yamitsuki life, finding adventure in the every day
Flexibility is an important word in our family vocabulary. A hard concept to hold at any age, but one we’ve introduced to babygirl since her early days and has proved to be one of the most invaluable life lessons that we’ve taught her so far. There are so few outcomes we can really control and best laid plans like dominos can topple over at any given moment. “Plans can change,” we’ve told her, “instead of focusing your energy on the momentary disappointment or frustration, be open to what spontaneous surprises might lie ahead.”
And this is just the kind of frustrating not-in-our control situation we found ourselves in this past week. The day had started off with foreign-to-the-PNW thunderous claps and downpour from the sky, maybe foreshadowing my own brooding feelings that would surface later in the evening. It’s so difficult to want to be fully in your feels but know as a mom, your visible and palpable dysregulation is contagious to your little tag-along emotional sponge kiddo. For better or worse, it forces me to take my own advice and try to work on my emotional flexibility muscle and be open to moving with less resistance towards where the wind takes us.
We decided our adventure would start off at one of our favorite spots in Seattle, The Wayland Mill, for a Japanese-inspired dinner for three. Most people think of Wayland as a weekend brunch spot (and the hour-long lines serve as proof), but I love the quiet, easy to walk-in atmosphere of the restaurant on weekday nights.
We started off the dinner with two sakura martinis, which came ice-cold in perfectly chilled and frosty coupes, adorned with two tiny, very kawaii (!!), lemon peels cut in the shape of flowers. Followed by string bean “yamitsuki” (Japanese for addictive), which was my favorite dish of the night - crunchy yellow wax beans that are in-season right now that they coated in a light sesame dressing, spicy togarashi, scallions, a soft-boiled egg, and freshly shaved katsuoboshi (bonito). The shaved katsuoboshi was an unexpected but incredibly flavor-enhancing indulgent addition, both from its ability to add a salty umami note but also the textural delight it adds when a big shaving melts in your mouth like salty French-cultured butter. I never say no to adding french fries as a side to our meal and the ones at Wayland are a must order for any potato lover (that would be me). The fries are very (very!) crispy and served with a garlicky curry ketchup. We also ordered a shaved cabbage caesar salad, a pan-roasted gindara (black cod) that they served with a pad of miso butter over thinly cut gai lan (chinese broccoli) with a chili savory oyster sauce. Last but not least, hambagu meatloaf for the little one, who was very stoked it was served with not one but four adorable triangle pieces of gently-toasted and buttered shokupan from their sister restaurant Saint Bread. She was so stoked in fact that one triangle was quickly snatched and gobbled up before I was able to grab a pic.
After dinner, full and happy, we headed home planning for bath time for the little one and hopefully calling it an early night for a good night’s rest. We came home to the still magical bright light of Seattle summer evenings, a slight chill in the air leftover from the day’s earlier thunderstorms, and the piercing strong sound of a singer’s voice and his guitar, coming from Chophouse Row’s Summer Sounds stage. Little needed to be communicated and the three of us made a quick pit stop at home, scooped up the pup to come along with us to head over to 2차 (second round) to listen to live music and ice cream for dessert from Sweet Alchemy.
And there in the open courtyard with kid scoops of strawberry ice cream, listening to Radiohead covers and holding the pudgy, still squishy hands of my six-year-old daughter for one of the last times that she’d still be six, I felt the pangs and warmth of what it is to want to hold a moment in time still because you know when it passes, you’ll miss it forever. Flexibility is required to start an adventure but gratitude, the noticing of good things all around us, is essential to get us to where we need to go.
