Wifely Steps

“Raw fish?,” I asked my grandfather.

It was weird. He called it sashimi. Raw tuna. The pink block definitely looked raw, which just made me even more puzzled. Why in the world does he want me to taste raw fish? Was I a bad girl?

I was thirteen years old. I could not understand why my grandfather delighted in that weird lump. It looked slimey and gave me the shivers.

Then Mama took us to Mikimoto, a Japanese restaurant along West Ave. There I was faced again with tuna sashimi. Great. This time it was sliced in small rectangles, unlike the huge block my grandfather had back home.

Tuna Sashimi

I wondered why the grown-ups delighted in it. They’d put a little green paste on the pink strips, dip it in soy sauce, then savor it.

Yucccck, I thought. But it fascinated me. Surely grown-ups wouldn’t eat anything dangerous, right? They should know better. And so I asked my Mama if I could give it a try. I think she was more than happy I was getting a little more adventurous.

When the slimy pink raw fish meat was on my tongue, I was surprised to discover it didn’t taste bad at all. Sure, it seemed a little spongey, but it was… sweet. And addictive. Mama had to stop me from eating too much of the tuna sashimi that evening.

Interesting? Definitely. It was definitely the most interesting and fascinating food I’d ever tasted. It was raw, for goodness’ sake. But it tasted damn good.

“Raw fish?,” my younger cousin asked me many years later.

I had already explored other kinds of sushi and developed a love for Japanese food. My grandparents always teased me that I’d eat anything and everything — “etcetera, etcetera, etcetera” — a reference to a line from The King & I. That meal of tuna sashimi helped pave the way for being more adventurous with culinary delights.

And my little cousin had that same look on her face as I did the first time I encountered sashimi.

“Raw fish?,” she asked again.

I took the wasabi, spread it on the little pink rectangle, dipped the fish in soy sauce and winked at her.

“You bet,” I smiled. And she looked at me weirdly, but more interestingly, fascinated.

This is my entry to kitchencow’s A Cook’s Tour Giveaway.