Soda With That?

Mom never learned to make tempura in her native Japan

Like her maki rolls,

she learned to make them from Japanese wives married

to American men.

Japanese chefs in Japan spent years apprenticing before

touching the batter or fry oil.

In comparison, Mom’s batter was more golden yellow

not pale blond,

shrimp, green beans, sweet potato coated thick and lumpy

not light and lacy,

the coating cooled to a chewy consistency

not crispy.

To family, it was perfection!

 

Time went by, we moved on, settling into a cadence outside

the shelter of our parental home.

When mom visited me in Southern California, I took her to

Bob’s Big Boy.

To go with our burgers, she chose fried onion rings served

golden brown, the texture of thick paint,

permitting inviolable memories of small-kid times.

It was perfection!