Dinner At Kabuki

My cousin Val and I were close friends since we were in elementary grades. We always talk to each other and confined with each other all the time whenever we have problems. He is my refuge everytime I am in trouble, and he knows that. That's how I trust him so much.

We always celebrate each other's birthday each year. And everytime our birthday comes we always exchanged gifts and took a day off to treat each other to a posh restaurant. That's how we grew up together.

Apparently, my birthday had passed already because Val unconsciously forgot it. But Val wanted to get back to me by celebrating it late (kind of post celebration) so we planned three weeks ago to just celebrate it on one of the Thursdays that I am off. And today, we had time to see each other at Old Town Pasadena.

I worked last night, for three consecutive nights, so basically, I was asleep all day. When I woke up I got two messages on my iPhone voicemail from my cousin Val and from Wells Fargo Bank about the wire transfer I sent last Monday for the property I bought in Manila.

So I immediately called the bank right away and asked if what was the problem about the wire transfer then had it fixed right there. Then I called Val to confirm our date tonight.

Upon confirming that it will be pushed through I immediately prepared myself because I just don't want myself to get caught up with the late afternoon rush hour because the traffic during that time was always bad at Freeways 101 and 110.

When I left the house it was already 5:30 pm and the traffic was very congested. The traffic was very slow when I got out of the Hollywood Freeway until the Pasadena Freeway. It took me sixty-five minutes to get to Old Town Pasadena where Val and me were supposed to meet up.

Upon arriving at Old Town Pasadena on Fair Oaks Avenue I immediately spotted a public parking edifice. I then made a right turn at the parking building and looked for an available parking. I called Val on his celfone that I was already in the vicinity. He told me that he's also on his way so I decided to just do some window shopping.

Old Town Pasadena was so cool. I remembered I went here before when I moved to California from Texas in the early 2000. The shopping establishments and restaurants looks very stylish. There were wide array of signature shopping stores and restaurants around and the shoppers were kind of trendy, too.

I first stopped at J. Crew, browsing some nice cool jackets but I just don't like what they have there so I transferred to the Armani Store and still I don't like what they displayed. I kept walking south of Colorado Boulevard until I saw the Gap Store, so I immediately went in and browsed the items there.

Then Val called me and asked me where I was. I told him I was in the Gap Store. He told me to just stay at the store because he was already walking towards there. When he arrived at the store I was already lining up to pay for the winter scarf and blue gym shorts I got. Val volunteered to pay it up for me because he wanted it to be my late birthday present from him.

After we paid both items we were discussing where to eat until I spotted a Kabuki Restaurant across the street. We crossed the street and headed directly to the restaurant and asked for a table for two.

When we were seated a Latina waitress greeted us and discussed to us some wide array of menus available that night. We told her to give us some time to decide while we order our drinks.

Val and I were talking about life and about new updates while we were choosing the food we'll gonna order. So far he told me that he was been on-call a lot of times and was so busy all the time. He also told me that he recently had a two weeks vacation in the Philippines and also went to Vietnam for two days. I also told him about my life and about my mom's passing.

When the waitress came back we told her about our order and she immediately wrote it down. Kabuki was a fusion Japanese Restaurant. I know they have a lot of branches all over Southern California. The restaurant was kinda posh and the menu items were sorta affordable. They offered a wide array of sushi rolls and tempuras, fresh salads, wine and alcoholic drinks. The ambiance was also good and I noticed a lot of people are coming in and out of the restaurant.

When our order came we started to concentrate eating while Val and I talked to each other occasionally. The Miso soup which was served first was great. I enjoyed it so much. The raspberry iced tea was kind of sweet but also good. When the seafood salad came, we shared it together over chopsticks and enjoyed  and devoured it. It was so delicious! We liked it so much.

Then when the entree came, we ordered the Love Boat, with beef and chicken barbecue spread on a bed of green salad with sesame oil dressing, California sushi rolls, shrimp and vegetable tempura, and fried wonton drops and a quarter of fresh pineapple dice with a frou-frou umbrella stuck on it. It was a very large order good for two people. Val and I looked at each other and was wondering how we could eat them all. So he told me to just eat some of it and just take home the rest of it.

While we were enjoying our meal me and Val talked about everything like our childhood days, our work, our lovelife (which I can't supply because I am loveless, unlike him who's totally in love right now), our parents, siblings, and families, also about our friends and classmates in high school.

We have so much to talk about but we have to hold it off because we were already stuffed with the food we just ate and the night already gets deeper, considering that he still has to drive home to Long Beach and me going home to North Hollywood.

So far our dinner was good and we enjoyed it so much. We were so stuffed. At least we had to see each other and talked about what's going on with our individual lives. Hopefully, we got to see each other again on Christmastime or New Year as we have agreed. Thanks Val for the awesome and special time and a wonderful dinner. Thanks for the birthday gift, too.

Hoping to bond with you again soon. Take care!