Cross-Cultural
There is a new-ish restaurant around here called "Cherry Blossom." It was started to attract the auto execs from Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi, etc. It was very successful in Novi, and they decided to open another one here in Ann Arbor.
It's strange to go there, because it's a former Chi Chi's, and it's actually been transformed to quite a tranquil space.
The attraction, and what makes this Japanese restaurant different from many of the others in our area (and we do have quite a number of high-quality Japanese restaurants for a fairly-small, Midwestern city), is that they have a number of "homestyle" Japanese dishes that we don't generally see on American menus.
We always let our Japanese daughter order for us, and she's introduced us to many of her favorite foods over the years.
The thing that's funny, though, is that often they are what I'd consider Japanese "junk food" - tempura, or yakitori, etc. And this was true yesterday, as well.
The highlight of the meal was actually barbecued eel. It was delicate, mild, and cooked in a sweet sauce. The other thing that we were introduced to was saba shiyoyaki - a mackerel fillet grilled in salt. It was really delicious.
Aside from that, we had shrimp tempura and yakisoba - stir fried egg noodles with pork and vegetables.
And we shared small scoops of green tea, black sesame and ginger ice cream for dessert.
It was delicious and peaceful and we had time to talk with our Japanese daughter, about her topics, which tend to be fashion, university life and friends.
She is very sweet and quiet and delicate. She has become much more "Japanese" than when she was with us originally, four years ago. She now has long, curling locks (aided by extensions), and has cast off her former sweats and jeans for mini-skirts and designer pants, accessorized by flashes of color. She is more closed in and much more the young lady than the kid who lived with us.
She still has a group of loyal friends who see her each time she's in town, and she goes out with them for various activities each night. They're all nice kids and fairly ambitious (one is studying to become a biologist, one will enter dental school and is spending a year in Japan, another is in a fashion program in Chicago).
It's always nice to see everyone grow up from year to year.
And it was a nice lunch, too.
Especially the company.
What's Cooking
Yesterday I made Scaletta salad for dinner. I thought my Japanese daughter would like it and she did. You steam green beans until they are just tender, then mix them with 1/2 a thinly-sliced red onion, cherry tomatoes sliced in half, a handful of cannellini beans and some diced mozzarella. Toss all of that with olive oil, salt, pepper and balsamic vinegar. Dee-licious!
Tonight I think we're doing an American pizza and movie night, so maybe I'll make brownies.
