Happy Japanese

There was a time in Key West, when greed and concupiscence ruled over common sense, when Benihana closed to accommodate the landlord's greed. The bubble burst, the land wasn't sold and miraculously the chain Japanese restaurant re-opened. This is I believe the red safflower symbol that gives the Doral-based chain it's name:It flourishes today in a space that to my mind warps the time/space continuum. Enter Benihana and you have slipped out of the Florida Keys and have stepped back into 1950s Cleveland or some such place. This chain that has outlets around the world was apparently started in 1964 in New York city and now earns it's bosses three hundred million dollars a year. Cheyenne is statistically speaking, an anomaly as she takes her own chow with her when she plans to be away from home during dinner hour.
Key West has it's own traditional Japanese restaurants but for some reason this is one of the chains that has proved to be durable in this town. Taco Bell closed recently much to the distress of some people (not me) and there is only one Burger King left in the city after the downtown store closed a couple of years ago, to be replaced by a chain surf(!) shop. Friends took me to Benihana for the first time after it re-opened and I was mildly amused by the schtick but I am not of the type that enjoys dinner as theater. I look at my hands and wonder how they train the chefs to fling their knives around so gracefully. In this instance, Robert, the master of the freebie figured out that if he made a reservation far enough in advance Benihana, like Denny's gives you free grub on your birthday. An opportunity not to be missed.We were party of five so we waited briefly top be seated and I had the rare chance to observe the regular Benihana customers in their element. We shared the table with three others, from Pennsylvania I believe, and they showed me how one interacts with the chef as he spins knives and chops food on the heated slab ("teppanyaki table") in front of you. Our master comedian was Jose from Puerto barrios in Guatemala, a journeyman chef who played to his Pennsylvania audience like a master. The idea at Benihana is to enjoy a touch of theater with the ingredients which are brought to the grill already chopped. Everything is carefully measured out and all ingredients for each dish are prepared before they arrive. The chef throws them on the grill in the correct order, swirls them around and serves them up With banter. Robert is about as good with banter as am I, Dolly his wife, watched the knife:
The menu offers assorted chicken and steak and scallops and lobster in various combinations. Most cost between 20 and 45 dollars a dish though Benihana advertises, rather crassly that complete dinner start at $15.50. I took them up on that and tried the tofu dish and it was good, my wife giggled that I probably got the most fat of all of us in the crusty wrapper then tofu came in. It was also easy to pick up with chop sticks. Plus it came first, I suspect as a way to avoid contaminating a vegetarian meal with meat on the same grill.
They also brought me all the green tea I could drink and I drink a lot of tea so I enjoyed the constant ebb and flow of teapots, and kept mine hot on the grill. And like I said I was spared the banter as the trip from Pennsylvania took up the slack.He was a salesman so he started out well by asking us where we are from and the fact that we were locals didn't faze him. He offered us a low cost pharmaceutical card and gauging our ability and willingness to play his game turned the brilliant smile on Jose who played along gamely. The wife brayed like a donkey as she sucked up the plonk and the daughter got more fluent in Spanish, she thought, as she sank the pink zinfandel. It was a complete Benihana experience, except that no one stuck chopsticks up their nostrils which I am told is common practice among Benihana cognoscenti.

The portions are American sized, not Japanese so as a matter of course a busboy comes out with the dreaded Styrofoam (non recyclable!) and my wife took home chunks of her excellent tuna steak. I really liked my tofu and figured it would not do as well reheated so I woofed it.We five were at Benihana for what was for us an unusual "dining experience" but the other three apparently make a habit of it. My wife said (I wasn't paying attention) they rent a room at the Galleon resort for a month and I did hear him say he's been coming back every year to Key West for 23 years, a creature of habit it seems, and Benihana draws them in far more than say one of Key West's homegrown places to eat. Perhaps the fact that making a sale at dinner is frowned upon, would be enough to put him off the other establishments.It was a cold night by Key West standards but we repaired to a local joint for what my wife promised would be the best chocolate cake ever. She was right, we had a table to ourselves and we talked our backsides off late into the night.I would never have imagined having dinner with Robert and Dolly in this place, and it is a unique memory I shall add to all the others I have accumulated over the years. You have to try Benihana once if you never have. You may not have the pleasure of stepping out into Key West afterward, but watching the knives fly is priceless.

The Great Game IV

What strikes me as odd about the posturing over Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and Israel, is how unnecessary it all is. When US oil consumption dropped last year by ten percent, oil producers were thrown into chaos. Tankers around the world were sitting idle, loaded with crude waiting for someone to buy. There was more oil to be refined than any number of refineries could cope with. Just a ten percent drop in consumption by the US caused massive, unsustainable over production. Imagine what would happen if we got serious about alternative energy.

