As we are wont to do on Friday evenings, my wife and I went out for an early dinner. Even if the places we plan to go rarely have Friday crowds, we make it early, just to be on the safe side. We (and especially I) hate waiting in lines at restaurants. I'm just an impatient eater, I suppose.
Well, tonight we went to a little Japanese place that we've intended to visit for years. The restaurant is on the edge of a strip shopping center that has become the go-to place for all things Indian in the town of Richardson, which is just east of us. There are some wonderful Indian eateries there, mostly jammed with Indians, Pakistanis, and others from the subcontinent. Lots of high-tech folks who made the move to the U.S. to take advantage of higher salaries, a better quality of life (at least in some ways), and a place that can seem almost like home to them.
The little Japanese place (Masima) is adjacent to a dry-cleaners, which is adjacent to a Pep Boys or some such auto parts store. It is utterly unimpressive from the outside, but inside it is very different from most places in these parts. Most of the seating is in very low 'booths' with benches fitted with seat pads made of wicker. There are a few tables, as well, and a small side-room is fitted with even lower tables and soft pillows on the floor for seats. There is a sushi bar at the rear of the place. Tonight, the sushi chef and a customer were whooping it up, laughing loudly at what I assume were jokes or stories told in Japanese. The sushi looked good, but we opted for off-the-menu items. We ordered starteers. I asked for edamame; unlike the last batch we had, this was very highly spiced with what the menu called Japanese dark pepper flakes. My wife ordered potstickers. We did not realize the meals we ordered came with small salads and miso soup, so we did not need appetizers, but we got them anyway.
For the main dish, my wife ordered a salmon dish that came with shrimp tempura. I ordered barbequed freshwater eel that came in a laquer box atop a mass of white rice that had been drenched with a sauce of unknown origins. My wife encouraged me to also order the 'green mussel dynamite' because she knows how much I like mussels and she assumed it was a small dish. I ordered it.
Had we been in a typical American restaurant, the amount of food we ordered would have translated into sufficient volume to fill the bed of a pickup truck. Fortunately, the Japanese seem to have a better sense of proportion...although I did have too much.
Everything was very good. My least favorite was the freshwater eel, which was far more 'powerful' than I am used to...and there was far more volume. My favorite had to be the mussels...they were outstanding, but I could not understand the 'dynamite' reference, as they were not spicy hot.
We decided that this little place is really a neighborhood spot. Several people who came in were obviously known to the staff and the people who, I presume, are owners. They were greeted warmly and obviously were regulars. It's not a place that is apt to draw people in unless they hear about it from others. I don't think the place does much advertising, though they do get listed in the American Airlines dining program to which my wife somehow got us linked.
Tomorrow, it's back to the office. Too many days away in recent months have given rise to large piles of paper that beg to be put away or recycled, but I must figure out what is what first. This weekend will be one spent making my office a place I can bring clients and not be embarrassed. Oh what fun!
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