How Green Was My Valley

I turned 38 on Monday. Played tennis with John and lounged by the pool. In came the healing rain, a drizzle and a shower, distant thunder.

That night, Lucie and the gang brought a piñata fashioned in my likeness. Brilliantly done.

Oh, I can’t stand this guy. Stick him outside.

We made Ruben wear his little Christmas collar and he scurried around jingling and looking for food.

I was having a celebratory drink with Liam at the dinner table when I got a text, a last call fish order from Ichizu. Oh shit, is it Monday? It was like waking up from a dream in your underwear in the back of math class. To hell with your birthday, Ozawa, how many pounds of scallops?

I scrolled madly through the list. Like an extremely stoned man standing in line at Taco Bell at one in the morning, trying to compose himself and order.

Five minutes went by and I had left her hanging with an open ended “Let’s do…”

And then it flowed out of me like monsoon rain. This life is like the heaviest bottle of champagne slipping through my grip. That slick icy condensation sliding down the neck. But I can’t let go.

My back to the crowd, blindfolded, and armed with the most menacing stick we could find, I delivered a brief and mostly incoherent speech to the piñata. About how I should like to be done with Jeffrey Ozawa, but that I am powerless to defeat him.

I have tried to embrace the mask, as Zizek advised, but still find my reflection in poor taste. My effigy, a handsome, athletic football hooligan decked in Versace and Stone Island, attire donned like a hazmat suit to enter the perilous world of the stage, with its radioactive thrills and pitfalls—drives me mad. “I was in love with a beautiful blonde once dear, but she drove me to drink. It’s the one thing I’m indebted to her for.”

I gave him a good whack and he fluttered and spun in the breeze, unbothered and taunting me. Like that scene in Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence when Captain Yonoi tries to cut down Major Celliers (David Bowie), but is incapacitated by his beauty and falls to the ground. I held my stick, ready to strike and, feeling the killer instinct fade, passed it to someone who had no trouble unleashing on him, severing the rope and sending him crashing into the dirt. Bravissima. The old boy was strung up again and everyone took turns smashing him with ravenous looks. Very touching.

It was Jonny that was able to finish him off, with his fists at the very end. Really good straight rights and uppercuts from the Cobble Hill boy. I held it like a heavy bag as he channeled his rage. Ruben barked in the background, frightened and exhilarated. Get him!

A shower of Asian hard candies hit the flagstone. I saw a lychee flavored one and was drawn to a distant place. Doing calculus homework in my dad’s office. He had a little stash in the cabinet.

A brief conference with Nina and Tali. I went to the fridge for the last of the young radish kimchi they brought back from Denver. Eating it in the rain as a kind of holy sacrament. Like the first Asians to go west of Ft. Lee or east of San Francisco we gathered on the flagstone plotting out the future. This is what we’re doing out here. Make no mistake. What this radish has joined let no man put asunder. After a few drinks, gyoza started to sound really good to me. Let’s put it on the menu.

Tyler in his tactical rain gear said his wordless goodbye. A knowing glance, dap, and a hug. Like old milk left in a thermos on the table (Lucieeeee!), a culture has developed around me. This young crowd fills me with hope. The older ones are doomed like me. 38, baby, JFC.

Love — it means everything in life and nothing in tennis!

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temaki
choice of blue crab, maguro, kanpachi namerou, or ikura

sesame miso bagna fredda
local raw vegetables with an umami-rich anchovy dip

hiyashi salad
local lettuces, radish, cucumber, sesame ginger dressing

goma dofu
house-made sesame tofu with wasabi & shoyu

kanpachi namerou
tartare of raw kanpachi*, white miso, ginger, shiso, over rice

gyoza
house-made pan-fried pork & cabbage dumplings

scallop ceviche
raw sea scallops, sudachi, ikura, aonori

hamachi bento
raw yellowtail over sushi rice with hiyashi salad, pickles

seared scallop bento
seared sea scallops over Japanese rice, hiyashi salad & pickles

maguro bento
raw bluefin tuna over sushi rice with hiyashi salad, pickles

chirashi
raw hamachi, tuna, scallop, crab, ikura over sushi rice*

basque cheesecake
sesame miso cookie