|
Good Karma
New Chinese Restaurant
Offers Taste Travel Adventures
We loved this light and flavorful dish and would have enjoyed it
more if Chef hadn’t been stingy with the black beans.
Contemporary Chinese: The dining room at
newly opened Karma
By Mark Goldberg
I always approach a “Chinese restaurant” with a grain
of soy. I guess it’s because most of us grew up with the strangely
textured beef, cornstarch-thickened sauce and msg-enhanced flavors
of our youth-driven Chinese food adventures. Well, take a breath of
fresh Asian air, because that’s what you’ll discover at Karma, a
six-week-old multi-Asian bastion of everything you’ve always wanted
a “Chinese restaurant” to be. As in clean and natural tasting,
original and focused on our local flavors.
The room is large and open, although a bit dark. But
it has a true Asian feel, a full bar and an open kitchen.
Surprisingly, Karma’s Executive Chef/Co-Owner Michael
Schukar was raised in New Orleans, not Asia. He did spend time in
China, however, as well as in the United States’ upscale Chinese
kitchens. He even worked in Hawaii for a spell, where he fell in
love with the local fish that he now flies in regularly to Karma.
One such is the Hawaiian big-eye tuna that Schukar
transforms into a marvelous Tuna Tataki ($14), seared rare with just
a little salt and pepper. He then boils garlic until it’s sweet and
blends it with a ponzu of lemons, lime, yuzu, oranges and a little
mirin to give the tender tuna a more robust flavor. Wild Mushroom
Gyoza ($9), Japanese dumplings, had their multicolored stuffing
sautéed in a pan with butter and garlic before being minced. The
finished dumplings were steamed, then pan-seared and placed in a
French/Asian ponzu cream that highlighted the dish. An Asian Beef
Carpaccio ($10) arrived at table with a unique look. Not your
Italian carpaccio, these thin slices of New York strip were
pan-seared, then wrapped around bits of roasted red pepper, cucumber
and avocado and placed over a slice of crisp lotus root. Each was
adorned with a bit of heat from a kimchee/Siracha ponzu.
On the sushi side, we selected a Spicy Hamachi Roll
($9) featuring that big-eye tuna once more. This time it was spiced
with black pepper and a touch of the Korean siracha and mixed with
avocado, scallions and lime zest. The restaurant’s namesake Karma
Roll ($14) combined a crunchy shrimp tempura and crabmeat with
avocado and topped the roll with tuna and a drizzle of sweet soy.
Our wok dish was Chicken With Black Bean Sauce ($16).
Here was another “typical Chinese dish” that was not so typical.
Rather than using oil, Schukar poached his chicken — beautiful moist
and tender white meat — in stock to make it lighter. Then he
stir-fried it with a little oil and high heat, along with garlic,
fermented black beans and Xio Xing rice wine that had been
fermenting in French oak for 20 years. We loved this light and
flavorful dish and would have enjoyed it even more if Chef hadn’t
been stingy with the black beans.
The Spicy Charred Rare Tuna ($25) was a final return
to the big-eye, with the spice being a mix of yuzu, orange rind,
cayenne and Szechwan pepper. Because of its heat, Schukar added goat
cheese sushi rolls to quell things a bit. We thought the
possibilities of adding the cheese directly onto the fish might have
been more immediate and tasty, if not as pretty. A two-pound Crispy
Whole Red Snapper ($25) was excellent, the Gulf coast fish prepared
with red Thai chilies, shallots, cilantro and a soy/mirin reduction.
There was sweetness from the wine, citrus from the cilantro and heat
from the chilies; the snapper itself was perfect.
As noted, Schukar is from New Orleans and his
grandmother taught him how to make Bananas Foster when he was young.
But Bananas Foster has no place in an Asian restaurant … unless you
tweak it a bit. Enter Banana Caramel Egg Rolls ($12). The Foster is
still traditional, the bananas sautéed with cinnamon sugar and dark
rum. Then the giant egg roll is made and tossed into a
cinnamon/sugar mix and the banana is inserted. Schukar considers it
a Creole/Asian fusion. We considered it delicious.
******
Karma
-
ADDRESS: 2325 Galiano St., Coral Gables
-
PHONE: 305-445-2293
-
HOURS: Lunch weekdays 11:30 a.m. – 3 p.m.; dinner
Monday to Thursday 3 p.m. – 11 p.m., Friday to midnight;
Saturday 5 p.m. – midnight; closed Sunday
-
FOOD: Classic Chinese and Japanese, traditional
sushi and French/Asian fusion
-
SERVICE: Well-trained and personable
-
PRICES: Appetizers $5 to $14, sushi to $14,
entrées $19 to $36
-
WINES: Small but well represented. Great sake
-
ATMOSPHERE: Warm Asian feel
-
RESERVATIONS: Suggested
-
CREDIT CARDS: MasterCard, VISA, American Express
|
