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93 AQUI PAUL QUI A s I approach Aqui, chef Paul Qui's first Houston restaurant, I can sense the Philippine influence from the architecture. The double-pitched roofs, designed by the Austin firm A Parallel Architecture, is a cleanly modernist echo of a traditional style of building in the Philippines called bahay kubo. Qui, who has opened several restaurants and a food truck in Austin and in Miami, calls his Houston concept "the most Philippine, S o u t h e a s t A s i a n " restaurant he has created. Most of his career took place in Japanese restaurants, including the stellar U c h i a n d U c h i k o in Austin, where he experimented with cooked and vegetable sushi. Aqui's inventive "perfect bites" are visual gems — sushi- sized portions utilizing i n g r e d i e n t s f r o m the cuisines of the Philippines, Thailand, and all across South Asia. Japanese-style shrimp tempura is served on a betel leaf, a plant popular across a wide swath of Asia that I have never seen on a menu in the States before. There's a version of avocado toast — a dish reputed to destroy the home-ownership dreams of Millennials — made with fermented salmon and cured salmon roe. A very Philippine dish of pork belly, referenced there by the Spanish name of lechon, is served with Korean kimchi. I'm startled to find one of the perfect bites described as Santa Barbara uni. I recall an old friend: a cowboy poet who, after coming into a bit of money, bought a motor boat in Santa Barbara, which he outfitted with an elabo- rate undersea vacuum pump and stainless-steel aquarium tanks. I recall his trying to convince me to come out to Santa Barbara to dive off the Channel Islands and suck up vast numbers of sea urchins from the un- derwater cliffs with the vacuum device. They were to be shipped to Japan, where gourmets would pay tidy sums for the roe, and we would divide the huge profits. I demurred, operating a vacuum not being one of my favorite activities. Soon after, my friend report- ed that the crash of the yen against the dollar had made the venture unprofitable, and he'd had to sell his boat. Now, decades later, I was able to taste the uni and realized that the venture, which had seemed like a marine twist on an old Honey- mooners episode, was a pretty great idea. Having developed the concept and the menu, Qui now leaves the daily work to his talented chef de cuisine Gabriel Medina, who is also Philippine born. Qui now has a desire to open another Houston location. Or two. As he explains, "I love cooking, but I also love opening restaurants." Food ARTS (continued)