Omakase, OMG!

I took my partner to a cool place in town for his birthday.

Kappo is a small, hidden away gem of a restaurant in the Fremont neighborhood. It's located upstairs from the owner's earlier and very popular sushi bar called Chiso. Kappo basically has a small sushi counter for eight people and a couple of private dining rooms. Taichi Kitamura is the talented, young chef who serves a prix-fixe dinner omakase-style, which basically means the chef decides to prepare whatever he chooses. No menu. You give him a heads up of any allergies and food preferences. Usually the chef prepares what's fresh from the boat and whatever seasonal ingredients inspire him. Chef Taichi is also a fisherman who knows his fish and puts together each dish with a lot of careful attention. We had a great meal that I would consider more casual and spontaneous than the formal and fancy kaiseki meals you get in Kyoto. But still a lovely experience to have right at home.

Of course the pictures don't do it justice, but here's a small sample. This is a plate of super fresh, sliced Alaskan red snapper and some vegetables that you dunk and poach in the bowl of boiling water, just like a Mongolian hotpot.

Here is a chicken dish with fresh shitake mushrooms and asparagus.






All in all, it was a special evening, and my partner who is a super demanding eater was happy with the meal. We even got a chance to chat with Taichi a bit while we were feasting on his creations.

Oh, and Sparklepony told me to take a picture of the bathroom wall which has a photo mural of Taichi fishing.

Happy Year of the Rat!

Good to know that Disney is pimping this primo marketing opportunity. I mean, they do have the cutest rats.

Work is busy and I'm trying to keep my daily practice, hence a brief post.

Attended the festivities last weekend in Vancouver. Officially, the new year starts tomorrow.

So remember, if you want to follow some of these tried and true Chinese customs (not comprehensive or in any rigid order):
1) Don't clean your house on the first day in case you sweep away your good luck. EASY PEASY.
2) Eat a shitload of candy to start a "sweet" new year. CHECK.
3) Wear a new pair of slippers so you will be "stomping" on the gossipy villagers who have nothing better to do with their idle time. REMEMBER TO TELL LAKSMI.
4) Decorate your home freely with loud reds (luck) and garish golds (wealth). WELL, ARMANI DOES HAVE HIS STANDARDS.
5) Don't wash your hair in case you wash out your good luck. HM, KINDA HARD TO RESIST.
6) Don't bitch out your kids or loved ones. NOW, THAT'S ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE.

Oh, and go vegetarian on the first day of the new year to ensure longevity. You can order Buddha's Delight at even the most carnivore-oriented Chinese restaurants. (This lotus bud's for you, Arturo! Cheers!)

Furniture Yoga (Take Two)

Yesterday was Day 26. It's the home stretch, people!

In the morning I did my usual Saturday yin practice, adding to my repertoire gomukasana, a not-so-favorite pose. Later that evening, my partner and I went to see the closing night of Pagliacci at Seattle Opera (Gordon Hawkins playing the murderous clown was great!). Usually these gigs are 3 hours plus, but luckily this one clocked in only a touch over 2 hours.

Before the show we went to Crow nearby. I had the manila clams with chorizo sausage and sun dried tomatoes. He had the duck confit and lentils. This place is not bad, even though it's usually crowded and the food is a little oversalted for my taste.

When you think about these situations, there are lots of long stretches of time when you're just sitting and not doing a whole lot. Plane rides, movies that never seem to end, opera. Shit, if only I could sit on the floor of my office in baddha konansa while I work through my emails. I would be so uberflexy by now. I know it's all that damn sitting at work that tightens my hip flexors and hamstrings.

So to make the best of the situation last night, I tried to squeeze in a pose or two. Hey, it's dark and no one notices. Doing half padmasana works. So does half-square or half-box pose with one bent knee resting over the other (what's the Sanskrit name for this?). I've also done it at the movie theater which is particularly good for boddha konasana if I can hook my knees under the arm rest and not bug my neighbor. I'd like to work up to full padmasana on a plane if I can.

But let's turn our attention to Lax for a moment. She has a lovely figure and mad-sexy hips. You know that she's pure as the driven snow (as reported in HER BLOG), but she has these envious "whoring" hips. I mean, if I had open, slutty hips like her, I could hang out all day in uptavishta konasana while reading a book.

I can't even begin to imagine how productive and flexible I'd be.

Chitta vritti nirodha or meditate on this

Sorry, this post starts off with a pic of raw meat.

Yesterday my practice consisted of yin poses. It's a great complement for an ashtanga practice, which Paul Grilly says is yang or has "rhythmic movement" and works the muscles.

However, holding still in a pose like eka pada rajakapotasana, double kapotasana (Box?) or boddha konasa with a set of crim sandbags is a real test. It can certainly make me scream and release before the prescribed 3-5 minutes. While sitting yesterday and trying to cease the fluctuations of my monkey mind, my thoughts turned to food. Raw chicken wings, to be precise. I couldn't get the image out of my head and thinking how my thighs were just like the little chicken wings I like to chomp down and snap into pieces. As gruesome as that might sound to my vegan friends, it's not going to turn me off meat. I'm definitely eating a lot less of it these days, but I do love food too much to cut myself off. Hats off to Arturo for being so disciplined and doing the CRON diet. I will have to ask him more about that sometime.

Back to the chicken wings. So my mouth is pooling with saliva and I'm trying to breathe through these poses. I continue to imagine the chicken wings and my thighs with all this "gristle" and similar connective tissue. More saliva, more breathing. And my legs are going to snap off any second.