50 Fans Can't Be Wrong

Hell of a year. Big year. Grandissimo. Hisa’s art installation, the beer and wine license, importing senbei, unhinged T-shirts, several clutch signings, and opening for dinner on Friday nights, we have continued to develop the idea I had of a small Japanese restaurant on Lena street. Each day I feel thy will being done. I think we can manage another year.

The crew was really special. Jaimie, Trinity, Lucie, Rebecca, Liam, Gabe, with special guests like Rae and Tali, Russell and Raif. Jackpot. The thing I look back on most fondly is the number of times, while spinning plates, we nearly died laughing. Those knowing glances and inside jokes, and those moments of ecstasy tasting something really unbelievable. An oyster or a bit of uni or a raw scallop slipped in. There was so much beauty this year I try not to think about it, to say nothing of the sound system.

For the last couple of months my dad has been bugging me to get him a shoyu dispenser he can take to the dining hall at his assisted living. The vodka miniature didn’t cut it. Nor did the 2 or 3 other ones we got him. If he asks a waiter they will bring him a little cup of Kikkoman he can pour on his flounder. But no, he wants his own to bring down with him. We said it’s on its way hoping he’d forget about it but no such luck. Every time one of us talks to him he brings it up. As memory fades, he won’t let this go. The man’s being unreasonable, I thought to myself. Chasing after this white whale. It doesn’t even exist.

The other night I thought about the little fake crystal shoyu dispenser from my childhood. It was the one as long as I can remember. He must have bought it on a business trip years and years ago. Like a priest he brought it to the table every night, his ritual. He’d hit a sliced Jersey tomato with some shoyu and katsuobushi and suddenly he was in Japan. The only cure for homesickness is to summon. You have to create it everywhere you go, every day.

It occurred to me that reaching for a shoyu dispenser in his old age is significant. He was writing an email to an old friend that he was in a nursing home in Tokyo. When he asked me to proofread it, I pointed at the line and asked, “Are you sure about that?” and he quickly corrected it to Brooklyn. His transition to this assisted living has been challenging. Home means a familiar place filled with familiar things. Home means showing up for the people you love. Thinking of shoyu now, I see an old man yearning for home.

I am reminded what Macarthur said in his farewell address.
“Old soldiers never die, they simply fade away.”

Where does the time go? Look in the mirror, who is this prick? Alas, poor Jeff Ozawa. I knew him…A fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath borne me on his back a thousand times! The eyes darken, the temples grey. Still here. The man who sells shoyu is a shoyu dispenser. That little crystal one tilts in me.

Dinner tonight. Last Saturday, for a laugh I sliced the rest of the snapper with a bit of yuzu and olive oil and salt. Remember those vaguely mediterranean wine bars in New York and LA that served some slices of fish with a little drizzle and called it crudo. Italian job. Forget about sashimi. Nobody eats that anymore.

Snapper crudo plate.

“Thank you, chef.”

Laughter, eyes rolled.

Quick taste with the crew. Wow. The joke becomes real.

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Niigata senbei
Japanese rice crackers, choice of black pepper, uni, squid, nori, or a mix of all 4

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

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

oyster on the half shelf
raw Kuushi oyster from British Columbia

owan
rich fish stock miso soup

snapper crudo salad with ponzu dressing
raw snapper over local greens with ponzu vinaigrette

snapper crudo
raw snapper with olive oil, yuzu chile, sea salt

seafood ojiya
rich fish stock rice porridge with miso, scallops, & aonori

kanpachi namerou
tartare of kanpachi with white miso, ginger, shiso, over rice

scallop ceviche
raw sea scallops, sudachi, ikura, aonori

hamachi bento
raw yellowtail with yuzu hot sauce, over Japanese rice with hiyashi salad and pickles

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

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

chirashi
raw kinmedai, maguro, saba, shima aji, scallop, tai, ikura, uni over sushi rice*

basque cheesecake