Alternative Roll Models at Fullerton’s MoMo ‘Fun Sushi’

The message at MoMo “Fun Sushi” in Fullerton is that sushi doesn’t have to be so earnest--and it doesn’t even have to be raw.

Consider the $6.95 Ninja Special--scallops, flying fish eggs, cucumber, green onion and special sauce, shaped into six just-bigger-than-bite-size pieces and cooked .

Then there is what they call a Philly Roll, also $6.95. Salmon, cream cheese, avocado, rolled in a skin of cucumber, it could as easily be something from a Jewish deli.

MoMo also serves a wonderful raw tuna salad, the likes of which has never graced a piece of Wonderbread and a brown paper bag. The green mussels, mildly spicy, warm and delicious, hardly qualify as sushi, but don’t miss them.

Still, for a reasonable $3.80, nothing touches the Taiger Shrimp Lettuce Roll--a large tempura shrimp, rolled in a leaf of lettuce with a special sauce. A very special sauce. Get it spicy. The combination of the hot, crispy shrimp and the cold, crispy lettuce and that sauce is . . . “Oh,” as a friend said with envy at the mention of one, “they’re godly.”

No, MoMo is not your average sushi bar. Tucked away behind a bank near the corner of Harbor Boulevard and Bastanchury Road in Fullerton, it makes abundant use of those flying fish eggs, delicious, minuscule, crunchy orange delicacies that tend to lurk in your molars for an hour or so after the meal.

And for dessert, when many sushi bars offer you a free orange, MoMo serves a complimentary bowl of watermelon and honeydew, sprinkled with plum wine.

If the $7 price tag on the specials seems daunting, remember that MoMo has “ordinary” sushi as well. Individual two-piece orders of such pure delicacies as hamachi (yellowtail), maguro (tuna), and the more “challenging” uni (sea urchin) range from $2.40 to $3.50.

There always will be those who regard sushi as “bait,” unfit for human consumption. Then there are the purists: Let them eat uni.

For the rest of us, happily, there is MoMo “Fun Sushi.”

MoMo “Fun Sushi” Japanese Restaurant, 1979 Sunny Crest Drive, Fullerton. Open 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. daily, and 11:30 a.m to 2 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. (714) 525-8974.