My husband and I went to an old friends birthday party today. I don’t mean old as in…Happy 60th, I mean old as in we know her almost 40 years. It was at a Japanese Seafood and Sushi Buffet in Long Island. I was a little hesitant about the food because I don’t eat seafood let alone raw seafood, but as we all know the Japanese are also famous for their teriyaki sauces which I love. I would eat my sneaker if there was enough teriyaki on it. I opted for the teriyaki chicken, beef & pork, and even tried the mystery meat. All delicious. (I think the mystery meat might have indeed been my sneaker) The buffet had an enormous sushi bar with every imaginable fish and every imaginable vegetable wrapped in delicious sticky rice. What is it about that rice that makes it stick together so well? The cooking process? Some mysterious Japanese ingredient? Oh no no, I don’t want to think about that, must just be the rice cooker. I thought about peeling the rice off the sushi rolls, but the thought of having to explain fishy smelling fingers stopped me.
The adjoining party room had a birthday party as well, but for a Japanese woman. The guests were all….well, Japanese. So were our waitresses. As the guests from the Japanese party streamed through our party to get to the buffet (which they didn’t have to) they were constantly being stopped by our guests requesting water, chopsticks or napkins. The Japanese partiers didn’t understand English, so they bowed politely and walked on. You could hear people asking why the wait staff was so bad, or took so long to bring an item. I am sure had we asked an actual waitress for something we would have gotten it. After a while we all figured out that the restaurant staff wore all black, so when Mei Tai in her red kimono passed by, we knew not to ask her for tea.
My husband did his best to put the buffet out of business, but even he couldn’t make a dent in the enormous amount of selections which could only be rivaled by the dessert buffet. Melon slices, orange and red jello cubes, fresh orange wedges, itty bitty cakes of every kind from strawberry shortcake to banana nut. And cream puffs. My favorite. Teriyaki and cream puffs….heaven! Oh and they had an ice cream stand. It was soft serve, white and green. I somehow started a rumor that it was seaweed flavored and the entire other party went up to get ice cream. It was in fact, green tea flavored which to me was no better, but a total disappointment to the others.
After snapping a few pictures of the birthday girl and her cake, (most of us trying to hide a chin, a stomach or a bald spot) we sang happy birthday off tune but heartfelt, collected our souvenir fortune cookies and chopsticks and said our goodbyes. Now without sounding like a horrible friend, the entire time I was there all I could think about was the fact that there was a Big Lots in the shopping plaza across the street and a huge 99cent store as well……the combination almost as good as the teriyaki and cream puffs. Regardless of the fact that it took like 40 minutes to get out of one lot, across the street and into the other lot I had a wallet full of ones, a dollar store in my path and a grin on my face. (or was that the teriyaki repeating….)
Big Lots….big disappointment! Half price Christmas shit was in fact shit. The one thing I did find priced $5.00 and then 50% off that was a Christmas Santa in a Mets shirt of which I instantly grabbed two…one for my grandson and one for my niece. Just to make a point…the Yankees Santas, of course were all sold out at full price. I’m just sayin’……! My husband and I cruised the aisles finding nothing but regular priced stuff that we had no need for but would have bought if it was cheap. I did get my dog two types of doggie treats that came in a Santa boot….half price….two outfits for my granddaughter….full price…..discounted Gillette shower gel.…and one roll of half priced wrapping paper. Crap. To add insult to injury, as I am putting the Mets Santas on the counter I see that they are Nets Santas. Grrrr! Big Lots a bust I lost my appetite for the dollar store and headed for the highway.
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