Mikura

March 27, 2013

9:28 AM

“Try something new!” These are Jack Li’s three favorite words—next to “Welcome to Mikura!”–as he beams widely, greeting every guest entering his well-appointed restaurant.

The gracious host from southeastern China, who spent several years in the restaurant business in New York City prior to living in Berks County, has created an ambitious and delicious menu that focuses clearly on three favorite cuisines of Asia: Thai; Japanese, especially signature sushi rolls and hibachi combinations; and Chinese, from Canton to Hunan. Neighboring Vietnam takes a bow, too, via the appetizer menu with pork-filled egg rolls stuffed with fresh veggies, rice noodles and a chili-lime sauce.

With a calculated approach to wooing long-term devotion from customers, Li selects those dishes that please his customers most, constantly assessing which are popular, and pushing his chefs to fuse flavors, techniques and ingredients into creative dishes that are elegantly presented and truly “outside of the box,” he says. Li actively travels and experiments in pursuit of culinary excellence and good ideas for Mikura. In the kitchen, head Chef Shu presides, having studied in China and Thailand.

Say "Yes" to Sushi

Out front, there’s a comfortable sushi bar, in good hands with Chef Zheng. Seafood is trucked in daily from the docks of Philly so that sashimi and sushi are literally just-off-the-boat fresh. In fact, a sip on the crisp Asahi beer and a bite of coral-pink tuna sushi and you’d swear you were in Tokyo. Striped bass, squid, yellowtail and shrimp are all available, and Zheng’s inventive rolls include a Mango Delight Roll and a New York Roll made with soft shell crab tempura.

The Vegetable Sushi platter is stunning to both eyes and palate, a super-healthy visual painting of tempting morsels. Ten separate vegetables top the sticky sushi rice, tied on with strips of nori (salty, roasted laver seaweed), including oshinko (a bright yellow, zingy pickled Japanese radish) and ninjin (slender carrots blanched and perched aloft). There is also cucumber, avocado and a tempura sweet potato sushi—yes, tempura sushi. This particular fusion is an incredibly lightly batter-fried, semisweet, deeply satisfying treat. In Japan, the delicately flavored Japanese sweet potato is either steamed or prepared as part of a tempura entrée. The notion of strapping it to a molded patty of rice and eating it with soy sauce and wasabi (the super-duper, eyes-running-strong, green horseradish) is brilliant and fun, and definitely addictive.

(Note: Low-sodium soy sauce sits on each table, part of the health consciousness Li brings to Mikura.)

Getting Started

For an appetizer, try the charming Thai Spring Rolls, where pink-and-white crescents of shrimp line up inside the wafer-thin, soft, see-through wrappers with Thai Penang sauce. They cozy up to vegetables, and nothing is fried; these are superlight, soft and smooth with basil-bursts of flavor. (Like many items, these are gluten-free.)

The Main Event

Switching over to a true standard of Chinese fare—wonton soup—the taste buds keep dancing. House Dumpling (Wonton) Soup features homemade tender pork dumplings, green scallions (spring onions), crispy fried onions and a delicately spiced chicken broth. One of the very nicest aspects is that it’s not overly salty—so common at so many other restaurants.

But here comes the General. General Tso, that is. This long-revered, deep-fried meaty mainstay is available as a beef, chicken, or even vegetarian dish. The cubes of General Tso’s Chicken swell in their zippy, garlic-chili pepper sweetness, sprinkled amply with toasty sesame seeds, richly filling the mouth. Scoop some white rice for the marvelous texture experience of slender grains and perfect heat in the meat. As with every dish, Mikura’s presentation is poetic: here several light green cucumber slices and scalloped carrots stretch in a chorus line across the plate, pointing toward a bright pink radish carved into the shape of a flower.

“They are lining up to kiss the flower,” says Li.

They should be lining up to kiss the chicken, for this General Tso’s rendition is one for the record books.

Other options to consider: Red Rose Scallops, Shrimp with Walnuts, and Teriyaki Red Snapper or Salmon. For a filling entrée that is not deep fried, dive into the Thai Sweet Chili Delight. Chicken, jumbo shrimp and beef cover a mound of sautéed, al dente red and green peppers, asparagus, and crispy snow peas; the silky, sumptuous chili sauce flatters each meat and vegetable component.

Sweet Endings

Mini-scoops of creamy homemade ginger ice cream for dessert arrive last, drizzled with a bright strawberry sauce. It’s like chiaroscuro, with the vanilla coldness embracing thick-laden, grated warmth of ginger chunks in a counter-explosion of flavor, a light ending that—according to herbal lore—aids digestion deliciously.

For a truly exotic ending, request Mango with Sticky Rice. The specialty of the house, this guilt-free pleasure transports diners to the tropics. You could eat it all day and never gain an ounce; the only sugar used is coconut milk. Aromatic Thai sticky rice sits on a long green bamboo leaf in a ball, adorned with tangy mango slices dusted by grated coconut. Perfect.

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