Photo by Vicki Artorntamarat
The kitchen at O-Ku’s Howell Mill Road location is constantly busy. Night after night, its packed tables order nigiri, specialty rolls, temaki. But there’s one dish guests want the most, and that’s the crispy rice. “Our line cooks are always like, ‘Oh my gosh, how many more are we going to make tonight?’” says Chef Cuong Le, assistant culinary director for O-Ku Concepts. “It flies out the window. But those same line cooks, when they come to eat, that’s what they’re going to get. So it’s a love-hate relationship.”
O-Ku’s crispy rice stands apart from other takes on the dish with its ingredients. The rice itself is the restaurant’s homemade, vinegar-based sushi rice, which has a lighter texture and taste than traditional rice. It’s stuffed inside a hako-zushi mold to release the air and make it compact. Then it’s coated in cornstarch and fried in soybean oil to keep it gluten-free. After, it’s topped with a medley of diced fresh fish—usually hamachi, tuna, and salmon—tossed in yuzu kosho (a spicy-citrusy Japanese condiment), lemon, and soy sauce. “The hot rice and cold fish temper each other out,” Le says. “It appears so simple, but it’s actually more complex than people expect. I’m glad it’s a dish everyone is enjoying.”
The restaurant only began serving the crispy rice a year and a half ago, but it’s already become one of their signature menu items. “Most people, we love crispy, we love crunchy, we love texture. We also love umami, which is on everyone’s minds these days,” Le says. “The way we’ve made our crispy rice, it really is the perfect bite.”
