Em (Piper Laurie)
to no end. .

Aunt Em thinks Dorothy
needs help and takes her to
the doctor who offers shock
treatments to control the lit-
tle girl's bad dreams.

Poor Dorothy is strapped
down on an operating table
and is about to get zapped
when the hospital’s power
goes off. In the ensuing
darkness she is aided in an
escape by a young girl who
mysteriously appears to help
her. Chased from the clinic

by a wicked-looking nurse
(Jean Marsh), the two girls
run through a _ torrential
downpour. and end up in a
swollen, raging river.

Dorothy loses sight of her
rescuer and climbs into a
packing crate for safety. She
sleeps and wakes up back in
Oz with a talking chicken
Billina, an old friend from
the farm.

The pigtailed girl is elated
at being back but soon finds

You can't beat
_Chariey's for

° Dinner .

© Dancing Thurs..
Fri. & Sat. nites

® Sunday Brunch |

60 Semisch. North Van. 984-0274

|
Don’t Forget ooe
PARK ROYAL

Located this Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and
Saturday in South Mall/East,
West & The Marketplace

private rooms provide the in-
timacy and shoeless flavor of
authentic Japanese dining.

At Ichiban, sushi comes in
standard Assorted ($6.95) to
Chirashi ($7.50). Raw filling
within these assortments
ranges from Sake (salmon),
brilliant red, butter tender,
and addictive; to Maguro
(Tuna), as far removed from
what traditionally comes in
cans as fish is from plankton;
to Anago (Sea Eel), for the
seasoned sushi veteran only.

Sashimi is sushi unwrap-
ped—delicate and delectable
slivers of raw seafood
unaltered by culinary ex-
perimentation, untainted by
seasoning overkill, and
unbludgeoned by  asphyx-
iating sauce. Fish as it was
meant to be consumed.

Both sushi and sashimi
come with slices of delicious
pickled Japanese ginger and
deadly green Japanese

horseradish that will literally
bring tears to your eyes.

But there is much more to
Japanese cooking and
Ichiban’s menu
fish. For the squeamish food-
must-be-cooked hardliners
there are the lightly deep-
fried, crispy batter covered
tempuras: Assorted ($6.50)
to Deluxe ($8.50), crab,
prawns, and vegetables. Or,
perhaps, the musical-
sounding Teriyakis: Chicken
($9) to Beef ($11), safely
broiled and submerged in
world-renowned teriyaki
sauce.

For the ambitious, there is
Sukiyaki for two ($25), a slic-
ed beef, fresh vegetable, and
noodle stew cooked in a
special Japanese sauce.

In one of Ichiban’s
delightfully private rooms,
served by a demure geisha
waitress, my wife and I open-
ed with a pair of Shrimp

the show

that the Emerald City is in
ruins and her old friends
have been turned to stone.
With the aid of Billina and
Tic Toc the robot, she does
battle with the wheelers,
strange man-like creatures

with baby-buggy wheels in “

place of hands and feet.

If you don’t mind a quick
tour of Oz without the
musical song and dance of
the original, you'll like
Return to Oz.

SZ the Week!

duly 7-13, 85

SLIPPER LOBSTER TAILS

Sauteed in garlic and
black bean sauce
or just in fresh
_ vegetables
served with rice

Book the loft for
lunch meetings
or private party

s6”

Served 7 days
a week
From 3-8 p.m.

| Black Sheep

f 121 E. 12th St.
. off Lon Lonsdale

Summer Hours
Sun-Tue. 11:30-10:30pm
Wed.-Thur. 11:30-11:00
Fri-Sat. 11:30-11:30

RESERVATIONS: 984- 9595

than raw.

PARK ROYAL
The Centre of Attention for 35 Years.
1950-1985

Sunomono salads ($2.50
each}, harusame noodle,
paper-thin cucumber slices,
and steamed shrimp in a pool
of sweet-sour rice vinegar.

A steady flow of ‘Saki
cheated in clay urns, $2.50
each) washed down an order
of Salmon Maki ($1.90),
sushi without the sadistic
green horseradish; a dish of
Special Assorted Sushi
($7.95), a magnificent array
of raw oceanic morsels set on
a black laquer plate and ar-
ranged in artistic formations
almost too visually striking to
disturb.

The raw fish and saki feast
for two came to $38.

Ichiban is open Tuesday to
Sunday for dinner 5:30 p.m.
to 11 p.m. and Tuesday to
Friday for lunch 11:30 a.m.
to 2 p.m. A temple for wer-
shippers of seafood presented
unbattered, unbuttered, and
otherwise unbrutalized.

-" “Beach Boy .
* Tears For Fea
* + Everly from