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Ed Bedford visits the Tea Pavilion
Lovers prepare to part above the Japanese Friendship Garden
The Japanese Friendship Garden, seen from Tea Pavilion.
Video:
TIN FORK: A history of Teriyaki at the Japanese Friendship Garden
“I’m sick of my nuts and twigs,” says Diane. She’s talking about the macrobiotic meals she’s been serving up (she won’t eat my attempts at anything beyond salad).
“But babe, I’m in love with all your nuts and twigs,” I say. “Besides, you keep telling me: restaurants load their food with salt and sugar and bad stuff to keep customers coming back.”
“Yeah, but we have to do a little experimenting,” she says.
“Ooh yes,” I say. “Experimenting.”
“Not that, you fool. Food. I’ve got an idea. Come if you want.”
Which is why we’re here, half an hour and the No. 7 bus later, in Balboa Park. “Like, something Asian,” she says. We’re down by the Spreckels organ. Land drops away steeply on the left. A sign pops out among the trees. “Tea Pavilion.” It lists “45 hot teas, sushi, rice bowls, soups and salads, sandwiches, cold beverages.”
“Japanese,” says Diane. “I was reading about their blossom festival. Mid-March, even though the cherries seem to be budding early this year. Either way, I’ll be gone.”
I let out a loud sigh. “Why can’t we live together like a normal couple? I could sue you for dereliction of dude.”
Eating deck looks over canyon of the Friendship Gardens.
“I’ve promised, that’s why. I have my Invigilator duties.”
“You have a life you won’t let go of, is what you have,” I say. “What about your uxorial duties?”
We do play word games a bit, but I guess the truth is neither of us has really given up the life we came from. She’s stuck in her “invigilator” world — they supervise exams at high schools and universities. Crazy because there’s no-one who’s less of a control freak in the world. Maybe she’s discovering another long-repressed side to herself.
“I’m starting to feel jealous of that other world,” I say.
“I’m starting to feel hungry,” says Diane. Great segue. We head towards a table-strewn deck that juts out over a canyon filled with trees and shrubs and rocks and water and meandering paths.
Soon the bittersweet sounds of Japanese music twang around us. “Oh yeah,” I say. “The Japanese Friendship Garden.” We’re kinda tempted to tour the Japanese gardens’ koi ponds, waterfalls, those swirly, dry-raked stone gardens, and a sculpture of Kannon Bosatsu, who Diane says is like the goddess of mercy and compassion. But first I see the sign listing general admission for $16 — and then a whiff of curry slides past our noses, and we know we’re not leaving for no goddess of mercy. Mercy no.
Plus, this Tea Pavilion must be doing something right. There must be a dozen people lining up at the counter inside. Turistas, mostly, I’m guessing. They have a wall menu. And good news: it’s not all sushi. We start off looking at rice bowl choices, natch. A teriyaki rice bowl comes with sesame seeds, steamed carrots and green onion. Add more veggies and tofu and you pay $12.75. With grilled chicken or beef, $14.75. Grilled salmon, $15.75. The curry connection promises red Japanese pickles, and then the same choices of protein, same prices.
They also have a miso soup for $4.50, and in the udon or soba noodle soup, you can get kitsune sweet fried tofu, a kind that Diane says people would traditionally offer up to a pair of stone-carved foxes — kitsune — who guard an Inari shrine back in Japan, believing it was the foxes’ favorite food. Inari is the Shinto god of rice. And — hey! — young foxes are called kits right here in the States. A Trans-Pacific language connection? But tongues taste as well as talk, so let’s get back to the food: there’s curry vegetable soup ($11); chicken ($13.25), curry chicken ($13.75); shrimp tempura ($13.75); and the kitsune soup, which costs 10.50. Salads, like the ginger and walnut soba noodle salad, run around $11.50. Sandwiches, like the California Krab, are $14.50 and come with Japanese potato salad (standard potato salad plus adds like carrots, corn, cucumber, ham).