The argument goes that alternative energy is a socialist tree hugging plot to ruin the economy and pave the way for the End of the US As We Know It. Well, yes, in a sense that's true, but it could actually be for the better. In seeking independence from oil we would at last be seeking independence from foreign energy markets. Not since the 1970s has the US produced all the energy it needed. And ever since then energy independence has been a political catch phrase with no substance to back it up.

There is market in this country for alternative energy, and that market would provide jobs and light industry, which can't actually be bad for the US. It would be different for sure to make our own solar panels, our own windmills and our own gas and bio fuel plants, but in feeding those industrial dreams Americans would be working for their own benefit not for shareholders in the world wide oil bonanza.

The biggest issue I have with opponents of alternative energy is that they impose their own blinkered limitations on any proposals to move away from oil dependence. firstly there is no rule that says it has to be done all at once. Secondly we don't have to replace our oil obsession with any other single replacement. Liquid propane gas is a commonly used substitute in Europe and it produce one third less carbon than equivalent consumption of petroleum. Hydrogen technology can still be studied, and bio-diesel projects can also be implemented. There's no reason we can't increase the number of windmills and solar panels. Pickens has abandoned his plans for wind power in the Texas panhandle saying energy is too cheap to justify it, yet one wonders why subsidies aren't worth considering to make them worth while. If your child was off to fight an endless oil war in Afghanistan or Iraq or Iran a wind power subsidy instead might look cheap, and worthwhile.

And yet, even though these ideas have been kicked around for years, and none of them are particularly radical we live in apolitical atmosphere where sensible debate has become impossible. Politics used to be known as the art of the possible. The recent health care reform proposals which were shot down uniformly by the Party of No, illustrate clearly how far we have moved from the days of partisan bickering and back room deals and public unity. Nowadays a unified proposal for energy independence could never be more than a pipe dream. The Democrats would never have the nuts to propose it and the Republicans, funded by Big Oil even more than the Democrats are, would never even agree to begin to think about it. I'm just glad, selfishly, I have no offspring to donate to the cause of Big Oil and the Great Game. Because if we are to continue to be consumers and not citizens someone has to die to get us the fuel to feed the American Dream in it's current incarnation.

Fire On Upper Duval

In the early hours of this morning we received a call that flames and smoke were to be seen on the 1200 block of Duval Street.It was a big blaze from what we in dispatch could gather. All the city's fire units responded and the US Navy Fire Department kindly stood by in case of further calls for service across the city. Police officers evacuated the surrounding buildings including one guard dog in a business who was housed safely in a police car until his owner came to pick him up.

It is unclear at the moment exactly why the fire started or how much damage it caused but several buildings in the middle of the 1200 block are reported to have suffered damage, some severe . This is the second major blaze on Duval Street in less than a year. I guess this very wooden town, with buildings thrown up very close together is lucky, or sensible, to have the Fire Department it does. What a crappy night. The hole created by the fire last March on the 500 block is still there; and now this. It's like Duval Street is becoming gap toothed.

South Sugarloaf

On the southern side of Sugarloaf Key we find a road that parallels the sea, and dead ends here. This is old County Road 939 or State Road 4A that turns west at the bottom of Sugarloaf Boulevard and many years ago used to run along the south side of the islands. These days, all that's left of the old road is a trail that disappears into the bushes at the dead end of the modern roadway:It's a wild and woolly place this trek through the mangroves:The road bed is quite narrow these days though you can see where the surface used to be wider under the bushes. There is also evidence that vehicles of some sort travel the old road, possibly all terrain vehicles or something that leaves tire marks:

The trail runs alongside a body of water to the south for quite a stretch. barely visible through the trees:One is never far from water in these islands and the difference between wet and dry can be a tide or a just a few inches in the rainy season:Even though the islands have the appearance of rolling greenery, it is somewhat deceptive as the trees are much shorter than they may appear, and if they are red mangroves they are actually growing out of the salt water.

The Keys are a mixture of mud, rock, tree and water: And birds, let's not forget herons and stuff flying around looking for dinner: The evening Cheyenne and I walked the sky was overcast with a promise of cold or rain or something nasty. The breaks in the cloud cover never seemed to want to amount to much:The day seemed washed out of all colors:Cheyenne was new to this place and busy finding whatever there was to smell. She treats these walks as a vacuuming exercise snorting and snuffling her way to the end and back:It seems there are people who come out here for a good time and very enterprising I think it is too, with signs of a splendid bonfire and no visible trash. I can only imagine how pleasant it must be in company with chairs and roaring fire far from the cares of the world in the dark of night.I fiddled with my camera and Cheyenne found something disgusting and appetizing and disappeared into the bushes. I only found out after I nailed a couple of still lifes that she was snacking on something smelly.At first I thought this discarded commercial fishing float had a series of letters printed on the side ESL, but as I ruminated, wondering how this artifact of the sea got here I figured I was looking at it upside down and it was really numbered 753. I really should be a detective.I heard a rustling in the bushes and before we knew it we were set upon by a graybeard on a bicycle which required deft footwork by yours truly. Cheyenne doesn't do well around wheels so I lunged for her collar and let him by. "Twice a week" he replied over his shoulder, not stopping when I asked him if he had got to the end of the trail. Which by my calculation is 3.5 miles end to end.We had ambled for an hour and it was my executive decision to head home. The light was failing anyway, not that a dog would care about such trifles.

