Sushi, Sake, and Baby Birds

It must be said aloud that our family is the most important anything in our lives. And to that fact, my husband and I make it a point, a standing reservation, to meet once a month with our son, daughter-in-law, and grandson. It is always with food, conversation, a few cocktails, and occasionally dessert. The deal is that we go to their home on the Seacoast one month, we next go to our house an hour from theirs, and then on the third month of the rotation, we go to a restaurant usually located about halfway between us.

Epping was the halfway mark last month and it is rich with a variety of restaurants. This time we wanted Japanese cuisine, so we went to Kume which offers sushi, hibachi, and Japanese food. This one is a favorite and we have been there many times.

The five of us sat down at the hibachi table where fire, oil, and food were about to be prepared in a display of finesse and fun. Immediately, we are surrounded by no less than three attentive staffers who take drink orders and provide soup, and salad with that oh so delicious dressing. I’m not sure what’s in it, but it’s good. If you’ve been to a Japanese restaurant, you know what you are getting as it never varies in flavor. I happen to love the clear broth soup with tofu and small bits of herbs as well, plus, the spoon itself is fun.

My son and I like sushi, and he suggests we have the Dinosaur Egg. This was a great choice. It comes with avocado, spicy tuna, and crabmeat hidden inside the deep-fried rice ‘egg’ topped with roe and another special sauce on a nest of noodles. Go for this as the taste, texture, and visuals are a flavorful way to explore sushi.

We all then chose a variety of entrées shrimp, scallops, beef, noodles, and fried rice. They give you so much food that we visit the same meal again when we get home for dinner.

While the chef is cooking the entrees, he offers those who are willing to have sake sprayed into their mouths from something like a ketchup bottle. A few of us go for it because it’s fun, and most of the sake ends up on our faces. There was a very boisterous party at the other end of the restaurant and when I glanced over, one young lady was displaying a real skillset for this nearly thirty seconds later she was still taking it in.

The conversation and catch-up time included my son’s union having signed their contract, which is always a good feeling as I have been there before with the newspaper union. Then it turned to the subject of three robin’s eggs. My son is an auto mechanic for a large delivery company and as I understand it, he found this nest of eggs in a truck that was going to the auto recycling company, meaning it would be crushed to the size of a small crate and destroying the eggs along with all the metal. Our son is a big-hearted guy and when he heard and saw the nest, he knew he had to act. First, he tried to lure the mother robin with the nest over to a tree, but she wouldn’t take the bait and continued to come to the truck for her offspring. Time was of the essence, and he chose to rescue the eggs, taking them home, and becoming the surrogate mother to them. One did not make it. However, the other two are thriving, being handfed grubs and worms broken into small pieces for the babies.

They are nearly three weeks old now and the plan is to see how they can move into being able to fly in the house to then eventually being able to be released outside.

Beverly Stoddart is an award-winning writer, author, and speaker. She is on the Board of Trustees of the New Hampshire Writers’ Project and serves on the board of the New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism. She is the author of Stories from the Rolodex, mini-memoirs of journalists from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.