To Sushi or not Sushi...

First of all...apologies for this being my first post in almost a month...it seems that there are actually breathing homosapiens who read this occasionally and I have been scolded for letting the blog dog lie...and I have...but mostly because my girls have been home for the holidays and I just was preoccupied with spending time with them...that part I don't apologize for. So, Hannah and Calla are back at their respective schools (Belmont and UTA) and Ariele heads back to Portland on a three day road trip beginning Saturday. Also, this break has made me appreciate all the more the kahunas of the blog world, Milton Brasher-Cunningham (donteatalone), Gordon Atkinson (reallivepreacher) and Bob Carlton (The Corner) who have been, and are, faithful disciplined bloggers who have produced amazing stuff with very few breaks for the past several years. You guys are my heroes.

Tonight Ariele and I had dinner at a sushi restaurant, Maru, a couple of miles from where I live. It is a smallish place occupying an old remodeled frame house. I was a little surprised that over the course of our dinner the patrons came in a steady flow and with very few exceptions they were Ariele's age...in their mid to late twenties. Now I don't know how you feel about sushi. Ariele is an aficionado. One of her friends in Portland is a sushi chef. I had never eaten sushi before she introduced me to it a couple of years ago. Well, that's not completely true...I swallowed a live goldfish once on a bet, but I'm not sure that counts. Being a little Cajun boy, I have eaten raw oysters all of my life, so the concept is not completely foreign, but still I approached this inevitability with a measure of guarded trepidation..In an effort to expand her hopelessly unhip dad's culinary sensibilities she took me to a tiny, modest sushi restaurant a few years ago... did all of the ordering... explained the proper etiquette and procedures...was careful not to have me OD on wasabi, and guided me through a fairly uneventful, but pleasurable dining experience. When she asked me what I thought following the virgin sushi experiment, my response was something like, "Well, it is not that it wasn't pretty tasty, but we just paid $40 or so for a few pieces of raw fish and some hot dipping sauce...for $40 I could eat all the fried catfish I could hold every day for the next week." Yeah, I know...classy. So I have dabbled a few times in the last two years or so, and I was looking forward to, not only a new sushi adventure, but mostly taking advantage of spending some good time with Ariele before she headed back to the northwest. So...my plan was to again default to Ariele to order for me, but upon perusing the menu decided to go for the gusto and do the deed myself. It wasn't a particularly daring order, but teriyaki salmon, a few California rolls, tempura vegetables and shrimp and I had a veritable feast. Ariele had miso, tofu rolls and eel. Because I have a new appreciation for chefs through reading Milton's "don't eat alone" blog, and because, coincidently, I had just watched the wonderful German film, "Bella Martha", (the recent American film, "No Reservations" was based on it) I paid particular attention to presentation, and to nuances of taste. The salmon was the best I have ever had, and I have eaten at some of the best seafood restaurants in the country ...including my Cajun mama's kitchen table. I also watched the elderly Japanese sushi chef from a distance and could not help but notice that while he juggled knives and pans of all shapes and sizes, he smiled often as he would place a finished plate on the counter and move the ticket over. He spoke very little English, but there was no mistaking that this was not just his job...it was his love...his passion...and he was very good.

Dave Madden played an amazing new song for us Sunday morning (the same song he played at the "Dave Madden Day" in Austin ceremony at City Hall on Thursday), and anyone who heard him either time, knew that for DM this is not just a hobby...this is his heart on a stringed instrument, and it matters to the world. Finely crafted songs and exquisitely prepared sushi it seems, are significantly different (and maybe a bit more glamorous) that what I think I am cut out to do to make a difference in the world. But then again...maybe not.

Pling...Pling...

dg