JANUARY 4, 2000
88 ASIAN RESTAURANT
88 Asian Restaurant: A tale of two cultures


By MERIDITH FORD
Journal Restaurant Reviewer

PAWTUCKET -- I don't think I'd ever been to an Asian restaurant that combines Chinese and Japanese cuisines -- but that's exactly what 88 Asian Restaurant does.

It's a challenging combination, because as much as we in the West like to generalize the East, these two cuisines don't have too much in common, except rice -- and even that is prepared differently.

Most Asian restaurants in Rhode Island other than Japanese combine several types of cuisine -- usually regional forms of Chinese, such as Cantonese or Szechuan, with intermittant doses of Thai. Japanese restaurants tend to focus solely on sushi, sashimi, maki and Japanese specialties, rarely adding dishes from other Asian countries.

So it was with a bit of trepidation that I explored the menu -- make that menus -- at 88 Asian. There are two, which was more than a little confusing.

One is forest green, painted with a typical Japanese scene and Japanese characters on the cover, but inside is an explanation of the four elements of Chinese cooking and an array of Chinese dishes such as diced chicken in hoisin sauce and appetizers such as cold noodles with sesame sauce and steamed dumplings.

Another menu, stereotypically red and embossed with Chinese and Japanese characters, has "Chinatown-style" appetizers and dim sum and a variety of chicken, beef, seafood, vegetable and pork dishes. But the last three pages are devoted entirely to Japanese selections such as sushi, sashimi and udon and soba noodle dishes.

The decor is pleasant, but almost as confusing as the menus. At the entrance are several tanks of unhappy-looking live fish, eels, shrimp, lobster and crabs. Across from the tanks are a tiny three-seated sushi bar and a front counter stacked with boxes.

Beyond the sushi bar is the dining room, with chairs in tones of teal-green and black lacquer. The ceiling lights are covered with Chinese lanterns.

At the front of the dining room is a Chinese bazaar, laid out on banquet tables, of sundries such as jade-colored glass elephants and miniature carved statues of rats, oxen, rabbits and tigers, all representing the signs of the Chinese zodiac and all for sale. At the back of the room is a giant television screen that booms videos for karaoke -- something that, our waitress explained, cranks up later in the evening.

In the short amount of time it took our waitress to bring me a bottle of Tsing Tao -- a light, savory Chinese beer -- I was mentally exhausted. When we asked her what the separate menus represented, she seemed as confused as we did.

We finally decided it didn't matter, and ordered a variety of items from both, keeping score for each as the meal progressed.

A tie score

Chinese steamed dumplings were filled with a fresh-tasting pork mixture with a slight touch of barbecue flavor. The dipping sauce had a pungent onion flavor, with very little soy, but a well-rounded sweetness to it. Still, a hot-and-sour soup disappointed -- although it was chock full of egg and mushrooms, it lacked any flavor other than that of hot peppers.

Japanese miso soup came steaming hot and filled with the pungent flavor of the fermented soybeans, ribbons of salty seaweed and tiny cubes of soft tofu. But an oshinko roll -- tiny packages of Japanese pickle rolled maki-style in rice and seaweed and served with wasabi and pickled ginger -- lacked the mouth-puckering flavor these pickles normally possess, and the wasabi and ginger tasted old.

Score: Chinese 1; Japanese 1.

For entrees, a sizzling platter of steak and scallops from the Chinese menu was going to be hard to beat: tender slices of marinated steak were swimming in a tangy sauce with succulent scallops and sliced onions, and a few sprigs of fresh cilantro to balance the spicy heat.

But traditional Japanese katsu don fared just as well -- thin slices of breaded, deep-fried pork and fried egg are served over rice in a lacquered Japanese bento-like box. A brightly flavored sauce brimming with the taste of onion, tomato and garlic was drizzled over the pork.

Score: Chinese 2; Japanese 2.

Tying it together

The two menus offer appetizers varying from $2.50 to $12.95 (for a pu pu platter for two); sushi, sashimi amd maki selections range from $6.95 to $14.95. Other Japanese selections, including soups and traditional Japanese lunch boxes, are $1.50 to $14.95. Chinese dishes are $5.95 to $12.50. There is a moderate beer and wine list, with sake and a full bar.

At a panel I attended at Radcliffe on restaurant reviewing, Alan Richman, reviewer for Gentleman's Quarterly and a winner of several James Beard awards, said that every restaurant has a story to tell, beyond the food.

88 Asian Restaurant tells more than one story -- Chinese and Japanese -- and no matter what the score, it comes up a winner.