Date Night Dinner at Japanese Village

Growing up everyone could sing the jingle for Japanese Village. Their commercials were classic, even though I really had no idea what made the restaurant different from other places. Finally, 30 years later, I wanna see them, have a good time, at Japanese Village, aso aso.



Someone suggested that we go out for a group date night, and I threw out the idea of a Teppanyaki place, as we had fond memories from the Teppanyaki House in Provo, where the chef ignited an onion volcano and flipped pieces of grilled shrimp into each person's mouth. There may be other places in town, but Japanese Village was the only one that I could find. It seemed like a great opportunity to get a fun meal and to satisfy 30 years of curiousity.



It worked nearly perfectly. We had a party of 10 people to fill out all the stools, and the food was delicious. However, at no point did anyone sing the famous jingle, and I had to put all the shrimp into my mouth on my own. Other than that, I had a good time, at Japanese Village, aso aso.

Fawlty Anniversary #14

[Nov 24 2014]



After scouring every website for every venue in the city (including a bar in Inglewood), I finally found a show to attend for our 14th anniversary. The Pumphouse Theatre was in its first weekend of a production of Fawlty Towers, essentially reenacting several episodes from the classic British comedy. Pumphouse had done a similar production in a previous year and it had been a great success, according to some web article I read. R has never seen the original show, but I had seen a few episodes somewhere in my youth and I had always been curious to go to the Pumphouse. My standard bike/run commute to downtown cuts right past the historic brick building, which supplied water to Calgary residents from 1913 to 1968. In 1972 it was converted to a community theatre and it has been pumping out quality dramatic works ever since.



We planned to go to dinner before the 7:30 pm show, but time was going to be tight because the babysitter was coming at 6pm and we would need to get to the show a bit early to find decent general admission seats. I found that the Stadium Redwater Grille just off 16th Avenue was right along the way. Originally constructed as a McDonald's, this restaurant supplied Happy Meals to Calgary residents for decades until it was converted to a fine dining establishment, and it has been pumping out quality steaks and chops ever since.



It was a bit of a rush, but they got us in and out of the restaurant in under an hour and we made it to Fawlty Towers before it started. However, there were only a few seats left on the side the stage configuration meant that any seats on that side would have an obstructed view of the kitchen and dining room action. Fortunately, I have few reservations about asking favours and strangers, and people were willing to scoot over one seat to free up a pair of seats for us in the good section. It was blazing hot anywhere you sat. Perhaps they were too thorough when they restored the historic furnace.



Before the show even started, there was a mock scene where the actor playing Basil came out on stage and pretended to take a phone call from a man to talk about a planned wedding proposal. Suddenly, an audience member came through the doors at the rear of the stage and proposed to a woman on the front row. Things only went up from there. In fact, one of the episodes was called "The Anniversary." The show was great -- especially the lead character. He channeled John Cleese wonderfully without simply imitating John Cleese. Long, gangly arms used to maximum effect. Wonderful night.



The next day was our actual anniversary, but since it was a Sunday, we didn't go to any more pumphouse-McDonald's or anything. Instead, we ate dinner with the rest of the clan and my wife of 14 years managed to secretly create a fabulous chocolate mousse that pretty much everyone loves and we shared it together. Everyone there got to have some, but only my plate was hand-decorated with a cute anniversary message. R is the best. She always has some romantic trick up her sleeve.



Happy Anniversary!! I love you!! I also love mousse!!

March Madness Date Night

R is wonderful. She planned a date night centered on basketball, and then it essentially lasted for weeks. She printed out March Madness brackets for us to fill out and then we spent many evenings watching games and keeping track of our wins. Fortunately, Scott also jumped in and filled in a bracket, so he keeps mine up to date for me.



R got some gluten free cookies and hid them in the pantry away from small, prying eyes. She also got some real milk (as opposed to the typical almond milk we have on our cereal) and we had an evening full of non-stop dunking. It was awesome. I love her.

Hockey Night

For a work event, we all went to watch a Flames Game at the Saddledome. The first fight was only 3 minutes into the game and things just went up from there. One lady from work brought her son to the game and he got to ride on the Zamboni during the intermission. We got Scott a pair of Flames pajamas. The Flames won (even though they have had a terrible season). It was a roaring success. Great evening. Apparently, R's dad and sister were attending the same game, but were sitting on the opposite corner away from us. By putting my phone flash on strobe mode, I was able to signal to them where we were sitting.

