Food reporter’s notebook: The best dishes I ate around Sacramento in October

Perfectly-fried kabocha squash nuggets. Miso pesto ramen on a cold autumn night. Turmeric noodles at a plant-based restaurant.

California twists on Japanese and Vietnamese cuisine produced the most memorable meals I ate around the Sacramento region in October. From south Sacramento to downtown Davis to a Citrus Heights shopping center, these dishes were interesting, tasty and innovative, all welcome additions to the local dining scene.

All of these reviews were first released via The Sacramento Bee’s free weekly Food & Drink newsletter, along with opening and closing news, recommended articles and general commentary on the region’s dining and drinking scene. Visit https://bit.ly/3ErLGrF to sign up.

Yakitori Yuchan

You won’t find chicken skewers at Yuji Yokoyama’s downtown Davis izakaya Yakitori Yuchan for now — our server said rising ingredients costs and supply chain bottlenecks have made binchotan grilling untenable. But a trip to 109 E St. still yields tasty Japanese dishes, including some not seen at other Sacramento-area restaurants.

The first dish to come out, mentai kabocha fries ($8.50), was arguably the best. Triangles of deep-fried golden kabocha squash, still fluffy on the inside, were topped with a torched housemade mentaiko sauce, essentially a spicy mayonnaise with tobiko that and aonori (dried blue seaweed flakes).

My Taiwanese American dining companion took one look at the sautéed red bell peppers, onions, eggplant and agedashi tofu over rice in the Brussels veggie donburi ($13) and dubbed the dish “Asian fajitas.” Savory and sweet from a housemade tare sauce, the flavorful vegetables straddled the line between crunchy and tender, and I didn’t feel it necessary to add soboro (seasoned minced chicken) for $1.50 more.

The double spicy tuna donburi (market price, which was $15.50) lived up to its billing, with nice contrast between two different styles of raw fish separated by a wall of cucumber slices. The tuna tartare half was sweeter and took its spice from a housemade hot sauce; poke got its kick from a mayonnaise-based sauce with 10 different kinds of peppers.

A shoyu “Tokyo” ramen ($14) was unexceptional; our server said it’s meant as an introduction to ramen for the uninitiated, which is fair, but I’ll go for something else next time. Another regret: I didn’t think to flip the menu over until after completing my order, and missed out on omu soba, a Japanese omelet containing stir-fried wheat and egg noodles, pork belly, cabbage, onions and more that I haven’t seen at any other area restaurant. Next time ... hopefully with some yakitori, too.

Bodhi Bowl

Bodhi Bowl stands alone as the only one of Little Saigon’s many Vietnamese restaurants thoroughly dedicated to plant-based eating. Most dishes are vegan, and all can easily be made so. Buddha statues and faux flowers cover the snug dining room, giving the restaurant at 6511 Savings Pl., Suite 100, a tranquil vibe even at midday (Bodhi Bowl closes at 5 p.m.) that’s only enhanced by meditative quotes on every other menu page.

But how does the food taste? Some good, some bad, mostly interesting. Mì Quảng ($10.50), a central Vietnamese dish made with turmeric-dyed wide yellow noodles, played well in a tasty hot-and-sour broth with straw mushrooms. A combo plate called com canh công đưc ($15.50) included a delicious hot-and-sour soup popping with crunchy, spongelike taro stem slices as well as okra, pineapple and tomato hunks.

The problems came when Bodhi Bowl tried to use fake meat. I couldn’t tell much difference between the Mì Quảng’s faux shrimp and the imitation pork in a limp jackfruit salad ($8.50); both had the taste and texture of unseasoned fried tofu. The hostess said the animal-free meat is soy-based, so I guess that checks out.

Soybeans were again on deck for dessert with the đậu hủ lạnh ($3.25), a silken tofu pudding. Yet this was a good note to end on: served to-go with coconut cream and ginger syrup in tiny side containers, it was a “choose your own adventure” sweetness journey, a simple, understated delight after Bodhi Bowl tried a bit too hard in an earlier course.

Fukumi Ramen

As the record storm deluged Sacramento on Oct. 24, my mind turned to souuuuup. Binge-watching the new season of “You” from under a fuzzy blanket will do that to a brain, but so will a place like Fukumi Ramen at 5410 Sunrise Blvd., Suite 2 in Citrus Heights and 10271 Fairway Dr., Suite 120 in Roseville (a third restaurant emphasizing small plates, Fukumi Chaya, will open in Folsom’s Palladio shopping center this winter). Note: this meal took place the next night, because I’m not going out driving in that kind of rain and asking a delivery person to do so would be messed up!

Fukumi (Japanese for “atmosphere”) boils Kurabuta pork bones for 72 hours to get the creamy broth for its flagship hakata tonkatsu ramen, a style native to the city of Fukuoka. A soup simply titled “Fukumi Ramen” ($15) with three chasu slices, seaweed and a jammy egg seemed like the thing to order. It was salty, savory and just a little smoky from a healthy ladlefull of black garlic oil, with slippery thin noodles that were easy to slurp down.

The Midori Ramen ($15) was less traditional but even better. A housemade miso pesto dyed the broth green and gave the soup a lighter feel alongside chasu, bean sprouts, green onion slices and thick noodles. Fukumi offers a couple of brothless ramen; if one wants that summery taste but still wants soup, the Midori is my recommendation.

Unfortunately, the non-soup appetizer we started with didn’t hold up as well. The agedashi tofu ($7) was generously portioned like the ramen, and the tofu itself had a pleasant creamy texture. But a soggy fry shell left much to be desired, and there wasn’t quite enough sauce to flavor four large blocks of unseasoned tofu. It’s worth noting that the Citrus Heights restaurant, where we ate, is still just seven months old, while Roseville opened in February 2020.

This story was originally published November 1, 2021 at 5:00 AM.