This evening, we got to have an adult date night with some of our crazy, sometimes inappropriate but always fun friends. No Wall-E or Mickey, or big-girl potty, and no cartoons. Just some adult conversation and giggles. How great!
We met Lance and Stephanie, Jim and Heidi at Appare Japanese Steakhouse. I was more than a little worried about my first experience with authentic Japanese food, but there's no way dinner could have been any better! Andy and I split a chicken and shrimp meal (I ate chicken, he ate shrimp, duh). Lance ordered a round of Saki bombs, minus one for himself (thanks, Lance!). It's a crazy little drink and ritual, if you haven't had one. A shot of saki balances on two chopstick atop a glass with about three drinks of beer. You count to three in Japanese, pound the table, and the saki falls into the beer, and you drink it. Andy's backfired, and mine didn't fallimmeditely. With the "botched bomb," Lance figured we should try it again later. We ordered and our cook came to prepare our meal at a grill at our table. Lucky me, I got to be the one being picked on at the table (it's all good - I make a good scapegoat!). I got to flip the egg (poorly) and be the laughing end of his funny cookery shenanigans. Our food was ready and delicious, and round two of Saki bombs went much better. Heidi, being the last to finish, got a "bonus" penalty shot. Lucky girl ;)
From there, we proceeded to The Funny Bone Comedy Club in West Des Moines. The opener, a local guy, was okay, and the girl (the head-liner's wife) was a hoot! Horribly inappropriate, but hilarious! Ralphie May was the headliner, and again, inappropriate was hilarious! This kid is hooked on Iowa Peaches and Cream Sweetcorn (can you blame him?!!). His schtick was so funny! I think I left with a busted gut (maybe that was because of the Saki bombs ... I don't know ...).
We had a great night! Thanks to Lance for chauffeuring us around and setting up the night out, and to everyone for putting up with us. We had a blast, and we can't wait to do it again!
The culprit: my Saki bomb. It was kinda cool, though!
Andy and I get the lowdown on how this whole Saki bomb deal works.
Saki bombs away! Andy and I pound the table to drop the Saki, with no luck, while Heidi and Stephanie enjoy
After I made some comment about how cool it was that our chef could spin an egg on the grill and flip it in the air, he let me try. I, of course, sucked! My first flip landed with a crack on the grill. Attempt two was barely better, rolling near Lance. He was good at flipping and catching his egg (why do you have to steal my thunder, Lance?! Huh?! No bueno, dude. No bueno!)
That's our dinner, up in flames. He called it a volcano, because the onions were stacked biggest to littlest, then littlest to biggest (like a volcano) then set ablaze. Cool huh?!
He also flipped us tiny chicken bites to catch. I went first (of course I did) and actually caught mine! Jim caught his, too. Heidi and Stephanie struggled with the amazing pet trick, but Lance and Andy did a pretty good job, too!
Andy and I at the end of the night, tried, full and ready for bed!
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