July 1, 2013

My dearest,

After an early morning of checking out the day’s freshest catch at Nijo Fish Market in downtown Sapporo, we are famished. Some of that fresh seafood wouldn’t hurt.

“Burnt” donbori makes for a decadent breakfast: my kani-suteki-don of sweet crab roasted with butter on rice, garnished with roasted scallop and a generous dollop of golden-hued Hokkaido butter is a happy call for a cardiologist.

Your bowl, filled with Hokkaido’s finest treasures of the sea, is more sinful still: horsehair crab meat with crab butter, whole red king crab legs, rare purple shrimp, jumbo-size prawn sashimi and fresh sea urchin.

We barely talk in between mouthfuls; only grunts of guttural pleasure sound our deep contentment with a meal this splendid and a partner in crime to share it with.

Your face and mine swell
With each meal we’ve shared these years:
A celebration.

Yours, ever and always.