Sai-Kyo: Best of Two Worlds
14091 Emerald Coast Pkwy (Emerald Coast Ctr), Destin, 650-5319
By Bruce Collier August 10, 2006 Issue
1/2

Vietnam and Japan are pretty close to each other, right? Wrong. All Asian food is pretty much the same, right? Wrong again. Without getting too long-winded about respective ingredients, cultural history, and foreign influence, it is safe to say that both countries cook with similarities and disparities.

Japanese cuisine stresses simplicity of ingredients and elegance of presentation. Until fairly recently, Japan has also studiously avoided foreign incursion into its kitchen. Vietnamese cuisine partakes of the hot, sour, salty, sweet balance that is paramount in Chinese and Thai cooking. And then there’s that persistent French influence, the result of years of colonization by those guys.

Those being the differences, here are the similarities. The cooks of both nations rely heavily on fish and seafood, though beef is also a favorite. Both employ rice as their starch of choice — though I’ve read that the Vietnamese go for French bread in a big way — and both love a good bowl of soup with noodles.

Sai-Kyo, a new place on the Destin block, offers a menu from both kitchens, with little attempt at fusion and an apparent desire to accommodate most tastes. The restaurant is located in a shopping center, nestled among several large businesses, and serves lunch and dinner. Diners can sit at booths along the wall, tables in the center, or at a sushi bar in the back. The decorations are pretty, the staff is friendly, and service is attentive but not rushed.

Tables are furnished with both cloth and paper napkins, and both chopsticks and western cutlery are supplied. I was impressed to see every table equipped with bottles of fish sauce, regular and low-sodium soy sauce, chili garlic sauce, Chinese hoisin sauce, and sriracha pepper sauce. Both Vietnam and Japan are big on condiments.

There’s a sushi menu, offering the usual assortment of rolls, and individual sushi and sashimi. We ordered two rolls — one with vegetables and one with crab and tempura crunchies. Japan continued to rule as we added gyoza (dumplings) and seaweed salad with a sesame oil and vinegar dressing.

The rolls came on a sharing plate, with wasabi and pickled ginger. The vegetable roll was crisp and tasty. The crab roll had an intriguing texture, the crabmeat surrounded by crunchy bits of fried tempura batter mixed into the rice. The pork-filled dumplings were fried golden brown, and stayed hot during their short lifespan. I’m a big fan of seaweed salad, though my friend took time getting used to its somewhat slippery texture. Other appetizers included spring and egg rolls, meatball soup, mussels, pickled vegetables, and soft shell crab tempura.

Sai-Kyo’s Japanese dinner choices include sushi and sashimi combinations, tuna or seafood salads, soups, chicken and vegetable tempura, and beef, fish, and seafood teriyaki. Both of our entrees came from the Vietnamese part of the menu.

I ordered pho — noodle soup, in this case with sliced beef meatballs. Pho is a favorite in Vietnam, and there are restaurants that sell it exclusively. It’s just broth with vegetables, and meat or chicken, or whatever you want, and rice noodles. It comes with a plate of fresh herbs (usually basil and cilantro, sometimes mint), lime slices, fresh peppers, and bean sprouts. The idea is for you to season the soup the way you want it. Fish sauce, sriracha, and chili garlic sauce can also be added. One eats pho with a spoon, fork, or chopsticks. With separate bowls, everyone can have it his way.

My way was lots of basil, giving the soup a slight anise taste. Other pho choices featured chicken, and assorted cuts of beef including flank, tenderloin, brisket, steak, even tripe.

My friend got shrimp, stir-fried with snow peas. It was anything but ho-hum. A generous portion of large shrimp, peeled and butter flied, came on a mound of crisp and sweet snow pea pods. The seasoning was light, allowing the high quality of the shrimp to shine.

We also got a plate of pork fried rice. Like the shrimp, it was a first-rate example of an otherwise commonplace dish. A mound of rice was studded with slices of tender pork, green peas and a judicious seasoning of soy sauce. The lack of the usual scrambled eggs made it less rich, but much of it was boxed to go.

Other items included beef and seafood fried rice, stir-fried squid, pork, and beef, and rice platters with pork or lamb chops, grilled chicken or pork, shrimp, and combinations of same. You can also get chicken, shrimp, or filet mignon with rice and garlic butter sauce. The French may have fled Vietnam, but they left their butter behind.

For dessert, we had fried cappuccino ice cream, and a custard pudding modeled on crËme br°lÈe. Both were fine, not too large and just sweet enough to round out the meal.

I didn’t ask, but Sai-Kyo no doubt takes its name from Saigon and Tokyo. The two syllables pair well enough, but the two cuisines pair even better. Vive la coexistence.

(Top)