Stiff competition for sushi vendors

Sushi is  now the lunch of choice for many Whangarei people who had never heard of it a decade ago.
The earliest recollection some of them have of sushi is of their first encounter with wasabi, used to flavour the cooked vinegared rice, topped with salmon, chicken, avocado or other ingredients and served rolled in dried seaweed.
As wasabi - or Japanese horseradish -  was an unknown garnish, enthusiastic Kiwis plastered it on, took a big bite then found their heads exploding.
The owner of the Ezumi Japanese Restaurant in Bank St, Mansik Kang, said the best way to deal with the heat of a wasabi overdose was to breathe through the mouth as the spice affected the nasal passages and breathing through the nose could make your eyes water.
Mr Kang is Korean, as are the owners of five of the other six sushi bars in Whangarei.
There is also a mobile vendor who has a van usually parked at the intersection of Port Rd and Okara Dr - unless it is circulating around business premises offering sushi for sale.
Mr Kang came to New Zealand in 1997 and ran a cafe in Whangarei's Strand Arcade for 18 months, introducing sushi into its European menu. But he found customers were unreceptive.
He bought his restaurant in 2006 and changed its name. Formerly the Cafe Hana, it was the first Japanese restaurant in Whangarei.
He had opened a section of the restaurant facing Bank St as a lunchtime sushi bar because he had no competition at the eastern side of the CBD. 
Mr Kang was proud of his sashimi - sliced raw fish - which he said was particularly good because he filleted fresh whole salmon for it.
When sushi first arrived in Whangarei, it was mostly the rolled variety with a thin black outer ring of seaweed holding   ingredients (makizushi).
But a big range of attractive alternatives are now on offer at the well-established Asahi and Hikari sushi bars on Cameron St, newcomers the Sapporo in Quality St, Sushi Republic in the Strand Arcade and Fresh Sushi at the Okara Shopping Centre.
They serve toppings stuffed into a small pouch of fried tofu (inarizushi), oblong mounds of rice topped with seafood (nigirizushi), teriyaki chicken and many kinds of deep fried rice, shrimp and other sushi.
Eun Hee Kim at the Asahi sushi bar said salmon, teriyaki chicken and avocado were the most popular toppings and a new deeki sushi,  was becoming a favourite with lunchtime customers.
The newest sushi bar in the city is the Sapporo, opened two months ago by Scott Chin, who has run the Asahi Japanese Restaurant  for the past five years.
Sapporo faces stiff competition with five other eateries close by, but Mr Chin said customer numbers were growing as Asian food had become  popular because of its low fat, good taste and  price.
Whangarei's only sushi bar with Japanese operators - the Eagle in Kensington - differs from its rivals in that there are only two or three  containers of makizushi on the counter.
Manager Ineko Nakaizumi said the main difference between the Eagle and the Korean-run sushi bars was that her customers made selections from  photographs and their orders were  prepared as they watched.
"You can see all our sushi is very fresh," she said.