Kiji Friday I received my tax refund and was in the mood to celebrate. It had been a hard week—the usual work and other stuff as well as preparing to make a salad for 350 people for Vida’s school auction. After work I would come home and make a couple of batches of croutons, or peel garlic or slice hearts of palm. On Friday I stayed at work late cutting up two cases of romaine hearts and packed them into boxes to be transported the next day. I wanted to go to the sushi boat restaurant Warakabune -- guaranteed fun but I equally wanted to try somewhere new. There is a new sushi restaurant a half a block from Ra Ra’s house. It’s in the spot on Guerrero that formerly housed La Focaccia and I think that Kiji will manage to break the curse of this location. It has a lovely red lantern hanging out front and a sleek black and green and red décor. We actually had some sushi from Kiji before. On Halloween night as we hung out on Ra Ra and S’s front porch handing out candy to trick or treaters B and R went and got us some sushi for a snack. Maybe it was the liquor bottle lei’s that Ra Ra and S were wearing but the sushi tasted good even coming out of plastic to go containers.

The fact that Kiji is about a two-minute drive from Vida’s school helped the evening off to a good start. We walked in and Vida wanted to sit on the tall stools by the sushi bar. There was nobody else in the restaurant so I didn’t think they would mind. But she quickly changed her mind when she saw a spot in the window on a pillow-covered bench. We moved locations and settled in. One evening Ra Ra mentioned that S was going to Kiji for dinner but that she didn’t care for it much. When Vida and I received our menus I could see exactly why. There was one vegetarian sushi item on the menu. I don’t know why they bothered it was if announcing on a loud speaker that vegetarians were second-class citizens. I found quite a bit to entice me on the menu but was put off a bit by the price. Most of the special rolls were close to $10 each. They also had a dinner menu and tataki at $13.50. I asked if I could get a half order of tataki seeing that I was the only adult at the table and I was a bit annoyed when they said no and the server informed me, “sushi might be a better choice”. Hmmm, and is that your business?

I got over my mood quickly after ordering a sake sampler. Three small cups of cold sake with enticing descriptions did wonders. Vida was happily blowing bubbles into her soda until I told her stop. I ordered two avocado rolls for Vida along with a salmon skin roll, king crab sushi and something called a “dragon roll”. The description of the dragon roll was “deep fried spicy tuna” and I expected a deep fried bit in the middle but just as at Yo Yo Sushi I was surprised too see that the entire thing was deep-fried. How did this trend pass me by? I love deep fried things but was completely unaware that deep fried sushi existed until recently. The roll was drizzled with a mayonnaise type dressing, red tobiko and was absolutely delicious. The other sushi was very tasty as well. Vida’s avocado rolls were cut on a bias and nicely presented on banana leaves. She was very happy with the decorative touch and said it was the best avocado roll she had ever had. She sucked down all the ginger on the table and then asked for another avocado roll. I could have eaten another couple of rolls myself but not at those prices. I was thankful the avocado rolls were only $3.00 a piece—I’ve paid more at other swanky sushi joints and was happy to get out of there for under $50.00.

Restaurant Total: 199  ¶ 5:50 AM

  The Original Old Clam House Soon after the school year began we started receiving ominous notes from Vida’s school informing us that lice had made their dreaded appearance in her classroom. I knew next to nothing about head lice but instinctually I was shaking in my boots. At the first major gathering of the school I got an earful from other parents who had experienced them, particularly S’s Mom, C. They had experienced them twice since S was born and she was dreading the possibility of another infestation. She told a horrible story about how hard it was to get rid of them since lice seem to be immune to some of the pesticide shampoos commonly used to treat them. One afternoon when Vida was sent home with pink eye her doctor remarked that schools should be more obsessed with lice than pink eye, which was not that big of a deal in his opinion.

A couple of times the after school teacher came up to me to let me know that some friend of Vida was sent home and my anxiety level would rise. The closest call being when her most constant companion Z was said to have them. After the Christmas break the problem became more extreme and it had spread to all the elementary classrooms. Daily “nit” checks were once again part of the day for the kids. I would obsessively ask Vida almost every day if she had been checked and breath a sigh of relief when she had received a clean bill of health.

Last Thursday our lucky streak ended when Vida’s teacher R found nits in her hair. There weren’t many but I had to come pick her up. Apparently ten kids were sent home the day before. The craziness began as bought a lice treatment at work and then leaving work in total chaos, went home, vacuumed, bagged up stuffed animals and decorative pillows. scooped up all of our bedding and anything we had been wearing and then went to pick up the babe. The teacher showed me a nit so I would know what to look for. I nervously went back to work with Vida to get things under control and then left to go do load after load of laundry. The sainted Ra Ra was fortunately working that day and did everything she could to support me in my dilemma.

When I got home we put our concoction of coconut and essential oils on our heads and I lamely looked for nits clearly in denial about what we were in for. I didn’t find a thing on her head and Ra Ra didn’t find anything on me. We went through the weekend looking for nits but I didn’t find anything. I drenched our heads in lavender and tea tree and hoped against hope that it was a false alarm and continued to do loads of laundry. I spent the weekend feeling like a pariah. On Monday the dreaded phone call came again—Vida’s teacher had found nits and I had to pick her up. I had her show me again what to look for and then the whole process started again. I found a couple of nits and was even more freaked out that I had it too. I called another mother and made arrangements for her to check me.

