Last night was date night!
Lots happened yesterday.
- l had my first sushi meal.
- Nora and I did our first strength class together.
- Nora’s mom got in safely.
- I think we may have ordered an ice cream maker.
All these good things happened. Any one of them is worthy of being expounded upon, but let’s talk food (again!)
The decision to dine out on this very Japanese cuisine had many influences and tie-ins. The biggest, of course, is the ongoing adaptation of a healthier diet for me. Blah blah, less bad fat, more good fat. Seafood and veggies are associated with a healthier, longer, heart-healthy lifestyle. And let’s be honest here: once eating pizza by the pound is off the table, why wouldn’t a guy try something else?
Here’s another fun fact: Nora and I “met” in Japan, oh so many years ago. 1986 would be the year I first saw her. Our fathers both had jobs that took us to Tokyo for 3/4 years each. We went to the same school, ASIJ, in grades 8-10. Neither one of us can recall a specific interaction between us, nor have we ever concluded we had a single class together. I’ll get into the story of us in March, but for now, I’ll just say my long-lasting thought about high school Nora was that she wore big earrings.
A good reason to break the seal on Jp being able/willing to eat sushi is that Nora really enjoys it. As this is to be the year of Nora & Jp, with a fair bit of travel in the works, it will be nice to have more dining options available to us that don’t simply center around what I am willing to eat.
Okay, but how was the meal? We went to a local restaurant called OSHA, and yes, I made an OSHA joke on the drive there. As I had no ideas about the menu, I relied heavily on Nora to do the ordering. She was very thoughtful (of course) as well as solicited the server’s opinion on how to ease me in. Every now and then Nora would look over to me to get my buy in on this or that selection, I just nodded my head to say, “Sure let’s do that.”
The food came, and we dug in. As memory serves, there was eel, tuna, salmon, egg, some sort of whitefish, and some other former denizen of the sea. None of it made me gag. None of it was so yummy I’d wished there was more. I sent a picture to my two youngest, and when Mo asked how it was, I replied, “It doesn’t entirely suck.” And that’s a win. We’ve proven that I can do it and still enjoy my time out with my love.
I also understand that we just barely scratched the surface on flavors and textures, and I’ll continue to dabble as time goes on. Baby steps, my friends.