Wondering where to eat last night
Somebody suggested a Japanese steak house
Something I had not done for twenty years
It was almost full on arrival
They squeezed us in at one corner
Nine hungry faces on three sides
A shiny hot plate in the middle
A waiter took our orders
I chose chicken and shrimp
We smiled and nodded at our neighbors
Sipping cold sake and waiting for the show
The chef wheeled in a cart piled high with food
He verified the order for each person
Before performing a juggling act
With a pair of very sharp knives
We were all waiting for a severed finger to drop onto the hot plate
Thankfully that never happened
Next he squirted a pool of oil and ignited it with a lighter
A huge fireball shot up into the vent hood over the table
Everybody checked their eyebrows
He brought out some raw eggs for more juggling
Smashing each one ceremoniously
They sizzled and hissed as he chopped and mixed
Beating a rhythm into the food
The eggs cooked fast
Boiled white rice was dumped over the eggs
More oil and butter was added
Finally a squirt of soy sauce
Moving every grain of rice in a beating blur
Piling each portion onto the side of a cleaver
Expertly launching fried rice onto each plate
We all smiled in appreciation
As the steak, chicken, prawns and scallops danced on the searing hot plate
The razor sharp knife reduced the slices of meat into bite size chunks
Added to our plates alongside the rice
A mountain of vegetable filled the hotplate
Slicing and dicing as they shrunk into an oily hot lake
An onion was expertly sliced into rings
Reassembled into a volcano
Filled with oil and lit for the finale
Flames erupted from the top
Applause erupted too
The show was over
It was time to eat
The food was delicious
Nobody seemed to mind being splashed with soy sauce and fried rice
When we got home our clothes reeked of fried oil
A pungent reminder of an unforgettable meal
I might go again, perhaps twenty years from now