Rochester-based food truck Stingray SushiFusion, which has
been around since 2013, blends Latin and Japanese cuisine. And just recently
its owners Radhames and José
Veras joined the ranks of other local food trucks who have expanded their biz
to brick-and-mortar joints.
When I first
learned about the food truck, I told this joke (to sparse laughs) for at least
a week: “I’ll bet it gets confusing when a customer says, ‘No soy!'” Apparently
not everybody loves a bilingual dad joke. But I won’t be dissuaded.
In truth,
Stingray was everything I needed but didn’t know I wanted, even though
everything about it initially threw me off: I prefer venues where I can sit
down, so food trucks are generally not my thing. Ever-encroaching gentrification,
my experience as an engineer working near nuclear submarines, and flat-out poor
culinary attempts by other eateries make me bristle at the term “fusion.” Also,
I am deathly afraid of stingrays (RIP Steve Irwin). However, when I finally
tried the food truck’s offerings at a festival, I was in love.
After that I
looked for its schedule like it was a band on tour. During the summer I feel
like Ahab, searching for my whale each week. Father-son co-owners Radhames
(“Rod”) and José Veras were
not playing around when they developed the idea for the food truck six years
ago, and now I don’t have to keep chasing them, because they opened a sit-down
restaurant at 1921 South Avenue called Kocina Stingray SushiFusion 2Go.
The basis of
Stingray SushiFusion was Rod’s desire to branch out on his own after working as
a chef for years, including more than 10 years as a sushi chef. He says he loves
making sushi, but also loves the food from his Dominican and Puerto Rican roots
(as do I). Anyone can tell you that buying or leasing a brick-and-mortar
restaurant can be prohibitively expensive, so his father José suggested and then acquired a
food truck.
The truck’s
menu has been a hit for six years now, but Rod missed his customer base for the
four months he had to shut down in the off-seasons. Additionally, the truck is limiting
for his creativity; like a fish moving to a bigger tank, his innovativeness
would be allowed to grow in a larger space. Eventually, he had to obtain a
commissary kitchen to store and prepare his food, and he decided that he should
make turn it into dining venue.
Kocina
opened officially in February. Finally, Rod has the space to create his
imaginative new dishes, his fans can patronize the business all year round, and
new customers have an established place to try a new type of food.
From bottom
to top, Rod and José have made
sure they stayed authentic and respectful of both cuisine styles and cultures
that they merged together. The name “Kocina” is a play on the Spanish word for
“kitchen” (“cocina”); using the K is an acknowledgement that Japanese does not
use a hard C in its translations. The restaurant’s interior merges both
cultures as well: There is the traditional sushi bar to the left and big screen
pictures of the menu with brilliant images of the menu items. Latinx music is
bumping in the background, whetting your appetite for both food and dance. The
artwork on the walls look similar to Japanese paintings, but depicts scenes of
Central and South American folks enjoying life, and the walls are bright and
the tables are vibrant colors. All of that paired with the nearly all-glass storefront,
I felt like I was either be sitting in a beach café in Izu or Isla Verde.
Before Rod
and José even founded their
food truck, they experimented with numerous self-made recipes to make sure the
various flavors and textures of the Dominican, Puerto Rican, and Japanese
ingredients complemented each other. They were not going to be lazy and just
throw Goya salsa picante on a California roll and charge $15. The food is
unique, of excellent quality, and the effort they put into each dish shines
through.
My first
roll was a Pica Spicy Salmon Roll ($9), a “simple’ roll stuffed with raw salmon
in chili oil, scallions, and Thai basil, which tastes lightly spicy and fresh
at the same time. The heartier Merengue Roll ($9.75) contains beer-battered
shrimp, bacon, Sriracha, and avocado, and is topped with sweet plátanos and Stingray Sauce, a
sweet-spicy sauce of Rod’s creation.
No Rochester
restaurant would be complete without a “plate.” Stingray’s version is the Trasher
Plate ($11), a bed of sushi rice topped with beer-battered shrimp, grilled
steak, bacon, cucumber, tomatoes, scallions, sweet bell peppers, fried garlic
and onions, ponzu, ginger mayo, Sriracha, and Stingray Sauce. If you’re not a
fan of steak and bacon, there is also a Trasher Maarino ($13) with tuna,
salmon, and shrimp; or the Quinoa Trasher ($9) with the aforementioned veggies,
tempura cauliflower, and red quinoa. Specials are always rotating; when I went
I caught the Japanada ($5), a Panko-encrusted, extra-crispy empanada with beef cooked
in sake and a sweet-spicy oil.
José gives his son a lot of for
making a business out of merging two things he loves, and also bringing a style
of cuisine to folks who may not think they would like it. He describes Rod’s
creations as a gateway to original sushi, which some don’t think is enticing.
However, I would also wager he is also bringing Latinx cuisine to folks who may
not otherwise wish to try it.
This article appears in Jun 26 – Jul 2, 2019.
