Little Boy And The Hibachi Table

Years ago in the 1980's, there was a restaurant in Saint Louis Park called the Samurai Japanese Steak House, and it was the place to go to when you went on a date. The local newspapers usually had a buy-one-get-one free coupon, which made it that much more appealing. It was Teppanyaki style cooking done right in front of you, and if by chance you didn't finish your dinner, which was rare, they would wrap it up in a foil swan for you to take home. After dinner was done, they would bring out a pot of tea that they would set on the hot grill table, and then you could choose either ice cream (green tea flavor) or sherbet for dessert. They even had fancy drinks that were served in pottery glasses that were yours to take home.  I loved going to the Samurai.

The restaurant eventually became Benihanas, which was okay, but not really the same. And they stopped serving hot tea and free ice cream or sherbet for dessert. No more foil swans or cool pottery glassware for you to take home, either. Sigh. 

Anyway, Nick has started suggesting more family get togethers, and last weekend he said we should all get together and eat at a Japanese Steak House. We decided that Kobe would be a good place, and so after quite a few texts back and forth, it was arranged. Avi couldn't attend because he was out of town, but there were still 8 of us, including little boy, which was just the right number of people for our own hibachi table.

We wondered how little boy would do with all the noise. Or, the fire associated with the cooking show. As it turned out, he decided to hold his hands over his ears for most of the show. But he did watch the chef closely, and even forgot once in awhile to keep his ears covered. 😂 He did really well. 

And then of course, we all upgraded to the fried rice with yum yum sauce ...