Date Night: Gluten Free, Crowd Free

February date night was scheduled for the day after Valentine's Day, hopefully to avoid the crowds of nannies and romantics (and romantic nannies). As it turns out, crowds were still an issue -- we really could have used a few more people to fill the space.



We had dinner at Calgary's first and only all-gluten-free restaurant: Heaven Artisan GF Cuisine on 17th Avenue. I had purchased some vouchers recently that got us $40 worth of food credit for only $20, and I figured there would be a lot of other people crawling over each other to use the vouchers, so I made a reservation for 7pm. Good thing. It is possible that they could have chosen to close the place early if they didn't know we were coming. Actually, there were two other couples in the place when we arrived, but eventually we were the only ones left in there, and we were severely outnumbered.



The food was absolutely fabulous. We got a fabulous sampler appetizer, R got an enormously cheesey lasagna and I got a plate of 4 different tacos (the shrimp taco was the best). We followed it up with a great dessert of fried plantains in a sweet cinnamon syrup. We will definitely be going back.



Afterwards, we enjoyed some time alone in the Eau Claire cinema, waiting for The Quartet to begin. Eventually, another few couples came in just before the show started, so we didn't have the whole place to ourselves. I shouldn't be surprised, since the film was about a retirement home full of former professional musicians, but we were several decades younger than the average age in there.



The movie was lots of fun and the food was fabulous. A wonderful date night with my Valentine.

Date Night: GhostBusted

I left to work early in the morning and found this cute little ghost hanging from the light switch with an invitation to go to dinner theatre for our January date night. How sweet. There was a sucker inside the ghost, so that was also sweet.

It turns out that R had arranged a double date with her parents to the Jubilations Dinner Theatre to watch the show "Ghostbusted", which was essentially an 80s nostalgia musical loosely related to Ghostbusters, chock-full of your favourite chart-toppers from everyone's favourite decade.



The show was set primarily in a grand old hotel, and all the waiters were supposedly dressed to match the theme and acted in character. It seems to me that they were simply dressed in whatever Halloween costume they could find. I was glad that our waiter (named Gunther) was not quite so obnoxious as the male waiter who was dressed in a long white beard, wore an ill-fitting wedding dress, and climbed up the wall behind us during the main course of the meal.



The food was actually quite good and they took great care of R's gluten-free requirements. Rather than feeling like a second-class citizen, she felt like she had even more choice and better options that then rest of us. I was just happy that they brough out my pop in what was essentially a medium-sized pitcher with a straw.

The show was a lot of fun. I was shocked that I had never heard of this place before. We will definitely be going back.

Date Night: December

In conjunction with the stay-at-home anniversary dinner date that we had in November, R instituted a system of monthly date nights. Each month we alternate planning the dates, and some dates are supposed to be at home, while others are nights to go out.



December was my month to plan a stay-in date, so we put together a Christmas puzzle while we listened to the end of the Sherlock Holmes audiobook (The Sign of The Four) we had been listening to during our road trip. This was significant because we used to do this sort of thing quite a bit when we first moved out to Ottawa back in 2002 and we didn't have any TV reception and we didn't really know anyone. We would do puzzles in our little apartment while we listened to Stuart Mclean read his Vinyl Cafe series on CBC radio.



It wasn't fancy, but it was fun to set aside the time and to re-live something from those early days of our marriage.

Wicked!

Tickets to the show were a birthday present to my Wonderful Wife of the West. We'd seen Wicked in NYC in 2006 but we'd always resented the fact that the giant cape used in the "Defying Gravity" scene was broken the night that we happened to go (plus, we were way back in the corner of the theatre), and wished we could go back and see it again. Back in March when I learned that Wicked was coming to Calgary I resolved to buy tickets for R's birthday.

It turned out that we got much better seats this time around, but we were surprised to see that giant cape had been eliminated in the touring production -- it was replaced with spotlights in the shape of a cape. So, we've still never seen our giant cape, but the effect was still pretty magnificent and we are satisfied... for now.

Nine Years Later

Subtitle: Anniversary weekend in Cardston, Alberta.


