Sushi, sashimi and surfboards

242 Café Fusion Sushi is a tiny treasure on an inconspicuous stretch of Coast Highway down the block from the art museum. This little bistro looks like a mixture of a Huntington Beach surfer joint, a 60’s Greenwich Village coffee house and a Tokyo back-street sushi bar.

With only 22 seats, 10 at the sushi counter and the rest at small tables made out of skim boards painted with beach scenes, the room is informal. The walls are adorned with mixed-media art pieces, mostly works by chef/owner Miki Izumisawa. One wall has floor-to-ceiling cubicles, filled with everything from sake bottles and glassware to antique toasters, coffeepots, small paintings, Japanese toys and other tchotchkes. The crowd seems like a hip, artsy youngish group of mostly regulars, dressed down for the occasion.

After working at Sambi, a Japanese restaurant in Downey for 11 years, Tokyo-born Chef Miki apprenticed for six months with the famous Nobu Matsuhisa in Las Vegas before opening 242 in 2000.

She is an artist whose work combines many different elements as well as a spiritual seeker who meditates and does tai-chi. Her artistic nature informs her work as a chef. It is a highly creative fusion of Japanese and international cuisine, from Mexican and Californian to Italian and French.

Fusion cuisine can sometimes be a hodge-podge of competing and disparate ingredients that never achieve integration. Miki’s dishes create a harmonious whole that is even more than the sum of its parts.

On your first visit, you might want to try the Omakase dinner, which varies daily and consists of the chef’s choice of six tasting-size portions from her special menu. There is also a regular menu featuring more traditional dishes.

Our Omakase dinner featured three kinds of sashimi, each with a different sauce. “Fireworks” was tuna, salmon and albacore in a chili, ginger, soy and olive-oil sauce that was slightly sweet and sour, strewn with chopped Japanese mint and daikon radish.

The flavors lingered long on the tongue, at least until the arrival of the “Three Country” sashimi: Shrimp, tuna and salmon in a light wasabi-vinegar olive-oil sauce, topped with a salsa of tomato, onion cilantro, chili and garlic. The garnish was a delectable crispy-crumble of thread-like fried potato noodles. The layers of flavor and texture worked to create an astonishing final effect.

Equally exciting was the buttery yellow-tail in spicy miso sauce. The sauce, a marvelous blend of sweetness and mustardy heat, contrasted with the exquisite texture of the fish. Next was the peppered salmon, prepared tataki style (quickly seared) crusted with black pepper and sesame seed. It had an ethereal smoky undertaste that was as unusual as it was memorable. Our final plate on the Omakase dinner was sushi.

The highlight was a “Sexy Roll” wrapped in a thin potato crepe instead of the usual nori. This culinary orgasm was stuffed with crab, avocado, scallop and a spring mix of lettuces, cilantro and mint. There is no need for dipping sauce when there are so many sensual experiences for your tongue that fully justifies its name.

From the regular menu, we ordered “tacos.” Not like your mama’s, this taco had a crispy, thin, sesame rice cake on the bottom, heaped with spicy tuna, avocado, shredded daikon and wasabi sauce. Another winner.

The only dishes that tasted mediocre were the soft-shelled crab salad with ponzu sauce and the nigiri sushi. Better to order Chef Miki’s special dishes featuring her brilliantly conceived rolls and sparkling sauces for sashimi.

For example, our finale was the extravagant “Aloha Roll.” It looked like a strangely frosted birthday cake in the shape of a giant caterpillar with paper-thin slices of deep pink beet draping the ends while the center was covered with equally thin slices of white daikon.

The top was decorated with a crispy confetti of brightly colored vegetables that looked like candy sprinkles. Beneath all of this were layers of tuna, avocado, macadamia nuts, mint and mango.

A word about the service; if you sit at the sushi bar, it’s simply not an issue but if you are at one of the tables, you may encounter our waitress, whose style went from recalcitrant to indifferent. She may not be the same with regulars, but if you are there for the first time, you may want some guidance and additional input regarding the menu and perhaps even a smile. cpt.31-gourmet-CPhotoInfoK61PEOT920060331iwx0lfknDON LEACH / COASTLINE PILOT(LA)A Feather in the Sky roll and Sexy Shooter are two of the many creations by sushi chef Miki Izumisawa at the Fusion Sushi Cafe.