{"id":8063,"date":"2018-04-20T22:42:47","date_gmt":"2018-04-20T22:42:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/?p=8063"},"modified":"2021-02-22T01:31:18","modified_gmt":"2021-02-22T01:31:18","slug":"writing-in-asian-restaurants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/writing-in-asian-restaurants\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing in Asian Restaurants"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writ\u00ading this blog entry in one of my favorite Asian restau\u00adrants: Momi\u00adji in Rhinebeck, NY.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not exact\u00adly sure why, but I\u2019ve been writ\u00ading in Asian restau\u00adrants for over 25 years. Maybe it\u2019s that when Chi\u00adnese or Japan\u00adese wait\u00adress\u00ades get talk\u00ading in their native tongues, their voic\u00ades take on a sooth\u00ading qual\u00adi\u00adty, sur\u00adround\u00ading me like exot\u00adic bird calls in the Ama\u00adzon. Maybe it\u2019s the d\u00e9cor with its fab\u00adric scrolls of Chi\u00adnese or Japan\u00adese let\u00adter\u00ading, which makes me for\u00adev\u00ader curi\u00adous about what\u2019s print\u00aded there. Or maybe it\u2019s because in every Asian restau\u00adrant I\u2019ve writ\u00adten in, no one work\u00ading there has ever ques\u00adtioned what I was doing. They just let me order and eat my food, and sit there and write almost indef\u00adi\u00adnite\u00adly.<\/p>\n

The first Asian restau\u00adrant I wrote in was the now-defunct Yench\u00ading Palace on Boyl\u00adston Street in Boston. I was a sopho\u00admore in col\u00adlege, and the Yench\u00ading Palace was right around the cor\u00adner from a professor-friend\u2019s apart\u00adment. They served the best<\/em> Szechuan dish\u00ades I\u2019ve ever had; I think the orig\u00adi\u00adnal own\u00ader was from the Szechuan Province. All through col\u00adlege, about once a week, I would go there for lunch or din\u00adner alone and write\u2014sometimes sto\u00adries, but more often phi\u00adlos\u00ado\u00adphy papers.<\/p>\n

A few years after col\u00adlege, while liv\u00ading in Maine, I wrote occa\u00adsion\u00adal\u00adly at Pan\u00adda Gar\u00adden in Ban\u00adgor, Maine, and fre\u00adquent\u00adly fan\u00adta\u00adsized about bump\u00ading into anoth\u00ader Pan\u00adda Gar\u00adden reg\u00adu\u00adlar and fel\u00adlow writer, Stephen King.<\/p>\n

(I did even\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly bump into him years lat\u00ader, in the South Port\u00adland Mall park\u00ading lot. I made Alexas stop the car, and I ran over and shook his hand and intro\u00adduced myself. I remem\u00adber telling him that I thought his novel\u00adla Rita Hay\u00adworth and Shaw\u00adshank Redemp\u00adtion<\/em> was his best work, and he said, \u201cWell, that\u2019s a new one. You\u2019re the first per\u00adson to tell me that.\u201d I didn\u2019t tell him I was a writer, too; I was sure he was inun\u00addat\u00aded with so-called writ\u00aders ask\u00ading him to read their dog-eared man\u00adu\u00adscripts. We shook hands and he, rather briskly as I recall, ducked into his Jaguar XJS\u2014it might have been sil\u00adver, but I think it was green\u2014and sped away.)<\/p>\n

At a Port\u00adland, Maine Chi\u00adnese restaurant\u2014which served the best crab Ran\u00adgoon I\u2019ve ever had, by the way\u2014I wrote some of my first nov\u00adel, Nick Chase\u2019s Great Escape<\/em>. I wrote that book in that restau\u00adrant, the now-gone Port\u00adland Din\u00ader, and in my sev\u00adenth peri\u00adod study hall at Freeport High School.<\/p>\n

The author\u2019s fan\u00adta\u00adsy dop\u00adpel\u00adg\u00e4nger, Don Drap\u00ader, at Beni\u00adhana.<\/p><\/div>\n

Soon after Alexas and I were mar\u00adried, we moved to New York, and that\u2019s when I devel\u00adoped a love affair with the orig\u00adi\u00adnal Japan\u00adese hibachi restau\u00adrant, Beni\u00adhana, at 47 West 56th Street.<\/p>\n

Inside the orig\u00adi\u00adnal foy\u00ader were scads of pho\u00adtographs of owner\/founder Rocky Aoki with celebrities\u2014movie stars, jour\u00adnal\u00adists, comics, heads of state, singers, and even a few nov\u00adel\u00adists. I fan\u00adta\u00adsized about being up there one day, a scrib\u00adbled auto\u00adgraph across a pho\u00adto of Rocky and me that read, \u201cTo Rocky: Thanks for all the good times and the great food, pal! \u2013Chris.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The bar at Behi\u00adhana, W. 56th St., NY, NY.<\/p><\/div>\n

