Mountain Range
By B.A. Nilsson

San & Bada

1800 Western Ave.(Cosimo’s Plaza), Guilderland, 456-2111. Serving lunch Mon-Fri 11-:30-2 dinner Mon-Thu 4:30-9 Fri 4:30-10, Sat 4-10, Sun 4-9. MC, V.

Cuisine: Japanese and Korean

Entrée price range: $13 (chicken teriyaki) to $24 (nine sushi-nine sashimi combo with extras)

Ambiance: small, clean and quiet

The name of the restaurant San & Bada conjoins two Korean words, which translate as “mountain” and “ocean” and promise a wide-ranging culinary experience. Provided you’re game enough to try some of the wilder-looking denizens of the latter.

Sushi master Eddie, formerly at Latham’s now-defunct Ginza, has trimmed that restaurant’s menu of Japanese and Korean offerings to what seems to be the favorite among area Asian fans.

The emphasis is on sushi, and the bar—not too expansive, blonde-wood handsome and putting you at the heart of the action—clearly is the focal point. And this is where happy hour takes place each afternoon, a three-hour stretch during which you can get a fantastic discount on nigiri (individual pieces of sushi) and makimoto (sushi rolls). Ten pieces of the former, with soup and salad, runs $15 during this stretch; the latter, which gets you three sushi rolls, is a dollar less.

All the popular fish are represented, as well as favorite non-fish items like egg custard and seaweed salad. Salmon, scallops, shrimp, mackerel and three types of tuna are available, and for the even-less squeamish you can try octopus, sea urchin and squid.

No power on earth will persuade my wife to eat raw fish, and she watches with some dismay as my daughter joins me for a taste or two. The kid is such a salmon fan that she’ll eat it cooked or raw, and enjoyed the version Eddie offered, a good-sized morsel of fish atop a spear of vinegared rice.

But she likes to dredge it through a lot of soy sauce, which I fear overwhelms the delicate flavors of the fish. A drop of soy sauce, a dab of wasabi, and you’re set.

Sushi rolls give you a more complicated array of flavors, sometimes without even having fish involved. Kappamaki features cucumber and sesame seeds; a taco roll (of all things!) comprises salsa, lettuce and cheddar cheese.

The beloved California roll surrounds a piece of fabricated “crab” with avocado, cucumber and fish eggs; head for Boston and the “crab” and avocado are mated with shrimp, lettuce and mayonnaise. But wait! The New York roll is a Boston roll that adds—you guessed it—apple, while the Alaska roll threads together slices of salmon, avocado and cucumber.

I enjoy the spicy tuna roll, which adds a little (but not much) heat to the equation, and the construction of the rolls—a cylinder of rice surrounds the main ingredients, bound into a circlet of seaweed—makes them easy to savor.

Be sure to give yourself the chance to watch Eddie at work. It has to be a task of diminishing return by virtue of its repetition, this sushi making, but he crafts each like a work of art (which, on a most fundamental level, it is).

Korean cuisine is represented here only sketchily, but the Albany area hasn’t exactly been supportive of restaurants devoted to that fare. Which is a shame, because (at least based on the bustling restaurants on 32nd Street) there are wonderful dishes to be explored here.

At least try the bulgogi ($15, beef or chicken), a zesty combination of meat and onions and some other choice vegetables. The beef version, which is where I believe this combo works best, lights up the flavor of the meat with a skillful blend of seasonings. A side of kimchi (spiced fermented cabbage) offers one of the many contrasting flavors typical of a Korean meal.

Your beef or chicken can get teriyaki flavored, for $15 or $13, respectively; add three more dollars and get it in a complete dinner box, which includes miso soup, a green salad and a large lacquered box with meat, a selection of shrimp and vegetable tempura, rice and more salads (rice noodles, edamame and more greens). It’s a sensational array, one that my daughter never fails to order because she enjoys the artistry of the presentation as well as the meal itself.

Another meat presentation is the sushi-like negimaki, which wraps chicken or beef around a center of seasoned scallions and presents the result in bite-sized roll portions. Again, a richly flavored dish—we sampled the chicken version ($13.85)—that presents a unique approach to this combination.

Another Korean dish is a soup called gji gae, which mixes kimchi with a rich broth and adds pork ($10) or tofu ($9) with a resultant effect that’s not overly spicy but certainly dramatic and satisfying.

Among the many appetizers, the steamed pork dumplings ($4.50) were a standout, while my wife, who takes tofu seriously, enjoyed the agedashi tofu ($4.50), in which the stuff gets an attempt at flavoring by frying it and serving it with ponzu sauce.

This doesn’t even touch on the seafood offerings, like a mixed teriyaki plate ($23) that skewers shrimp, lobster, scallops and vegetables or the unajyu don ($15), broiled eel on rice, which I have yet to sample.

Your favorite sushi stop may simply be what’s in your neighborhood, so if you’re in Guilderland, you’re lucky. San & Bada has friendly service and a welcoming atmosphere, not to mention very accomplished cooking; it’s worth the trip if you want to abandon your own neighborhood for an evening.

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