ok that sounded utterly guillotine-ish and barbaric.. haha.. as steffi is heading back to germany for good tomorrow, we arranged something special for lunch so elena, steffi, kiku, justine and i headed over to my workplace for sushi.. everyone was in such high spirits- for the the europeans it was the novelty of having japanese food, for us asians it was nostalgic embrace for couldn't-be-more-authentic japanese food.
honestly, i was initially nervous partly because of the high expectations that everyone harboured and how the idea of raw fish seemed to turn many people off.. i mean thinking about having sushi and actually seeing the raw fish could bring out extremely different reactions.. fortunately but my doubts were negated by their enthusism and sense of adventure as every item brought to the table brought out their inner curious wide-eyed second grader.
you know it's funny how familiar kiku and i were with sushi but for elena, steffi and justine, i think you could count their combined experiences on one hand. it felt great introducing them to another asian gastro-culture.. raw fish aside, even the elementary procedure of mixing soya sauce, ginger and wasabi needed much prodding.
we kicked off the meal with niblets- wasabi peas and edamame. the yakisoba chicken arrived shortly thereafter, followed by thirty-piece nigiri-maki set. the meal concluded on a sweet note with green tea and chocolate cake.
watching them try to overcome the difficulty of using chopsticks to pick tedious long strands of yakisoba, made me even more aware of how unique the asian culture mus have seemed. almost like a chemical reaction, every mouthful of savoury fried noodles reacted with the tastbuds to produce hums of satisfaction and delight.
when the nigiri-maki arrived, they were absolutely impressed, demanding explainations and brief descriptions of what they were about to encounter. if noodles were difficult, try keeping your fish and rice together on your chopsticks as you dip the sushi into the soya..haha.. by the end, i think most had clear favourites for example justine was all about the salmon while elena favoured the shrimp. i felt an incredible sense of pride when they kept raving over the freshness of the sushi over chocolate cake and their virgin encounter with the green tea ice cream.
houdini was here. 
after the plates were cleared, we sat around chatting.. discussing plans for the night and weekend.. refusing to leave the restaurant. believe it or not, we met at one and left only after a good three hours! haha.. ohhhhh i can't explain how relief and elated i am right now..
screw nokia. sushi- bringing people together.
another good friend leaving tomorrow. good byes suck.
No comments:
Post a Comment