Alas, Rocky passed away before I ever had a chance to make his acquain\u00adtance, much less appear in a pho\u00adto with him, but when I began writ\u00ading the Dako\u00adta Stevens mys\u00adter\u00adies, I gave Dako\u00adta two of my loves: red\u00adheads and Beni\u00adhana, and I actu\u00adal\u00adly wrote the Beni\u00adhana scene with Dako\u00adta and Svet\u00adlana that appears in A Real Piece of Work<\/em> at the bar in Beni\u00adhana, after which I sat down at one of the big hibachi tables and had a delec\u00adtable hibachi seafood com\u00adbi\u00adna\u00adtion: shrimp, scal\u00adlops and lob\u00adster.<\/p>\n

While vis\u00adit\u00ading Alexas\u2019s par\u00adents in San Fran\u00adcis\u00adco, they took us to a famous Chi\u00adnese restau\u00adrant in Chi\u00adna\u00adtown for dim sum, and I snuck away to the bar to write a cou\u00adple pages of The Rich Are Dif\u00adfer\u00adent<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The author in a kung fu gi his wife got for him in Hong Kong 20 years ago.<\/p><\/div>\n

The China\u2013Tokyo restau\u00adrant in Mill\u00adbrook, NY has the dis\u00adtinc\u00adtion of being the only Asian restau\u00adrant I\u2019ve writ\u00adten in dur\u00ading two dif\u00adfer\u00adent peri\u00adods of my life. The first time was in 1992, right after col\u00adlege, when I got my first job as a reporter for the Mill\u00adbrook Round Table<\/em>, and one of my first news sto\u00adries was a high\u00adly favor\u00adable review of the then-brand new China\u2013Tokyo restau\u00adrant. From that point for\u00adward, at least once a week at lunch, I ate for free and wrote in a booth in the pri\u00advate par\u00adty room, get\u00adting up occa\u00adsion\u00adal\u00adly to refill my tea cup from the big urn out\u00adside the kitchen doors.<\/p>\n

Four\u00adteen years lat\u00ader, in 2006, I returned to Mill\u00adbrook and the own\u00ader, Katie, point\u00aded out my now-yel\u00adlow\u00ading framed review on the wall. Since I lived in the vil\u00adlage then, less than a foot\u00adball field away from the restau\u00adrant, I wrote there a cou\u00adple days a week for a few years. Even\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly, how\u00adev\u00ader, Alexas and I moved out\u00adside of the vil\u00adlage so I could have more peace and qui\u00adet for my writ\u00ading.<\/p>\n

But I con\u00adtin\u00adued my tra\u00addi\u00adtion of writ\u00ading in Asian restau\u00adrants, and since then I\u2019ve found four more that suit me: Isamu in Bea\u00adcon, NY (the best Sin\u00adga\u00adpore rice noo\u00addle in the area); Chan\u2019s Peking on Ray\u00admond Avenue in Pough\u00adkeep\u00adsie (excel\u00adlent shrimp rolls); and For\u00admosa on Main Street, Pough\u00adkeep\u00adsie (I always order their Kung Pao Shrimp).<\/p>\n

One after\u00adnoon in For\u00admosa, while eat\u00ading and writ\u00ading in the back room (I\u2019m the only cus\u00adtomer they allow back there, by the way, so suck it), one of the wait\u00adress\u00ades, Kay, said, \u201cI see you on Ama\u00adzon Chi\u00adna the oth\u00ader day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cExcuse me?\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAma\u00adzon Chi\u00adna,\u201d she said, her face bloom\u00ading into a smile. \u201cI see your pic\u00adture and your books.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat?! Real\u00adly?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes. I show you!\u201d<\/p>\n

She whipped out her smart phone and, like all mil\u00adlen\u00adni\u00adal girls, pro\u00adceed\u00aded to manip\u00adu\u00adlate it with dizzy\u00ading speed. She showed me a screen with my author pho\u00adto and the cov\u00aders of my eight books lined up.<\/p>\n

\u201cSee?!\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

All of the text was in Chi\u00adnese char\u00adac\u00adters, so I had no idea what it said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s it say?\u201d I asked. \u201cRead it to me, would you, Kay?\u201d<\/p>\n

She did, and sure enough, it was just my author page text. I thought of the fact that Chi\u00adna had a pop\u00adu\u00adla\u00adtion of over a bil\u00adlion, and if just one one-thou\u00adsandth of them (a mil\u00adlion peo\u00adple) bought my book, I\u2019d be a rich man.<\/p>\n

\u201cMis\u00adtah Orcutt,\u201d she said demure\u00adly. She put her phone away and adjust\u00aded her eye\u00adglass\u00ades. \u201cYou\u2019re\u2026you\u2019re famous!\u201d<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t, of course, but see\u00ading how much Kay was enjoy\u00ading know\u00ading a \u201cfamous per\u00adson,\u201d I kept my mouth shut.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re a doll, Kay,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

