San Diego Spotlight : Mexico Meets the Orient at a New Style of Restaurant

The table settings at India Street’s new Banzai Cantina include bottles of soy sauce and Pico Pica hot pepper sauce.

This odd coupling could conceivably indicate a lazy style of Szechwan cooking, but because Jose Kelley is in the kitchen, the presence of the soy and hot sauces points to his very own, very personal, very one-of-a-kind hybrid of Japanese and Mexican cuisines.

The “Pacific Rim” cooking that has been with us for several years does occasionally marry Asian and Mexican themes, but there seems no intention at Banzai to follow or create any trend; this is just the way Kelley likes to cook. As chef at the small, enjoyable Fifth and Hawthorn, and now chef/partner at Banzai (which he operates with his ongoing Fifth and Hawthorn employers, Ed Nickelson and David Witt), Kelley seems inclined to cook the way he wants to cook, without reference to outside influences. When you know what you’re doing, this is a rewarding approach to creating and executing a menu, and by and large Kelley seems to have a firm handle on his saute pan.

He cooked some years ago at Cafe Pacifica, where Nickelson and Witt waited tables. He left the business and San Diego for a two-year stint studying ceramics in Japan, which led to his marriage to a fellow student. Given the realities of supporting a family on an artist’s uncertain income, he returned to San Diego to a paying job as chef at Fifth and Hawthorn, where his predilection for pairing East and West blossomed with such offerings as the gravad lax sushi, which cloaked Swedish dill-cured salmon in Japanese wrappings of vinegared rice and seaweed. This may not have been the gustatory equivalent of fresh foie gras with grilled brioche, but it certainly was interesting.

Banzai Cantina, housed in a new, sparely decorated but sufficiently comfortable building owned by Kelley’s family, joins the large but easily overlooked and decidedly unusual colony of restaurants, theaters, bars and cafes near India and Washington streets. The mood, menu and prices seem geared to suit the primarily young and casual clientele.

While some items retain Mexican or Japanese identities, several marry the two; even the deep-fried onion rings are coated in a patented Japanese breading and served with a mayonnaise that has been south-of-the-borderized by the addition of minced cilantro.

The appetizer list leads off with traditional chicken flautas , crisp tubes of tortilla-wrapped meat garnished with guacamole, sour cream and salsa. This is straightforward enough, but the second listing offers a dish called “California” sushi that seems to have little enough to do with the state; these rolled nuggets of shrimp, guacamole, cream cheese and rice arrive coated in a crisp lace of Japanese tempura batter and, on reflection, seem a coy takeoff on chiles rellenos . The idea is clever, even witty, but not outrageous, because the end result is, basically, an exotic fritter.

Kelley can make straight Japanese fare when he likes--the ahi sushi rolled with spicy daikon shoots are excellent--and straight Mexican, also, as in the case of the lustily savory tomatillo soup packed with crisply fried tortilla slivers. He also prepares traditional shrimp and vegetable tempuras, nachos, and chicken yakitori , but again veers into hybrid cooking with the crisp won tons with pineapple salsa, a delightful appetizer (the sweet tartness of the “salsa” brings a smile to the tongue) that may be somewhat highly priced at $5.95. The Caesar salad includes tomato, normally excluded from this dish, but includes whole anchovy filets, which conversely belong in the mix but rarely make an appearance; it is good if not stellar.

Not everything pleases, however. The won ton-topped house salad in purported ginger dressing has the right idea but does not go far enough, and is both weak-kneed in flavor and dependent on inferior greenery. And whatever respect in soup cookery Kelley garners for himself through his tasty tomatillo -tortilla combo vanishes at the first spoonful of the “gazpacho,” a thick, basil-flavored tomato sauce that, if warmed, would be happy poured over spaghetti, but does not work when served cold in a cup. Disconcertingly, neither server nor management inquired why a guest made no more than the merest dent in the portion.

The general tone continues with the entrees, led off by an excellent dish of sliced pork tenderloin sauteed with meaty shiitake mushrooms, soy and a thick, “chewy” Japanese rice wine. The “Japanese paella” exists more in concept than name, since the dish bears barely a tenuous connection to the family of Spanish rice stews classified as paellas; but be that as it may, it is easy enough to enjoy this plate of tempura-cooked shrimp and vegetables, lightly topped with a savory egg-soy sauce and nestled against a bank of Japanese sticky rice.

Other choices range from the simplicity of grilled ahi with cilantro pesto to such jaunty ideas as the salmon club sandwich, which layers grilled fish between bread with bacon, lettuce and tomato. Salmon reappears grilled with a hot-tart sauce of jalapeno peppers, lemon and lime, while the “Japanese bouillabaisse” simmers shell and fin fish and tofu in a spiced miso broth. The menu pays minor attention to meat but does offer a choice between carne asada with black beans and rice and grilled filet mignon with a Cabernet Sauvignon sauce.

The nicest entree may be the sea scallops arranged on what the menu calls a “potato basket,” in reality a broad, eggy, utterly delicious potato pancake. The scallops, which can be difficult to cook, were butter-tender, and a bit of pineapple added a satisfyingly sharp under-flavor to the tart sauce of citrus juices and soy. The menu does not ignore pastas (to do so would be dangerous in 1992), and actually does rather well with the toss of sauteed shrimp, barely spicy Chinese black bean sauce and angel hair; anise and fresh cilantro added strong, enticing flavors. The Manila clams in ginger-garlic sauce, served over black linguine (dyed more than flavored with squid ink) also came off well, but if you like ginger--a perfect seasoning for this dish--ask the kitchen to use less restraint.

Desserts do not cross cultural or culinary boundaries, nor do they exactly hit the heights. In addition to a standard flan, Kelley makes a triple-layer chocolate cake that, like many American cakes, could be a bit more moist.

BANZAI CANTINA

3667 India St., San Diego 298-6388 Lunch Monday through Saturday, dinner nightly Entrees cost $7.95 to $14.50; dinner for two, including a glass of wine each, tax and tip, about $35 to $50 Credit cards accepted