Diane’s teriyaki rice bowl. Sesame gives that taste twist.
So, pretty good deals. Diane resists the salad and goes for the teriyaki rice bowl, and I ask for the curry rice bowl. We split a miso soup. I look at the beers and sakes...but not now, middle of the day. We take our plates out onto the deck. I grab chopsticks. Diane, spoon and fork. “But why teriyaki?” I ask Diane. “Just because that marinade is the classic Japanese dish?”
“Well, it was Chinese before it was Japanese,” she says. “I happen to know, I’ve been looking it up. Teriyaki was created in… Hawaii. ‘Teriyaki’ means ‘shiny-grilled.’ Like grilled meat that has a sheen of marination. Lemme see. Teriyaki, mainly soy. Soy used to be called ‘chiang.’ The Chinese have been using it for 3000 years. These days, you can make it from chemicals, but the natural form is fermented soybeans and maybe wheat. And salt. I can’t resist the umami of it. And some of it is actually good for you: antioxidants, and they say it helps digestion.”
I’m taking this all in while I lunge into my curry. A stew, basically, but just enough of the curry flavor to make it addictive, and with those Japanese pickles making a nice red caldera in the middle, what’s not to like? You do start to get a feeling for the Japanese world here.
“We’re coming back,” says Diane.
“For the saké?”
“No, for the blossoms, if they’re out before I go.”
Oh yeah. She’s going.
The restaurant’s bittersweet Japanese zither music plays on. It sounds just how I feel.
The Place: 2215 Pan American Road East, Balboa Park, 619-231-0048
Hours: 10.30am-4pm daily
Prices: teriyaki rice bowl, $12.75; rice bowl with grilled chicken or beef, $14.75; grilled salmon, $15.75. miso soup, $4.50, udon or soba noodle soup with kitsune sweet fried tofu curry vegetable soup ($11); chicken, $13.25, curry chicken, $13.75; shrimp tempura ($13.75); kitsune soup, $10.50; ginger and walnut soba noodle salad, $11.50; California Krab sandwich, $14.50 with Japanese potato salad (standard potato salad plus carrots, corn, cucumber, ham)
Buses: 3, 7, 120, 215
Nearest Bus Stop: Zoo Place (#7, 215); Laurel Street West side (#3)
Here's something you might be interested in.
Ed Bedford visits the Tea Pavilion
Lovers prepare to part above the Japanese Friendship Garden
Ed Bedford visits the Tea Pavilion
Lovers prepare to part above the Japanese Friendship Garden
The Japanese Friendship Garden, seen from Tea Pavilion.
Video:
TIN FORK: A history of Teriyaki at the Japanese Friendship Garden
“I’m sick of my nuts and twigs,” says Diane. She’s talking about the macrobiotic meals she’s been serving up (she won’t eat my attempts at anything beyond salad).
“But babe, I’m in love with all your nuts and twigs,” I say. “Besides, you keep telling me: restaurants load their food with salt and sugar and bad stuff to keep customers coming back.”
“Yeah, but we have to do a little experimenting,” she says.
“Ooh yes,” I say. “Experimenting.”
“Not that, you fool. Food. I’ve got an idea. Come if you want.”
Which is why we’re here, half an hour and the No. 7 bus later, in Balboa Park. “Like, something Asian,” she says. We’re down by the Spreckels organ. Land drops away steeply on the left. A sign pops out among the trees. “Tea Pavilion.” It lists “45 hot teas, sushi, rice bowls, soups and salads, sandwiches, cold beverages.”
“Japanese,” says Diane. “I was reading about their blossom festival. Mid-March, even though the cherries seem to be budding early this year. Either way, I’ll be gone.”
I let out a loud sigh. “Why can’t we live together like a normal couple? I could sue you for dereliction of dude.”
Eating deck looks over canyon of the Friendship Gardens.
“I’ve promised, that’s why. I have my Invigilator duties.”