It wasn't much of a sunset but it made a pretty picture nevertheless. Water and mangroves always help in these situations. I'm lucky to have them to hand.

Evening on Southard

The 900 block of Southard Street has two well known book-ends, and because this is Key West, the book-ends have to be either a place to drink or a place to eat. In the picture above the white overhang marks Mangia Mangia, a sort of Italian restaurant, and in the picture below the white square behind the Bonneville (yes, it's my motorcycle, no comments from the peanut gallery please), is the Cuban Deli known as Five Brothers.And in between there are the usual examples of fine Conch architecture:

In this picture below you can a clear example of how Conchs (native Key Westers) used to enlarge their modest homes as they were able. The individual sections were often added one at a time and frequently the roofing materials on each section look slightly different. This example looks modern and quite possibly added on with the use of a spirit level as all the sections match. This pink charmer is for sale at a breath takingly reduced price of $974,000 dollars (about 15 new Yuan) so if you feel the need to escape the snow you know where you can land:I have long admired this next house, and not just because the garden is so perfectly maintained:It is vaguely in the bungalow style of homes I lived among in Santa Cruz, California, andt there were a few examples of this faux adobe style surrounded by heavily manicured plant life.Perhaps the cool damp of a perfect winter day in Key West reminded me of the cool damp of a perfect summer day in coastal California. Pehrhaps had it been a hot dry day it might have reminded me of Santa Fe. I don't think it has off street parking and it is located on a busy street but I really like the look of that house. A busy street? Everything's relative but Southard (pronounced "suth-'ard") Street is the main artery to Duval from White Street where Fleming Street is the parallel one way street leading away from Duval. And there are hardly any stop signs on Southard so it can be more convenient than taking Truman or Eaton streets:The Cuban Grocery is popular with locals but it is also on the tourist charts and it is one of the places indicated if you want an "authentic" (I hate that word!) Key West experience:I like the food very much, as high as it is in calories. One takes one's meal and sits outside on the benches and watches tourists wobbling by on bicycles and roosters pecking desultorily in the gutters. I recommend the papas rellenas, Cuba's answer to a Scotch Egg or the bollos which are Cuba's answer to falafel. I feel the need to go and photograph some (and eat them) purely for research you understand:The blessing of off street parking:

I delivered furniture to Southard Square once and discovered it is a collection of impossibly small and expensive designer condos grouped around a bunch of banana palms and a pool. It is exquisite:You could choose to study marine biology in Washington state's frigid waters or you could knuckle under and read law at an ivy league school. Or you could hang with the big dogs on the waterfront in Key West. If you do, this would be your uniform:An eyebrow home, mentioned previously, inevitably, in this blog. The overhang was designed to allow upstairs windows to stay open in inclement weather but all the overhang actually does is hold in the hot air rising...Pretty nonetheless and the disadvantages are overcome by air conditioning.J Wills Burke tells us, on page 57 of his superb book The Streets of Key West that Samuel L Southard (1787-1842) was a governor and senator from the State of New Jersey and he also worked in the Federal Government as secretary of War and of the Treasury. Who knew? The question is, why did he get a Key West street, and a big one at that, named after him? He had a falling out with president Jackson over giving him credit for the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812 but Wills Burke suggests that his connection to New Jersey, from whence hailed Whitehead, may be the reason he is remembered in Key West. Which makes no sense to me but there we are, I guess friendship can get you a street name if you are influential enough.And this is where I get to stick my neck out. I am not a fan of Mangia Mangia, and I never have been. I am alone in this as everyone I have ever met loves the place so ignore me and continue to flock here. God knows it's cute enough:

And packed (I took this shot when I walked past later at night) because like I said it is very very popular with locals and visitors:I am a hearty eater, and after a decade spent in English boarding schools my taste buds have been mangled badly enough that I even like tapioca pudding- a lot. I have never been a great fan of Italian-American restaurants, as I find the practice of spending good money to pay eat pasta and drink wine is a waist; even I, the world's worst cook can pull off a meal of pasta and wine, at home, and considerably cheaper. Besides, Mangia Mangia has an odd menu that mixes flavors that just don't seem to appeal to me. But like I say everyone else loves the place. Having made an ass of myself perhaps I should move on. More innocuous architecture: And a last look at the Bonneville, upon which machine I enjoyed a fine commute to work: Suffice it to say that Cheyenne didn't talk to me for ten minutes after I arrived home in the morning. She's going to have to get used to it as I enjoyed the motorcycle commute as much as ever, if not more.