Anniversary dinner at Benihana

Roy and I have been married for 9 years.  Can you believe it?  We had a gift certificate for Benihana that we bought at a charity auction many months ago.  We decided to save it for our anniversary, so last night we got a sitter and went to dinner.
It was so much fun!  I've never been to a Benihana restaurant but I've been to similar styled places.  For anyone who doesn't know, Benihana is a Japanese style grill where they cook your food at the table.  I've gotten to where I like to try foods I don't normally like when I go out.  So when Roy asked if we should share a sushi appetizer I said, "Sure!"
I first tried sushi in college when I had a Japanese roommate make some for us.   I did not like it.  But it seems like every few years I try it just to make sure I really don't like it.  So Roy ordered a nice safe Philly roll sushi.  When it came, I put a little dallop of avocado wasabi on it a popped the whole thing in my mouth.  After the initial desire to promptly spit it out and down my water, I began chewing.  I was doing everything I could to not gag, hurl or otherwise disgrace the table.  I was trying to enjoy it while pondering ways to not swallow it.  Curse you cloth napkins!  I finally managed to swallow most of it except the seaweed wrapper.  That is the worst part in taste and texture.  By this time I'd reached the conclusion that I would have to excuse myself and go to the bathroom; however I did not want to look like I had a mouth full of sushi.  I hid it in my cheek, politely excused myself, and pretended like I didn't know I looked like a lopsided chipmunk until I reached the privacy of the bathroom stall where I could safely dispose of the remainder of my sushi.  I think I still don't like sushi.
On a side note, Roy really does like sushi but was unaware that the green stuff was wasabi and the white stuff was pickled ginger.  He piled both onto his first sushi.  He cut the ginger in half for his second because he thought it was horseradish.  He later confessed that he thought he was going to cry after his second bite.  Somehow he pushed on through and managed to eat 7 of the 8 sushi.  Now he knows better.
Our chef came to our table.  It seems a bit odd to go to a Japanese restaurant to eat food made by a Hispanic chef.  He was very good though.  He made jokes about the juxtaposition of his ethnicity to the restaurant and food style.  He did a great job providing dinner and a show.  Roy and I ordered the noodles to go with our dinners but he let me try some of the chicken fried rice.  Definitely ordering the rice next time!
Every meal came with shrimp.  In the spirit of trying things I tried my shrimp.  I told Roy not to tell anyone but I actually kind of liked it.  Of course, I was really hungry and it tasted mostly like chicken - not much fishiness to it.  Good thing too because I still only had a cloth napkin and I'd already used my bathroom break!
At the end of the meal a few of the Japanese waitresses came to our table to sing a Japanese happy song and light a candle on a Buddha for good luck.  Our waitress comped us some ice cream and we headed out.

It was a great night.  I had so much fun with Roy.  I'm lucky to be married to him and to be celebrating 9 happy years.  Here's to an eternity more!