Nine years ago this week we stood on this same spot for wedding photos. Strangely enough, there was no snow on the ground that day either -- a miracle. While the weather appears the same, we certainly look different than in our wedding video that we watched again (an anniversary tradition). R's hair is darker and curlier. She also has a prego belly. My differences are harder to pinpoint. I've got about the same haircut, but I look older. It seems like I have moved a little further along the continuum which has younger me on one end and my dad on the other end.


We spent the weekend childless, leaving our progeny in the capable hands of his aunt J and his uncle L, where he reportedly put all his energy into playing with hotwheels cars on a track. On the way out of town, we hit an opening day showing of "New Moon". The movie was actually better than I expected -- the special effects were leaps and bounds ahead of the previous film. I guess that's what you get with a bigger budget.

The absolute best part of the whole thing was the audience -- hearing the collective gasping and swooning when the male lead characters first appeared, and then the mania when Jacob pulled his shirt off. You can't duplicate that part of the experience at home, and I'm glad I was there to witness it.

I'm also glad that I didn't have to wait in line. We were able to walk right in for the afternoon show, but we saw throngs of fans lined up outside the theatre for the later shows when we came out.


Another stop on our way south was the Pizzaberger Cafe in Okotoks, which offers a gluten-free crust in addition to its wheat-flour mainstay. While we were waiting for our order, we saw quite a stream of customers coming in and out, including a couple who often drives the 40 minutes down from Calgary to get their pizza fix, as well as an Okotoker who says he gets the 2 for 1 takeout special every Friday. We had no idea this little spot in an otherwise sleepy strip mall was such a local gem. We understood the passion once R dug into her hawaiian feast.

You see, people can deal with a certain amount of change in their lives over 9 tenths of a decade -- hairstlyes, pregnancy, children -- but pizza is pretty tough to give up cold turkey.

Thank goodness for Pizzaberger.

Date Night: Value Village & Earls

For Christmas, R's sister K hooked us up with the means for a date night. She knows that we have a reliable babysitting arrangement, so she wanted us to have something to do. A week ago, we used a portion of her gift to go out shopping -- at Value Village.


One of the first dates that R and I ever went on involved Value Village (called Savers in the US). Back in high school, a group of us went bowling, but first we went to Value Village and picked out outfits. She and I ended up with gas attendant uniforms -- mine was from Shell and hers was from PetroCanada. This time around there was no bowling. We were just browsing for whatever looked fun.


I always gravitate to the overcoats section, and I have done quite well there in the past. I think I have 6 overcoats from there and some of them are pretty sweet. This time, I found this ENORMOUS winter coat made by London Fog. It was a size 50 and it was built for those white collar commuters who have to cross the Himalayas on their way to work. Awesome coat, but maybe a little big.


R tried it on, but it even seemed big on her. In the end, we decided not to buy it, even though we probably could have fit the whole family in it.


You know, I think we were the only people in there that were shooting photos. Strange. I guess other people aren't as interesting as we are.


After making a few purchases (mostly shirts and sweaters), we headed over to Earl's Restaurant for some hot wings and their divine spinach feta dip and toasted pitas wedges. We have been cashing in our airmiles to get gift cards for restaurants to pay for our date nights, so this was effectively free. It was a very successful and satisfying evening, so we want to thank K for making it possible.



Until next time!

comments:

David & Cheryl said...
Value Village is definately a great place to be. Every one seems to have their own personal area where they gravitate to within that store, but I also find that everyone has a certian area that they also stay clear away from too. I prefer the short sleeve collared shirt area, but I stay away from the items placed above most of the racks. There's often times things there scare me. Sometimes these items are right above the shirt rack that I want to peruse, it then becomes a battle of the mind vs your senses.

Allyson said...
I think "strange" is exactly the reason that you were the only ones taking pictures!
Looks like a fun date. Gary and I are almost giddy if we manage to include a trip to DI while we're out sans kids.

JwRiDe said...
This story tugs at my heart strings. So many good times, just out of reach. Im not allowed in DI or the equivalent. I started buying clothes for halloween costumes, but lost my privileges when I began wearing them as every day attire. Oh, that and something about a rowing machine...great read D.

Jessica said...
I remember buying all our Christmas gifts one year with AirMiles. Oh and another year we got all the kids toys at the Dollar Store.

Grandma Walters said...
It's neat when you young couples are learning to shop where you can afford! Thanks again to Karla. When our first baby was born we still felt we needed a break, so we had no car but had a bit of money for baby sitter and WALKED down town to buy some ice cream...some of our best dates!