Lean cuisine on the Japanese scene

Fujiyma-Dish — Fujiyama’s baked salmon stuffed with snow crab with eel sauce and topped with sesame seeds.

With artful skill, Chef Simon Dendi sliced a cucumber into curls and decoration for one of Fujiyma’s signature dishes – the sashimi naruto roll.

It’s one of the healthy dishes served at the Luling Japanese restaurant that’s attracting customers who not only want a healthier dish, but one that Simon can tailor individually for their diet and taste.

Dendi said an increasing number of customers are on a diet and many do not want or cannot have the rice customary included with rolls. This isn’t a problem, he said.

Chef Simon Dendi making a sashimi naruto roll.

“We can always take the rice away or substitute,” he said. “I see a lot of people on a diet or lowering carbs so they’ll go with the rolls.”

This is when the sashimi naruto roll is a natural choice with no rice, lean meat and a cucumber roll that can bring the dish to leass than 200 calories.

The sushi roll features fresh salmon, tuna, yellowtail, snow crab, avocado and smelt roe. Together they are layered tastefully and served with a wasabi sauce and pickled ginger.

There are numerous choices in rolls, but customers can and do design their own, too.

Additionally, sauce choices include spicy mayo, honey wasabi, ponzu sauce and sriracha.

The family-owned restaurant, located next to Sears, moved to the location 1-1/2 years ago when the shopping center was remodeled, said Manager Denny Stover. But the move was only two doors down in the same shopping center, bringing to five years there and its lean cuisine draws a steady crowd.

While the rolls and sushi are big draws, Dendi said there are those who want cooked dishes.

One of them, bearing the simple name of “Baked Salmon,” offers salmon roll stuffed with snow crab that is baked. It’s actually a mouth-watering appetizer served with eel sauce and topped with sesame seeds.

The sashimi naruto roll adorned with cucumber and wrapped in thinly sliced cucumber.

A full hibachi entrée menu caters to vegetarians and meat eaters, as well as children.

Stover said their menu also includes salads with a popular item being Chef Special Salad hat comes with additions like squid and marinated seaweed. There’s also seaweed salad and Sushi Bar Salad among the choices.

Served with everything from cucumbers to squid, Dendi said their salads are large and filling.