No Reservations: Enlightened Zen
I registered that the real estate office on Main Street was gone. I remembered an old toy fire engine in the dusty windows and posters for bands and indie movies, but the place had the feeling of being abandoned long before it disappeared. I registered the appearance of another Asian restaurant, Zen, but didn’t think too much about it until a number of people told me I ought to check it out. “Very good food,” they said, “very polished.”
Brian and Yei-Yu Sun, a brother and sister team with a background in the restaurant business, had been looking to open a place in Northampton. There were several possibilities, but when they saw 41 Main St., they stopped looking. Yei-Yu said they saw the image of something the space could be.
They hired local designer Tom Douglas and several teams of builders to give that image a shape, and the Suns opened their new place in February 2006. From the Chinese character for fine dining that is featured on its logo to the restaurant’s look — lots of blond wood — to the food itself, Zen Restaurant is clean and modern.
On a weekend night, the restaurant is crowded and energetic. Midweek, it is the kind of place where you want to meet friends and linger over a meal. The space is open and airy without being noisy. Soft jazz permeates the room, muting the conversations at the other tables. The lights over each table echo the traditional look of Chinese restaurants, while the rest of the design is modern — a perfect statement about Zen’s fusion of old and new. The windows above the sushi bar are antiques that Yei-Yu bought in China. Ironically, they were taken from buildings that were having more modern windows installed.
But what about the food? The menu ranges from familiar Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Thai dishes to a more eclectic mix of cultures. Traditional starters like Shrimp Shumai and Vegetable Dumplings mingle with fusion specialties like Dynamite, a seafood, vegetable and cheese bake. In fact, the menu categorizes the dishes as Traditional and Specialties. It’s this fusion of old and new that makes Zen exciting.
Brian and Yei-Yu come from a culinary family — their grandfather and father were both restaurant chefs. Of Chinese background, they were born in Korea, then immigrated to the United States. They ended up in Northampton about 20 years ago, their parents drawn here by the safety of the area and the educational opportunities.
Brian and Yei-Yu like this area as well. They buy a lot of their food locally, and opt for organic as much as possible. Yei-Yu told me about going to Chang’s Farm in Sunderland in the afternoon and picking bok choy to be served in the restaurant that night.
One evening not too long ago, we settled into what have to be the best seats in the house: upstairs in the mezzanine, overlooking the sushi bar. We started with the Northern Spare Ribs, Meat and Seafood Spring Rolls, and a medley of dumplings. We ordered mostly off the Traditional menu because I was curious about Zen’s readings of standards like Orange Beef and Sesame Chicken. The interpretations were sweet and traditional, but without the heaviness or greasiness that less attentive cooking can impart. We also got Hae Dup Bap, a Korean dish that takes a bowl of sushi rice with salmon and vegetables and ties it together with a spicy sauce. We weren’t having sushi that night, but I saw a mix of hand rolls, nicely served in a sort of test-tube holder, appear at the table beside me and experienced a pang of longing.
On another occasion, we ordered off the Specialties portion of the menu. We had Mango Curry, a Thai-style curry that mixes chicken, shrimp, mangos and vegetables in a coconut curry sauce, and the Basil Seafood, shrimps, scallops, calamari and mussels in a chili-laced dark brown sauce in which the basil stands out clearly. Both dishes have some heat, but not so much that the other flavors are lost.
You could eat here for a while without exhausting the possibilities. Zen’s menu is divided into Noodles (Thai noodles, Japanese udon and Chinese Mei Fun noodles); Rice (various types of fried rice and sushi rice); the aforementioned Traditional and Specialties; and a full sushi bar. For me, it’s the Specialties that have proven most intriguing: entrees such as Passion Fruit Shrimp, Zen Burgers (ground beef and vegetables in oyster sauce), steamed tilapia on mustard greens, and the Jiang Pao Duck, Peking-style duck sauteed with hoisen sauce.
Prices range from $11 to $18, with the rice dishes at the lower end and the mixed seafood entrees at the higher end. Sushi will run you $3 for cut rolls and up to $10 for the specialties. Dinner for four, including the tip, came to $130. You could easily up that $20 or more by ordering additional wine or sake.
Zen has a good wine list, with four whites and four reds served by the glass. It also offers a number of sakes. I had always had sake served warm, but Brian informed me that the better ones at Zen are served chilled to bring out their flavors. He recommended Rabbit Moon Sparkling, a carbonated and slightly sweet sake with apricot and blueberry overtones.
Desserts are often perfunctory in Asian restaurants. Zen has the traditional green tea ice cream, as well as a cappuccino flavor. But it also offers a banana spring roll, fried banana topped with caramel and chocolate and served over ice cream, and a Lotus Bun a la Zen. This last was inspired by a red bean paste bun dipped in sweetened condensed milk, a combination which Yei-Yu remembers having in China. Zen’s version is filled with lotus bean paste and covered in caramel and ice cream.
Life in the 21st century is about fusion, the mixing of cultures and combinations. In restaurants, that sometimes means that novelty is valued over flavor. Not at Zen, which achieves harmony between taste and innovation.
Originally published in the Daily Hampshire Gazette on: Friday, May 04, 2007
May 25th, 2007 at 8:20 am
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