Cox: Shige Sushi Japanese Kitchen

Toki Roll at Shige Sushi Japanese Kitchen in Cotati, Calif., on March 5, 2013. (Alvin Jornada / The Press Democrat)

Chef Shigekazu Mori at Shige Sushi Japanese Kitchen in Cotati was a sushi chef in Tokyo, so talented that Hiro Yamamoto hired him as a sushi chef at Hiro’s marvelous, eponymous Japanese restaurant in Petaluma. Now he’s got his own place, and its quality is right up there with Hiro’s, Hana in Rohnert Park and Yao Kiku in Santa Rosa.

The room is small and decorated simply, in Japanese style. Chef Shige is behind the seven-seat sushi bar and his wife and another waitress start the service by bringing hot, moist towels for your hands. Western piano music plays on the sound system. It’s all pretty ordinary until the food starts arriving. Then you realize that something out of the ordinary is afoot.

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Chef Shigekazu Mori

Even a dish as common as Seaweed Salad ($3.50 ***) comes to life with a chef like Shige. The seaweed used is kombu, or kelp. It’s rich in minerals and lends umami to foods it’s paired with. The Japanese use it to make dashi, the stock that is the base for many soups and dips. Here, shreds of kombu arrive cold, sprinkled with white sesame seeds and touched with the citrusy soy-based ponzu sauce. Ponzu is tart and tangy. If you like the fizzy kombucha you find at the markets these days, the name of the beverage means seaweed (kombu) tea (cha), although now most American kombucha is made with black tea.

To complement the food, there are eight sakes. If you’re a sake newbie, try the Mu first at $11 a glass and then branch out. Or try the vodka-like distilled spirit called sho chu. Wine goes well with Japanese food, too, and there are five whites and four reds to choose from, all at very reasonable prices. And, of course, there are beer and non-alcoholic drinks.

Here’s a recommendation if you go to Shige Sushi. Order the Shiro Maguro Jalapeño ($9 ****), a magnificent appetizer built up from a bottom layer of peeled slices of de-seeded cucumber on which are laid slices of perfectly fresh, raw, translucent albacore tuna topped with thin rounds of jalapeño peppers. The tuna is cold, the jalapeños are spicy-hot, and each of the eight pieces is dressed in a yuzu (citrus) ponzu sauce, making a combination that challenges, entertains and satisfies your palate all at once.