East Happily Meets East in Vista

Natives of China and Japan will agree that their respective cuisines intersect at certain points.

Both, for example, like the range of excitement that fresh ginger can bring to a dish. Both also agree that soy sauce cuts the mustard. And there is absolutely no question that the Chinese and Japanese not only insist upon the freshest ingredients, but make them taste as if they were picked or caught just moments before cooking.

So much for similarities. The cuisines are enormously divergent, partly because the Japanese willingly adopt Western influences (their tempura batter-fried foods are of Portuguese origin, and their mayonnaise-based dressings borrowed from modern America), while the Chinese have such an enormous repertoire of recipes that the French, by comparison, seem remarkably narrow in their tastes.

A Vista restaurant called Mandarin Shogun offers a menu of both Japanese and Chinese dishes, but the alliance seems one of convenience since the sushi bar is what dominates the dining room. The page of kung pao , Szechwan and sweet-and-sour items at the end of the menu seems to be a mannered alternative to the teriyakis, tempuras and sukiyakis.

The sole hybrid dish is an appetizer, called pork dumplings, that finishes the Japanese gyoza pastries with the hearty, appetizing fried crust associated with Chinese pot-stickers. Served with a decidedly Japanese sauce of soy garnished with snippets of scallion, these make a much better starter than the indelicate tempura (vegetables and bananas cut in oversized pieces) and the age dashi tofu. These hunks of fried tofu that trail streamers of batter coating, were immersed in a soy-scallion sauce of some merit but tasted unpleasantly of over-used cooking oil.

The lengthy Japanese entree list hits many high spots, and some offerings are quite good. One exception was the beef sukiyaki, perforce a signature dish at most Japanese houses, but here a lackluster bowl of dry, crumbly beef and tired vegetables in a sauce that lacked the sweetness and robust appeal of the usual sukiyaki. The guest who ordered it turned her attention to the rice and salad after taking a third tentative taste of the pallid preparation.

The chicken teriyaki, served in great abundance, was a far happier expression of the kitchen’s talents and featured truly tender chicken brushed with the classically sticky-sweet, deeply flavorful sauce. The meat was diced rather than served whole, which is the more usual method. But this departure made the teriyaki even more agreeable.

The one outstanding entree sampled, the ginger pork, was immersed in a fiercely sweet, richly soy-flavored sauce that by rights should have been the basis of the sukiyaki dish. Basically a stew, the entree differed markedly from those commonly encountered on Japanese menus and was a delight to the bottom of the bowl. The shreds of pork were joined by tender onion and zucchini rounds in a broth finely flavored with fresh ginger.

All entrees, including those from the Chinese list, are accompanied by soup (the Japanese miso is typical, tofu-enriched and tasty); sticky rice and lettuce in a heavy dressing of seasoned mayonnaise. Other Japanese entree choices include tonkatsu (deep-fried pork cutlet); sesame chicken; shrimp, scallop and chicken tempuras; swordfish teriyaki; the soup-stew of many ingredients called yosenabe and a long list of fish choices ranging from Canadian salmon to Utah trout to Mississippi catfish (these three, perhaps as a sign of the times, all are farm-raised).

MANDARIN SHOGUN

600 E. Vista Way, Vista

Calls: 758-8288

Hours: Lunch and dinner served daily Monday through Saturday, closed Sunday.

Cost: Dinner for two, including a glass of wine each, tax and tip, $25 to $40. Credit cards accepted.