By Merrill Shindler
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RESTAURANT CRITIC

It’s interesting how some people define themselves not in terms of what they do eat, but in terms of what they don’t eat.

Some years ago, a next door neighbor of mine explained, without a hint of irony, that he eats no vegetables. He told me he hasn’t eaten a vegetable in years, doesn’t like them – not lettuce, not broccoli, not mushrooms, not olives, not even peas and carrots. He was utterly inflexible in his adamancy – no veggies for him.

He was an exec at a major TV network. And I always assumed that his intransigent connection with how ghastly TV programming tends to be.

The other day, a person who works out on the elliptical trainer next to mine at the gym informed me that she does not eat Japanese food. This puzzled me for, as in the case of vegetables, the “house” known as Japanese food has many rooms. She told me she had looked into most of them, and had an equal dislike of tempura and teriyaki, of robata and yakitori, of sushi and sashimi. She seemed so normal, and well-toned too. But I had to assume, from the evidence at hand, that she was madder than a hatter.

Dismissing all vegetables is loony toony. Dismissing all dishes Japanese is a denial of one of life’s great joys.

I have long said when asked the inevitable question about my favorite cuisine, that were I to be restricted to just one, it would be Japanese – and I could easily narrow that down to just sushi and sashimi.

There’s a simple elegance to the food that appeals to the aesthete inappropriate contradiction in terms) – everything tastes exactly like what it is, with a minimum of fuss, a finite amount of clutter. It’s “clean” food in its purest terms.

Some time ago I wrote enthusiastically of a sushi bar in Lomita called Kamiyama, a diminutive space in a mini-mall that turns out some wonderful seafood and rice combinations. Recently the namesake, Travis Kamiyama opened a second outlet on Sepulveda Boulevard in Manhattan Beach, which is even more diminutive on one notable level – it offers no place for in-house dining at all.

What the new Kamiyama follows in is the current trend of takeout-only sushi restaurants, a trend pioneered by Asakuma in West Los Angeles, which has one sit-down restaurant and three takeout branches. Asakuma, in turn, follows the many supermarkets that do fine business selling prepackaged sushi of varying quality – you can get sushi-to-go at Whole Foods, Bristol Farms, Trader Joe’s, Gelson’s – the list goes on.

In the case of the takeout at Kamiyama, it’s about as good as it gets. (Though I do wish there was a counter with a few seats.)

For those who want to throw a bash, there are seven pre-assembled orders ranging from $35.95 for the 50-piece Value Mini Platter, to $98.95 for the 71-piece Party Platter A (spicy tuna roll, California roll, Goliath roll, Aquarium roll and sundry sushi).

There’s also a mix-and-match menu that allows you to put together quite a nice feed from any of the 24 specialty rolls, 15 traditional rolls, 19 sushi, and five salads. Which means that if you, like me, have never been able to get your fill of the Kamiyama creation called the Krunch, this is a chance to do it in the privacy of your home. The Krunch is a roll of shrimp tempura, avocado, spicy mayo and tempura-coated rice, topped with salty-sweet eel sauce; it’s a life-affirming sushi roll.

Let me also speak well of the roll called SLUR, which stands for Salmon Lover’s Ultimate Roll” – a crab and asparagus roll topped with Norwegian salmon. And the “Fabulous Halibut Roll” which is, oddly, made with albacore and yellowtail, along with halibut). And the dazzling spicy wasabi scallop roll.

The experience here does not consist of inhaling sake while buying beers for the chef. It consists of taking it home, and eating it all. Hopefully, while watching an episode of Iron Chef.