She looked con\u00adfused.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means you\u2019re very sweet,\u201d I added.<\/p>\n

After that, Kay men\u00adtioned that she liked to read Eng\u00adlish (although she wasn\u2019t very good at it yet), so I gave her and her co-work\u00ader, Crys\u00adtal, signed copies of One Hun\u00addred Miles from Man\u00adhat\u00adtan<\/em> and The Per\u00adfect Triple Threat<\/em>.<\/p>\n

My favorite Asian restau\u00adrant to write in, how\u00adev\u00ader, is Momi\u00adji in Rhinebeck, NY. I\u2019ve been com\u00ading here for over a decade, and I\u2019ve got\u00adten the same dish so many times that the own\u00aders, the wait\u00adress\u00ades, and the cooks know exact\u00adly what I want from the sec\u00adond I walk in the door: hibachi shrimp with fried rice (no egg) instead of noo\u00addles, green sal\u00adad instead of miso soup, water with lemon, and hot tea. The only devi\u00ada\u00adtion I\u2019ve ever made from this order has been scal\u00adlops instead of shrimp.<\/p>\n

When I walk in, I nod and greet the man\u00adag\u00ader, Mon\u00adi\u00adca, in Man\u00addarin: \u201cKnee-HOW. Knee-HOW-mah?<\/em> Hel\u00adlo. How are you?\u201d We exchange a few oth\u00ader pleas\u00adantries and she waves me to the back of the restau\u00adrant, where I take my<\/em> table: on an ele\u00advat\u00aded seat\u00ading area, with my back to the wall and a clear view of the front door.<\/p>\n

My father, and my friends Jason and Tony, have met me here for lunch occa\u00adsion\u00adal\u00adly. Tony, who came on a bright, scorch\u00ading day in July, said of see\u00ading me in the dim recess\u00ades of the restau\u00adrant, \u201cIt\u2019s like going to see a book\u00adie. But a book\u00adie who\u2019s writ\u00ading a nov\u00adel. You\u2019re all set up back there, writ\u00ading, some\u00adtimes work\u00ading the phone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe I should<\/em> start tak\u00ading book,\u201d I said wist\u00adful\u00adly.<\/p>\n

Tony, who grew up in Brook\u00adlyn and knew a num\u00adber of these char\u00adac\u00adters, rolled his eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, great idea,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Of all the Asian restau\u00adrants I\u2019ve writ\u00adten in, Momi\u00adji has been the most inspir\u00ading, and I\u2019ve been more pro\u00adduc\u00adtive here than in any oth\u00ader. Just today, in two hours I\u2019ve writ\u00adten 2,000 words\u2014this blog entry and half of anoth\u00ader. Over the past decade, here in Momi\u00adji I\u2019ve writ\u00adten from scratch, or edit\u00aded, por\u00adtions of all eight of my books.<\/p>\n

No one accosts me. No one knows who the hell I am. No one cares. It\u2019s beau\u00adti\u00adful.<\/p>\n

Maybe there will come a day when I\u2019ll be as famous a writer as Stephen King, and I\u2019ll have to deal with fans glanc\u00ading at me from across the restau\u00adrant and whis\u00adper\u00ading to each oth\u00ader in hushed tones and ten\u00adta\u00adtive\u00adly approach\u00ading me, but I hope not. I hope my Asian restau\u00adrants con\u00adtin\u00adue to be sanc\u00adtu\u00adar\u00adies for me, qui\u00adet places for me to enjoy a meal and write for a few hours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writ\u00ading this blog entry in one of my favorite Asian restau\u00adrants: Momi\u00adji in Rhinebeck, NY. I\u2019m not exact\u00adly sure why, but I\u2019ve been writ\u00ading\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8071,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,19,20,75,36,337,77,7,76,11,270,14,233,15],"tags":[452,451,446,444,94,98,445,449,447,96,95,155,349,450,156,104,453,448,221,92,93,455,454,355,144],"class_list":["post-8063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-craft","category-fiction","category-journalism","category-memoir","category-mystery-writing","category-novel-writing","category-novels","category-personal","category-process","category-dakota-stevens-mysteries-series","category-workspace","category-writingexperiences","category-writing-life","category-writingtools","tag-asian","tag-beacon","tag-benihana","tag-chinese","tag-chris-orcutt","tag-dakota-stevens","tag-japanese","tag-millbrook","tag-momiji","tag-novelist","tag-novels-2","tag-orcutt","tag-pencils","tag-poughkeepsie","tag-process","tag-redheads","tag-restaurants","tag-rhinebeck","tag-writers-life","tag-writers-2","tag-writing","tag-writing-in-asian-restaurants","tag-writing-in-restaurants","tag-writing-life","tag-writing-tools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8063"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8752,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8063\/revisions\/8752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}