It’s been raining quite a bit in Beverly Hills for the last couple of days. It’s 2:55pm and instead of concentrating on my work, I am starring out the window, starring at the downpour and dreaming of an event I experienced some 57 years ago and it is as fresh and bright in my mind as it was then.It was a rainy Saturday evening, in Beverly Hills and not having a date that evening, actually to be honest, I rarely had a date ,no I’ll be real honest, I never had a date ( but that’s another story), so I and my buddy Tony Greeley decided to venture out to have something to eat. We had just seen the movie “Sayanara” staring Marlon Brando earlier that afternoon, So we decided that maybe we’d try Japanese food. The only problem was we had never eaten Japanese food. The only Japanese people we had ever seen was either our family gardener or characters in the movies. Actually, two of my favorite Japanese movie stars (character actors) where Philip Ahn and Richard Loo. It seemed they were always relegated most of the time to playing evil World War 2 heavies. But I loved them, because they spoke so well, had very modulated voices – deep and smooth, which of course made them even that much more evil. Of course when they were confronted in the movies as to where they learned their language their response was always, ‘Ah! I went to UCRA”!
Mr. Philip Ahn
Years later, I was shocked to learrn that both men where not Japanese at all, but Korean. I was fortunate to meet my idol, Mr. Ahn because he was not only a well regarded actor but also a successful owner of a Chinese restaurant; The Moongate and when in town ,he’d make the rounds at the restaurant and always stop by my families table ( we ate there a lot) and say hello. Forget meeting Cary Grant or Clark Gable (which I had the opportunity also to do on several occasions years later) it was meeting Philip Ahn, that I cherished most, even to this day.
OK?, where was I going with this? Ah So! ( Messieurs Ahn and Loo used this a lot in their movies!)
So off, we set, Tony and I went to the Sawtelle district of Los Angeles ( we had heard it was a Japanese-American community) to find an Japanese restaurant. It was raining harder than ever now, with flashes of lighting and thunder. We found a restaurant and stood outside ( soaking wet) trying to get up the courage to go in and order from a menu which we knew nothing about. We finally did and that experience is another long and very funny story, but suffice to say, we did order and the first thing we were served was a steaming bowl of soup, at least we thought it was soup. We waited and waited for the proper utensils, a spoon at least! , but it never came, so Tony, being very impatient and hungry picked up the bowl and drank the soup. I was horrified, I thought we were going to be thrown out! Who ever picks up a bowl of soup and drinks from it straight? As I showed my horror, Tony just beamed and said “My god! you have to try this, its out of this world”. With great reluctance, I picked up the lacquered bowl and lifted it to my lips, turning my head at the same time anticipating that at any moment, my Proper Bostonian Grandmother would come rushing in the door and yell “ My God, Howard! What Are Your Doing?” She did not appear and as I sipped the broth, my world changed in an instant! Maybe because it was cold and rainy outside, or maybe it was just something warm heating me up, but whatever it was, this bowl of soup; we were to find out later, it was called miso ( a traditional Japanese seasoning produced by fermenting rice, barley and/or soy beans with salt), was to change my life forever. Tony and I could not get enough of it and we ordered two more bowls. I am sure the owner and his wife thought we were crazy. This event started me on a long and exciting quest to explore all things Japanese, that would culminate in my marrying a Japanese-American and thinking of myself to this day not white, but as an Asian.., ………….But that’s another story! So here I am sitting, it’s pouring and I long for, I ache for, a hot, steaming, lacquered bowl of that marvelous elixir called MISO.
No comments:
Post a Comment