On the way home a day early, the taxi drivers put me in a car with a couple of Somali’s and a Japanese man who I befriended. Shohei, had lived in New Zealand and spoke English well. I could barely muster a couple of words from the 2 semesters I took at San Antonio College with Sensei Kawabe: “Anata wa nihon-jin desu ka?” (Are you Japanese)…Watashi wa Amerika-jin desu. Miguel desu ne. (I am American. I’m Miguel.)
Shohei is a commercial photographer and decided to make Yemen his first destination in the Middle East after reading that people were nice here. Traveling alone, he had seen a good amount of the country in a couple of weeks and was continuing on to Aden, Hodeida and then back to Sanaa.
I invited him to stay with me in Aden. I enjoyed helping him out with what I could, though my injury kept me from showing him the hospitality I would have liked to. He took an interest in the seafood, so we went to the fish market near Seera Castle in Crater.
We marveled at the new fish market (which btw, I hadn’t been to before), and picked out a nice big kingfish for 700 rials (US $3.50). This fish could have fed 3 or 4 people, and we feasted like kings at the mokhbaza- Yemeni restaurant. The mokhbaza-style preparation, means lowering the split fish into a pit oven where it is left to cook until the whole outer edge is charred pitch black. In my broken Arabic, I attempted to order the chefs to take it easy and not to burn it, but we still received a charred fish. Anyways, it’s pretty good when you dust off the burnt part. They serve it with a fresh oven-baked hobz bread which resembles a giant tortilla and a salsita that is mild and refreshing. Mokhbaza’s are open air and cat’s make a living off the many leftovers.Over dinner, Shohei expressed interest in making sashimi. Sashimi is raw fish prepared Japanese style. It is made without rice- that would be sushi. So the next day we went back there and bought another big Kingfish and had it filleted. We took it home and Shohei showed me the way to prepare it while I captured it on video and digipics. Basically you get the fresh kingfish and remove any other bones, then you sear the surface (he asked if I had or could get a small blowtorch! Lol). This kills any malevolent microbes etc. He told me also that all of the condiments have a purpose…to counteract any bacteria that may be in the fish. I never knew that, but it makes perfect sense. I kinda just always cared about the taste and the sadistic pleasure of feeling my nostrils enflamed by wasabi.
That reminds me of my first sushi experience….While attending NYU, I worked at La Maison Francaise and my suprervisor, Madame Nina Burnelle invited me to join her for sushi at a nearby Japanese eatery. Following her suggestion I ordered the “sampler” lunch special…miso soup, some sushi, tempura and some green tea. I ate the first sushi and could not really stomach the coldness nor the texture. Hard to swallow I remember. Well, I tried to maintain my composure and show her that I was open to new culinary experiences so I kept on eating. I noticed there was a small daub of avocado, so I said to myself, “Oh that’s cute, some aguacate. That’ll make this taste better I’m sure.” So with wobbly chopsticks in hand I struggled to grab the last of my sushi, pick up the avocado, and get it over with. As I chewed expecting the familiar pleasant flavor of the alligator pear, I instead felt extreme heat and pain emanating from my mouth and rapidly permeating my olfactory. Miguel meet WASABI! I coughed and choked gasping for air, and tears rolled down my face due to this grave error. Meanwhile, my supervisor, cried too- but from laughter. Unforgettable, it traumatized me for years and kept me away from the beauty and exquisiteness of sushi and sashimi. Years later, however, after making friends with Japanese students in college, I tried and tried again an again, until I developed the palate for ikura, unagi, hamachi, etc. oh how i love unagi!
And look at me now, gearing up to make sashimi in Aden, Yemen. Why not?!?
CLICK HERE to related pictures of the sashimi fest.
