Oldest Daughter Arrives II

Daughter One has arrived safely! We picked her up at the airport just as she was coming from the baggage area; she didn't know that only about ten minutes earlier her incoming flight had passed not far above us. As I said earlier we [rather the good wife] noting she was probably hungry asked her where she would like to eat. In the prior newsbrief I mentioned that my wife's choice would be a Japanese restaurant, and mine at a new Italian place, so here is how my wife phrases the question, 'Honey, we know you're hungry so would you like to eat at the Japanese Steak House or at another restaurant? Now Oldest Daughter has no idea what restaurants are in the area, and probably isn't really in any mood for any specific kind of cuisine, so the good wife's
mention of an exotic 'steak house' carried the day - big surprise!!

After walking past the carp pound and being seated the show is about to begin, orders are taken and tea distributed, then I note that sitting at our island is a young couple with two sons who have never been in a Japanese restaurant, so I'm thinking this is going to be fun. You should have seen their eyes when the usual 'onion volcano' is lighted, and then when it begins to smoke is nudged across the hot surface to the sound of a banging spatula, their father tells them this is a train .. this is fun. Of course every time the cooks asks us a question I have to interrup the intense mother-daughter conversation, and end up providing the answer myself. They order steak of course, and I order scallops and prawns, knowing that I'll be sharing them with my daughter who loves them, the good wife doesn't care for scallops and mildly tolerates shrimp - but this is a Japanese restaurant, right.

Overall the food is pretty good except I was a little troubled by the order in which it arrived [which may be why I haven't been there in a couple of years] and when I attempt to explain it later I'm give one of those 'who made you the expert' looks. I have absolutely no complaint on the rice, the scallops, the prawns. They were all delicious, and so was my ladies meat [God save the cook if it hadn't been]. My quibble is with the vege's [mushroom, bean sprouts, onions and zucchini]. I thought they were overdone, and they came last after we were almost completely done with our rice and meat. My reasoning is that the vege's should have come immediately after the rice, so that when the meat, fresh and warm comes, we can enjoy all of them together. The cook however was very attentive to they boys and this was good he even got a game of 'catch the shrimp' going around the island. Their oldest boy caught three shrimp in his mouth, their youngest caught one, and neither their father nor I, after many tries, was able to cough up one.

Leaving the restaurant I had to stop by Arnies for a few slices of Cheese Cake. The same restaurant my daughter insists we bring a whole Cheese cake from when we visit them in Alabama, and we do. Go figure, transporting a whole Cheese Cake from Southern Michigan [14 hrs] to Southern Alabama? ... and the grandkids devour it in 'world record time.' You have to grab fast to get a piece! Life is good.