PFC’s Sushi Chef: Handmade Sushi at your Co-op

Neng Vue, Sushi Chef at PFC—Rochester.

Neng Vue is PFC–Rochester’s ACE Sushi chef. She’s been making sushi for about four years. She picked up her culinary training working for Hennepin Country Hospital as a caterer and a friend introduced her to sushi cooking. She found sushi preparation wasn’t hard to learn with the experience she already had.

 ACE Sushi is a franchise operation in PFC. Neng and her husband Seng Yang own the business. Neng loves owning her own business, though it is a lot of work. “I quit my nine-to-five job to work seven days a week, all day long. I get to choose what sushi I put out daily. It’s a bit more freedom – but not really,” she says. She also enjoys working with her family. Besides Seng, their daughter, Cathleena, works part time with her.

The sushi at People’s is made with organic ingredients. Neng finds the taste better than any other sushi she’s sampled in the area. The tuna is wild-caught, and the salmon is raised in Norwegian fjords. She likes the organic ingredients that PFC has on hand that she uses in her cooking. “We use organic cucumbers, avocado, carrots, lettuce, and other ingredients. It’s a little more expensive, but the taste is superior.”

Sushi is a great, low-calorie fast food. Not all sushi includes raw fish. Neng’s current favorite is the Golden Dragon Roll stuffed with imitation crab meat, avocado, cucumbers, spicy mayonnaise, and coated with crunchy fried onions. The Golden Dragon may also be one of the prettiest rolls on offer.

If you’re not familiar with sushi, Neng recommends the California Roll or the Tempura Shrimp Roll – both very tasty introductions to the world of sushi. We’re hoping Neng can come up with a Rochester-themed roll. We talked about the possibility of a University of Minnesota–Rochester roll using maroon and gold ingredients. Neng promised to look into it.

She also finds that their poke bowls are very popular. Poke bowls are a bit like de-constructed rolls – you get your sushi in a bowl without the nori (seaweed) wrapper. They offer salmon and tuna bowls, but Neng will make you up a veggie bowl, or other custom order.

Sushi is all about freshness and unadorned taste of the ingredients. Mix a dab of wasabi in with a tablespoon of soy sauce and that’s all the condiment you’ll need with Neng’s delicious sushi rolls.

GOLDEN DRAGON ROLL

Neng’s current favorite is the Golden Dragon Roll stuffed with imitation crab meat, avocado, cucumbers, spicy mayonnaise, and coated with crunchy fried onions.