I love you too, Dad

A few weeks ago, my Dad was in town to attend a funeral in SD. I decided to drive down after work on Thursday to meet him for dinner. Braving the worst traffic known to man, I made what should have been a 2 hr trip in 4 months. After arriving, I asked what he wanted to eat and he replied he didn't have any preferences. I had asked a few of my friends familiar with SD what good restaurants were around there and we decided to go to an all-you-can-eat sushi place (Tadashi in La Jolla). Since it was getting late, we called the restaurant to make sure we would have time to eat before they closed. They were going to close in a little over an hour, so we left the hotel and headed over.

Upon arriving, we were seated at a table and informed the waitress we wanted the buffet. She asked us to move to the sushi bar and politely mentioned that if there were any leftover pieces, we would be charged for it. We sat down and my Dad started filling out the sushi sheet. I looked over as he wrote a bunch of 4s and 2s.

me: "4 orders of all this? Are you sure?"
dad: "Yeah, 2 for you, and 2 for me."
me: "okaaaay...."

Shortly thereafter, we were presented with a large plate full of sushi. Since it was late, we were both pretty hungry and finished it off quickly. I asked if he was still hungry and wanted to order more.

dad: "I'm not hungry, but if you want to order some more, I can eat it."

Being the bottomless pit people think I am, I suggested just ordering a little bit more. However, when we informed the cook that we would like to order more, he replied, "You still have more coming. You have a lot more coming."

Oh, ok. We sat patiently and were served yet another large plate full of sushi. Plus 2 small plates. Full of sushi. As they placed the plates in front of us, I realized, "We are not going to be able to finish this." But I said nothing. I knew my Dad realized this as well. But being the proud Chinese father that he is, he would never admit defeat.

We dug in and soon were completely full. And there was still a ton of sushi left. In my effort to take a break, I tried making some conversation. My Dad's reply:

me: "How're Mom and Mei doing?"
dad: "I'll tell you later. We have to finish our dinner first. We don't have enough time."

So we spent the rest of the meal in silence, slowly but steadily stuffing the last remaining pieces of sushi into our mouths. Soon, my dad announced that he was done. Which meant I had to eat the rest of the meal. Bite. Chew. Swallow. Suppress urge to throw up. Repeat.

I don't think I've ever eaten so much sushi in my life.

(Nah, who am I kidding, I probably have. Lots of times.)

I managed to finish all but 3 pieces. As we hurridly left the restaurant, hoping they wouldn't charge us extra, I couldn't help but laugh at what had just happened. I felt like this was something I would do with my friends while in college, not with my Dad when I was 25.

Good times, Dad, good times.