Furusato has a great future

Furusato Japanese Restaurant
10012 82 Avenue Edmonton

The Diner
Colette’s son, Jason, spent a year in Japan. We certainly consider him the expert in the family when it comes to Japanese food. He has mentioned Furusato several times. It was time to try it.
The front of the restaurant is very humble. It is a storefront on Whyte Ave in Edmonton decorated with wooden planks. When you pull on the heavy front door, you enter a teeny tiny foyer that helps to keep the Canadian winter cold out of the dining area. The entrance is surrounded by a Japanese styled, rough cut, wooden décor. Photos of people adorn the walls, Japanese décor hangs from the ceiling and a lucky golden cat waves at you from the kitchen counter top. The restaurant holds about 50 people maximum and you can sit at the sushi bar. Quiet Japanese music quietly filters into the room.

The Dinner
We ordered all three Japanese beers on the menu to taste and share. All three had one thing in common: they were delicate. While they tasted like beer, they were not bitter nor heavy. Immediately, we were reminded that Japanese food is subtle and a strong drink would overpower the food. The Asahi beer was very dry; the Sapporo was so delicate that it was a little boring; the Kirin Ichiban was like a delightful delicate, fruity Belgian beer. We ordered several things to share.
Our first course was a clear, delicate soup. Floating in the lovely broth were thin slices of lettuce, green onion and mushroom. Gyoza was second. Six beautifully grilled delicate dumplings perfectly shaped and accompanied by a vinegar and soya dip. All I can say is, “Delicious!”
Gomadare spinach salad came soon after. It is spinach that has been blanched, chilled and mixed with a sesame dressing. It tasted like spinach in a peanut butter sandwich. I know most people wouldn’t appreciate this analogy but I love spinach and I love peanut butter. Both flavours were delicately playing with each other on the tongue. First one would dominate the palate, then the other. What a beautiful dance!
The Yakatori Chicken was advertised in the menu as chicken and vegetables grilled on a skewer. The vegetables WAS green onion: about a 2 cm long piece between each of the three chicken cubes. The teriyaki sauce, of course, was delicious.
Sashimi was our fifth course: two salmon, two red snapper and two scallops on sushi rice. Mix a wee bit of wasabi and picked ginger into your soy for dip. The salmon was bright and colourful and displayed a marbling of fat. The red snapper was mild and fresh. The scallops were sliced in half and placed on the rice. They were like butter-- smooth, creamy and promisingly gentle in flavour. They were David’s favourite—can’t use too much wasabi or you won’t appreciate how delicate this sahimi is.
As if that wasn’t enough food, we still had a sixth course: Beef Shoga. It was described in the menu as strips of beef with ginger flavour. It was stir fried beef strips with a sprinkling of freshly grated ginger on top accompanied by stir fried cabbage, broccoli, onion, green onion, carrot and been sprouts. These came out on a cast iron platter shaped like a cow attached to a wooden plank in a similar shape – served kind of like they do fajitas in Mexican restaurants.
All of this food was on the table at the same time. We mixed and matched dishes with each other and discovered that we can make some very delicious combinations. The first combo was the dipping sauce. Colette added wasabi to the Goyoza sauce and poured in the teriyaki sauce from the chicken. Mmmmm… good! She also added the spinach Gomadare to the Beef Shoga – another brilliant move.
At the end of the evening, we decided that Jason really knows Japanese food. With the three beers the total came to $55.00 before tax and tip. We will be returning to Furusato soon.