RESTAURANT REVIEW : Japanese Subtlety: A Taste as Smooth as Silk

I want to be sold on Japanese food. I can see the subtlety of it, all right--the problem is, I’m afraid I see too much subtlety, an unsubtle degree of subtlety. The palette of flavors is so subdued that in paranoid moments I’ve suspected the whole thing of being a con job: the emperor’s nouvelle cuisine , as it were, which can only be tasted by the pure in heart.

I’d as soon be in the cheering section, though. And I certainly admire the precision and lyricism that Japanese chefs, such as Tomihisa Hasare of Cafe Blanc, bring to French cooking. So when Hasare opened a Japanese restaurant called Silk, I decided to address my doubts.

Silk calls itself “A Sushi Bar And!” and there are a few unusual things buried in this short menu, so I took along a Japanese friend and two knowledgeable Nipponophiles to light the way. And anyway, it’s more comfortable to have a crowd with you on this exceedingly Hollywood-colorful block of Hollywood Boulevard.

There is a sushi bar at Silk, of course, but most of the menu offers cooked dishes. The chicken teriyaki, for instance, is something that could show up without comment at Cafe Blanc: a nearly boneless half-chicken, grilled, sliced and served on top of a hidden bed of spaghetti. The chicken juices and teriyaki sauce are exceptionally sweet and pleasant, and on the side one finds not only rice but chunks of carrot and broccoli in a pleasant cream sauce. It comes with a little bit of bland Japanese soup and a great little salad in, I guess, ginger-miso vinaigrette.

A couple of dishes served the same way, cuddling a bit of spaghetti, come in ponzu , a lemony sauce of finely minced vegetables, mostly sweet peppers and carrot. My Japanese guest said there was some bitterness in the sauce. True, it was as if there were Korean pickled cabbage in the mix. It did not stop me from eating the wonderful salmon, though.

Everybody liked the agedashi, chunks of tofu dipped in sesame seed and deep fried. They came out with a beautiful custardlike texture, and if I ever have to eat a lot of tofu, I hope it’s all agedashi. There were some appetizerish things on skewers, such as beef (which had not been subjected to any tenderizer, I can distinctly affirm) and giant clam (pleasantly chewy). Isobeage is a little unusual: bits of fish wrapped in shiso leaf and deep fried. The shiso leaf seemed there mostly to provide a handle for the fish, if one wasn’t using chopsticks.

Even avoiding the sushi stuff, though, there were still a number of dishes I couldn’t work up the slightest enthusiasm for. Onagiri is still onagiri, even at Silk: rather filling wedges of sticky rice mixed with the tiniest bits of salmon and half-wrapped in seaweed. Hiyayakko is extremely bland cold tofu, a dish served in the summer, so I’m told. A substitute for an ice cube, then. OK, I can accept that, though I’d usually prefer the ice cube.

And finally an extremely authentic Japanese dish, a working-class snack, as I understand it: chazuke. To wit--rice, salmon and spinach with a lot of green tea poured over it. It struck me as a table accident that had been elevated into a tradition.

One of the desserts was pretty good, though. The cheesecake had a lot of character, and it came in fresh strawberry sauce. You could also get fresh fruit, cut with the never-failing Japanese eye for beauty.

My guests were a little defensive. Japanese food is much better in Japan, they insisted; can’t get the right ingredients here, the usual ethnic food problems. I’ll take their word. And I’ll say Silk is pretty good for a California Japanese restaurant. And I’ll still prefer Cafe Blanc.

Silk, 6721 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood; (213) 465-2028. Open for lunch Monday through Friday, for dinner Monday-Saturday. Beer and wine. Street parking. MasterCard and Visa accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $20 - $45.