Fa-ra-ra-ra-ra, ra-ra ra-ra

Compared to this one…

…The scene in A Christmas Story where they go to a Chinese restaurant on Christmas Eve and have whole roast goose and are serenaded by a quartet of waiters mispronouncing the chorus of Deck the Halls may not be the most memorable. But I sure was reminded of it this Christmas Eve. I had spent the afternoon in the kitchen making Figgy Pudding so BN suggested we go out for dinner. A perfectly reasonable and good idea, other things being equal. But it was Christmas Eve, and not very many restaurants are open then. And this is Eugene, where there really aren’t very many good restaurants to begin with. BN called and found that “Kabuki Japanese Steakhouse” was in fact open. We hadn’t been there before, but we like Japanese, so we hoped for the best. It turned out fine except:

1. We were the only ones there, which felt sort of dismal – it’s one of those chef-cooks-at-your-table kind of places, where you’re supposed to have a crowd of friends in a busy restaurant with lots of excitement.

2. As a result our waitress was very attentive, and there was a 1-to-2 chef-to-diner ratio. That contributed to the awkwardness. Plus, the two of them were identical twin sisters and probably about 19. (Not Japanese, of course.) They were chatty and friendly, but it wasn’t our idea of a romantic date to make conversation with a couple of people waiting on us hand and foot. Something about the whole thing felt really surreal and like, are we being filmed? isn’t this a scene in a movie?

3. Because of the service-intensive nature of the restaurant, the food was very expensive.

4. But, it was not at all what I would call Good Food. Certainly not worth what we paid for it. The portion sizes weren’t even large. The rice was chewy, not fluffy. The vegetables were boring. The chicken and shrimp were not impressively flavored or textured.

On the whole, we wished we’d taken the money and bought groceries and cooked our own dinner. I coulda stir-fried way better than that.

Nevertheless! Our Christmas Eve was far from ruined. I will block yet another restaurant fiasco from my mind with memories of sitting cozy on the futon, lights dimmed except for candles and our tiny tree, playing Trivial Pursuit with my dear husband. We eschewed the board and chips and just took turns reading the cards to each other, if you get three or more right you keep the card. Everybody wins. We even had cocktails – BN invented a mix with the brandy bought for the Figgy Pudding, pomegranate juice, etc. Life is good.