Wilmington dreams of sushi

When construction professionals speak of DIY'ers falsely empowered by watching YouTube videos, they are talking about me, specifically.

There was the time I set out to deconstruct a wood pallet and turn it into a cooler stand-ice chest. In the YouTube tutorial the DIYer promised you would only need a few pallets, bits of hardware, screwdriver and Dremel Ultra-Saw. In reality my husband and I needed the aforementioned supplies, plus a week of vacation time, two rounds of Bloody Marys and marital counseling. The end result was not a Pinterest-worthy back deck furniture piece, but instead a cattywampus block of wood with nails sticking out of it -- a tetanus hazard that likely depreciated the value of our home.

Six years ago I tried making my own sushi after moving to a rural community where I was told of sushi, "around here we call that bait."

After a burned pot of sushi rice and suspicious salmon from a Winn-Dixie, I now know better than to DIY it, but I am still dying to learn.

Sushi chefs make it look so easy. They run a sharp blade down filets of fish, cutting it into translucent pieces. They mold clumps of sushi rice with two fingers, carefully and paint on a thin drip of soy sauce, sometimes laced with wasabi. It is a very simply-composed dish that I think would be nearly impossible for a peanut-butter-jelly-sandwich-level chef like myself to make.

I enlist the help of not just any sushi chef, but the most experienced sushi chef in Wilmington -- Danny Ke of Genki Sushi (4724 New Centre Drive.) I peer over the sushi bar to watch him make sushi during one of their slow times -- 3 p.m. on a Wednesday (the restaurant still packed.) He lightly taps a chefs knife onto a quail egg, palms the yolk and sets it atop some tuna tartare.

"Egg is for creaminess and sweetness," he told me.

Ke's wife of 18 years, Lana Ke, confirms my suspicions.

"It would be all over me in a huge mess if I tried to do that," she said.

Ke slaps his hands together after dipping them in ginger and with rhythmic and choreographed movements, uses fingers to press fish into rice for classic nigiri sushi. It looks easy, but I know better.

Ke has been at this a long time, since 1994, in fact. After moving from China to the Big Apple he worked his way up in sushi restaurants. He moved to this region in 2003, helping to open sushi restaurants in Wilmington and Myrtle Beach. In 2014 Genki founders Masayuki and Reiko Sugiura hand picked their successor in the Ke family so they could retire. Considered Wilmington's premier sushi spot, Ke said they have held true to their promise to keep everything authentic.

Even if sushi isn't your thing, chef Ke has carried on a tradition started by the Sugiuras -- homemade caramel candies passed out after dinner and homemade sake. He is also in the kitchen prepping hours before lunch and dinner services. He makes his own soy sauce even lighter in sodium than the low-sodium versions carried in grocery stores. He makes his own miso, and tamago eggs, and can use a knife to cut salmon into a flower, cucumbers into swans.

There are a number of authentically-Japanese items on the menu I didn't recognize, having grown up eating sushi that was stuffed with cream cheese and deep fried. A Hijicki seaweed salad has black blades of seaweed grass mixed with some vegetables and edamame, lightly tossed in a dressing.

"When we put that on the table, they know," Ke said, talking about customers who come from Japan and realize Genki is the real deal. Yes, there are some rolls on the menu with cream cheese, but only because customers kept asking. As for those who don't consume raw fish, Ke said he has swayed some customers to try it in the past.

"I'll ask them how they like their steak and when they tell me rare -- I say it's the same thing, just seafood," he said. He coaxed one customer into moving from a California roll to a crunchy tuna roll (the best sushi roll to try for someone new to it all.)

Ke has such high standards when it comes to selecting his raw fish, his wife, Lana, said he knows how long it has been out of water with a quick glance. Drivers sometimes get irritated with all the product he sends back, but Ke said he will serve only the best.

He encouraged me to give sushi making at home another go.

My advice? Go to Genki and get real sushi from a real sushi chef. Order the cooler-ice chest on Amazon.