The Land of the Rising Midnight Sun : Scandinavian Sushi on the Menu at Likable Fifth and Hawthorn

Should the proposed manned mission to Mars become a reality, watch out. Any bizarre foodstuffs brought back from the red planet are likely to be snapped up by Southern California chefs, garnished with cilantro and sun-dried tomatoes, and served as the evening’s special.

The last, decadent days of the nouvelle cuisine movement sowed an “anything goes” attitude that has resulted in some excellent dishes, some odd but agreeable creations, and any number of experiments that are just as well forgotten.

But, when the urge to attempt something novel strikes knowledgeable chefs, the results can be fairly startling. This is the case with the gravad lax sushi designed by chef Jose Kelly for the appetizer list at the new, likable Fifth & Hawthorn restaurant.

Blend of Two Dishes

Gravad lax has a long and honored history in Scandinavia, where the method of curing raw salmon with dill, sugar, salt and peppercorns was developed as a delicious and convenient means of preserving large, seasonal catches. Sushi--rice flavored with sweetened vinegar and topped with raw fish or other savory tidbits--is a purely Japanese invention. Since, so far as we know, the Vikings never sailed into Tokyo Bay, each of these dishes can be taken as having developed in a vacuum.

Kelly has been to Tokyo--he spent two years in Japan, where he studied art and met his wife--and his gravad lax sushi carefully follows the Japanese style, right down to the pickled ginger that one nibbles as a chaser. After dipping the bundles of fish and rice into soy sauce, first seasoned to taste with the hot horseradish paste called wasabi , one gets the impression that the dill is rather misplaced, but otherwise these odd little packages pack a lot of flavor. Oddly enough, Kelly’s other salmon offering, a grilled salmon steak served with sauce bearnaise, comes to us unaltered from traditional French cuisine.

Seafood is the primary vehicle used by Kelly for his sorties into the realm of contemporary cooking. This might be less his choice than that of proprietors Ed Nicholson and David Witt, who put in years as waiters at Old Town’s sea-oriented Cafe Pacifica before acquiring the former Jilly’s in January. (Kelly, long a cook at Cafe Pacifica, came along for the ride, as did other staff members.)

Cozy Charm Remains

Nicholson and Witt gave Jilly’s a good wash and brush-up and changed the name to Fifth & Hawthorn to reflect its Midtown location, but they retained the cozy charm that always made this place a favorite for a quiet night out. The emphasis on seafood nicely fills a void along the growing 5th Avenue restaurant row.

By and large, the dishes are thoughtfully composed and well-executed. (These two qualities do not automatically go hand in hand.) The mussel bisque, a rich-bodied soup that gets a certain dash from an undertone of curry powder, makes a good, enjoyable starter. Those inclined to go in for a flashier first course should be satisfied by the oysters baked with an herbed bacon-tomato mixture, or the strips of broiled calamari steak served with a brightly flavored cilantro mayonnaise. The giant green-lip mussels, swimming in a bowl of their own broth enriched with tomato and herbs, are tough to remove from their shells, but offer a lot of satisfaction as reward.

The salad list offers a couple of substantial preparations--a grilled chicken breast and broccoli salad, and a Caesar salad tossed with avocado and mixed seafood--that can serve as entrees, or be ordered in half-portions as rather filling starters. The plain Caesar salad, while based on excellent raw materials, needed more of those that combine into its dressing, such as olive oil, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce and grated Parmesan cheese. It simply was too dry, whereas a proper Caesar should be richly moist.

Kelly’s formal entree list reads quite well. Other than a New York steak--one that sounds a little too jazzy with its garnish of mango chutney--the list sticks to seafood finished variously according to French, Oriental, Southwestern and pseudo-Cajun principles.

Surprise Dish

The dish that came as the greatest surprise was a serving of sauteed ahi, finished with toasted pine nuts and a dark cream sauce subtly flavored with basil. Ahi can be disagreeably strong, but Kelly defused this strength by pairing it with an equally strong sauce that made the ahi seem more like meat than fish. The result was richer than most fish preparations and quite seductively delicious.

An opposite effect, and one of great delicacy, was given a large portion of white sea bass, cooked to the flaking stage in steam scented with ginger, scallions and soy sauce. The final product, unsurprisingly, tasted like the delicate fish preparations served in really good Cantonese seafood restaurants.

The menu again turned in the direction of intense flavors with mahi mahi, first marinated in spiced citrus juices and then grilled to a nicely crusty finish. The inspired garnish, a kind of Hawaiian-Southwestern idea (if one also can offer Swedish-Japanese cuisine, why not?), was a fresh, piquant salsa of chopped pineapple and peppers. The Southwestern mood grew more definitely Mexican with the seafood Sonora, a plate of mixed, sauteed fish chunks topped with red sauce, sliced avocado and melted cheese. This was robust and unsubtle, but also a nice, thoughtfully considered play on San Diego’s local brand of Mexican cooking.

The entree list also has such items as catfish coated with mustard, spices and bread crumbs; grilled swordfish with roasted shallots and sun-dried tomatoes; and scallops sauteed with artichokes and a julienne of vegetables.

The menu naturally includes a pasta section--we have come to take this for granted in just a few years--and it begins with linguine in a creamed, garlicky clam sauce. The fusilli nicoise weighs in as a vegetarian offering, the twisted pasta tossed with chopped olives and a sauce of onions and tomatoes. The fettuccine with spicy seafood, described by the menu as a Cajun dish (but not, I guarantee you, a traditional one), was sampled and found suitable for fire-eaters. The little breaded fish patties tumbled with the noodles were nice enough, but cayenne sufficient to spice half a dozen bowls had been included in this single serving, along with snippets of fresh jalapeno pepper. The finished product was rather too much, except possibly for people who like to drink coffee directly from the percolator.

Nicholson, Witt and Kelly brought along Cafe Pacifica’s famed creme brulee as the crown jewel of their dessert list, a wise move indeed. This ultra-rich custard, made with cream instead of milk and crusted with a glass-like coating of broiled brown sugar, is the dessert that sweet dreams are made of. Kelly varies it a bit by placing mandarin orange segments at the bottom of the dish, which is fine, but the custard’s the thing. Also good, but in definite second place to the creme brulee , are the creamy, homemade cheesecakes, especially the richly flavored mocha-chocolate chip version.

As has become true at all but the most formal restaurants, guests have a good deal of control over the size of the check. A couple that order pasta and a glass of wine each can spend as little as $30, including tax and tip; a full dinner, including a moderate bottle of wine, will run $60 to $80.

FIFTH & HAWTHORN

5th Avenue at Hawthorn Street, San Diego

544-0940

Lunch served Monday-Friday, dinner nightly.

Credit cards accepted.