A Delightful Dinner

We went for hibachi last night, as Mama was home a bit early from work.  It was a last-minute idea, the choice of restaurant, and it was enormously successful.  The kids were fascinated by the "table with the stove" and the hoods for the smoke.  And they loved watching the chef-cum-toque work his knives and ingredients.  That is, until he lit an oil smiley-face on the hot surface, igniting a huge fire.  Though they had been warned it was coming, the kids were somewhat taken aback by the "crack-crack-fire!"  It is an impressive whoosh.  And it's over quickly enough.  Then Bud noticed the chef making an onion tower, which he identified immediately as a volcano.  And then there was lava!  

They loved the food, keeping their eyes glued on the cooking and then on their plates after we were served.  They both slurped down the mushroom soup, something I'm not sure Sis, at any rate, would have done at home.  Then, with chopsticks fitted with a special children's holder, they devoured noodles, rice, steak, chicken, and vegetables.  It was good.  We actually ran out of vegetables because Bud ate all of his and some of Mama's, leaving her with less to eat, especially because Sis was carefully but assuredly eating all of her food with her chopsticks.  Bud went back and forth with his fork, choosing whatever seemed most fun and most expedient.  

We finished the meal with tempura-battered fried ice cream and bananas.  But left because other people were starting to arrive and the kids were nervous about more "crack-crack-fire!"  Good food, entertainment.  I think we'll definitely be going back soon.  And often.  Particularly because they woke up this morning and insisted on playing "hibachi restuarant"--they brought food to the coffee table in buckets, "cooked" it all on the table (decked out with a plastic box lid for the grill), and then served it to me, complete with tea, packing up afterwards and taking it all away in the buckets.