On Tuesday I held my breath all morning but no phone call. After school we went over to S and C’s house out in the Excelsior so C could check me out. She didn’t find anything and I was feeling slightly celebratory. It was late anyway so as I drove down Bayshore I decided to stop at The Original Old Clam House. We had driven by its bright red neon sign many times and I was intrigued. It was apparently one of the oldest restaurants in San Francisco pushed back from its original location on the Bay as the shoreline was filled in. We parked in front of a fast food restaurant and walked the block back to the restaurant. As we walked into the restaurant there was an obviously unused dining room on the left—as if the place never filled enough to justify using it—and a brightly lit dining room and bar on the right. The bar was the central feature in the room and there were, at 5:15, quite a few regulars already seated for the evening. The tables and chairs looked like they had been rescued from a Denny’s. There were quaint old pictures, newspaper articles and a collection of license plates on the walls but the place seemed cheap and poorly maintained.

We sat down and were ignored for a while before we got menus. There were some annoyingly loud businessmen seated behind us drinking beer. When we finally received menus I was a little put off by the prices—it didn’t seem like the kind of place that could ask $20 for entrees. I had enticed Vida out for dinner with an offer of clam chowder so that’s what I ordered along with a side of calamari for myself. The server brought us little cups of clam broth which was a nice touch but not really very tasty. Our food came quickly and Vida thought the clam chowder was excellent—even better than the clam chowder on Pier 39. The calamari was quite good too. I was heartened to see a woman in the kitchen in what was obviously a boy’s club type of restaurant. I saw some of the entrees coming out to the other tables and was thankful I hadn’t ordered anything substantial. The entrees looked huge and junky. The restaurant has its fans—a large party arrived and took up a good chunk of the dining room—but the food and atmosphere didn’t measure up to classic status.

We had another lice scare a couple of days later but by that point I knew exactly what to do. I doused Vida in the natural lice treatment consisting of coconut and essential oils, washed her hair with tea tree and lavender and then laboriously went through it twice a day. During the week after we thought we had conquered the nits I not only went through her hair morning and night but also kept a coating of coconut and tea tree oil on as a preventative measure. Her hair and scalp will never be so well conditioned—unless G-d forbid we get head lice again.

Restaurant Total: 198  ¶ 4:25 PM

  Yo Yo Sushi When I went to pick Vida up from school yesterday I couldn’t get her to leave. She was waiting for the evening game of tag to start. I quickly said that we were going out for dinner but that she could stay for a little while. As it turned out tag didn’t happen but the quick negotiation made it more likely that we could out for dinner without too much complaining. I shot a few baskets and watched Vida dribble the ball up and down the yard. Vida and Zara then rolled around on the carpeting and under the tables pretending they were puppies while I stood around impatiently with a couple of other parents who couldn’t get their children to leave.

When we finally got in the car Vida was begging to go back the Thai House Express but I held my ground and drove down Valencia in search of some place new. I passed by the Chinese and Vietnamese places I was contemplating but I didn’t find parking close enough. I soon found parking in a loading zone right at 16th and Valencia and considered the possibilities. I looked over at the Picaro and a burrito place I had never been to but ultimately decided on YoYo Sushi. When I told Vida we were going to have sushi she said, “I was the best mom ever.” I think YoYo Sushi used to be a donut shop or some fast food place but it had been there for quite a while which made me think it must be decent. I was nervous about getting a ticket before 6 so we hung out in the car for a little while. Watching the sketchy characters on the streets frantically use pay phones and exchange cigarettes was making me nervous so I took a chance and we got out of the car.

The restaurant’s décor was a combination of sushi bar and 1950’s diner with red formica tables, banquettes and vinyl chairs. Dance music and hip hop were being played just loudly enough for Vida to start grooving without covering her ears and complaining about the decibel level. She looked at me in confusion and amusement as “Everybody Dance Now” and its classic beat initiated our visit. Before ordering we of course had to go use the bathroom. We made our way to the back of the restaurant. It was strangely laid out and there were boxes of supplies sitting on the floor—usually a sign that the restaurant never got full enough to use tables all the way to the back. But it was reassuring to see a tattooed rocker couple eating what looked like quality food.

The menu was somewhat typical but extensive with some house rolls that sounded interesting. I didn’t want Vida to only eat avocado rolls so I ordered yakitori. Unfortunately (or fortunately) she wouldn’t touch it and I happily ate both skewers of grilled chicken and vegetables. I also ordered a cucumber roll I hoped to convince Vida to eat, a vegetable tempura roll with soybean wrapper and something called a “crazy roll”. The crazy roll was advertised as deep-fried salmon with wakame salad. I was stunned to see when it arrived that it was actually individual pieces of deep fried sushi displayed on a circular plate and covered with a huge mound of seaweed. I have mixed feelings about wakame salad so my stomach took a small lurch as I contemplated eating all that green. I like wakame salad best when the spice and sesame oil cover the taste of the seaweed. In this case it tasted a little too ocean like and I started to panic about ordering the wrong thing. Then I took a bit of the sushi—it was crunchy on the outside and deliciously gluey on the inside from the deep fried rice. I poured on some soy and took each bite with wakame salad piled on top. This, I discovered was the way to go with the “crazy roll”.

The vegetable tempura roll was entirely light green. Instead of the usually carrot color break it had green bean and Japanese sweet potato. It was quite delicious as well. Vida was very happy with her avocado rolls. The view outside was occasionally sketchy but the friendliness of the people who worked at YoYo Sushi made it seem like an oasis in a not very good neighborhood. Considering the way they greeted regular customers they obviously have a strong neighborhood following. More and more kids rolled in with their just as we were leaving and Vida let me know immediately that she wanted to come back again soon.

Restaurant Total: 197  ¶ 6:23 AM