“You have a life you won’t let go of, is what you have,” I say. “What about your uxorial duties?”
We do play word games a bit, but I guess the truth is neither of us has really given up the life we came from. She’s stuck in her “invigilator” world — they supervise exams at high schools and universities. Crazy because there’s no-one who’s less of a control freak in the world. Maybe she’s discovering another long-repressed side to herself.
“I’m starting to feel jealous of that other world,” I say.
“I’m starting to feel hungry,” says Diane. Great segue. We head towards a table-strewn deck that juts out over a canyon filled with trees and shrubs and rocks and water and meandering paths.
Soon the bittersweet sounds of Japanese music twang around us. “Oh yeah,” I say. “The Japanese Friendship Garden.” We’re kinda tempted to tour the Japanese gardens’ koi ponds, waterfalls, those swirly, dry-raked stone gardens, and a sculpture of Kannon Bosatsu, who Diane says is like the goddess of mercy and compassion. But first I see the sign listing general admission for $16 — and then a whiff of curry slides past our noses, and we know we’re not leaving for no goddess of mercy. Mercy no.
Plus, this Tea Pavilion must be doing something right. There must be a dozen people lining up at the counter inside. Turistas, mostly, I’m guessing. They have a wall menu. And good news: it’s not all sushi. We start off looking at rice bowl choices, natch. A teriyaki rice bowl comes with sesame seeds, steamed carrots and green onion. Add more veggies and tofu and you pay $12.75. With grilled chicken or beef, $14.75. Grilled salmon, $15.75. The curry connection promises red Japanese pickles, and then the same choices of protein, same prices.
They also have a miso soup for $4.50, and in the udon or soba noodle soup, you can get kitsune sweet fried tofu, a kind that Diane says people would traditionally offer up to a pair of stone-carved foxes — kitsune — who guard an Inari shrine back in Japan, believing it was the foxes’ favorite food. Inari is the Shinto god of rice. And — hey! — young foxes are called kits right here in the States. A Trans-Pacific language connection? But tongues taste as well as talk, so let’s get back to the food: there’s curry vegetable soup ($11); chicken ($13.25), curry chicken ($13.75); shrimp tempura ($13.75); and the kitsune soup, which costs 10.50. Salads, like the ginger and walnut soba noodle salad, run around $11.50. Sandwiches, like the California Krab, are $14.50 and come with Japanese potato salad (standard potato salad plus adds like carrots, corn, cucumber, ham).
Diane’s teriyaki rice bowl. Sesame gives that taste twist.
So, pretty good deals. Diane resists the salad and goes for the teriyaki rice bowl, and I ask for the curry rice bowl. We split a miso soup. I look at the beers and sakes...but not now, middle of the day. We take our plates out onto the deck. I grab chopsticks. Diane, spoon and fork. “But why teriyaki?” I ask Diane. “Just because that marinade is the classic Japanese dish?”
“Well, it was Chinese before it was Japanese,” she says. “I happen to know, I’ve been looking it up. Teriyaki was created in… Hawaii. ‘Teriyaki’ means ‘shiny-grilled.’ Like grilled meat that has a sheen of marination. Lemme see. Teriyaki, mainly soy. Soy used to be called ‘chiang.’ The Chinese have been using it for 3000 years. These days, you can make it from chemicals, but the natural form is fermented soybeans and maybe wheat. And salt. I can’t resist the umami of it. And some of it is actually good for you: antioxidants, and they say it helps digestion.”
I’m taking this all in while I lunge into my curry. A stew, basically, but just enough of the curry flavor to make it addictive, and with those Japanese pickles making a nice red caldera in the middle, what’s not to like? You do start to get a feeling for the Japanese world here.
“We’re coming back,” says Diane.
“For the saké?”
“No, for the blossoms, if they’re out before I go.”
Oh yeah. She’s going.
The restaurant’s bittersweet Japanese zither music plays on. It sounds just how I feel.
The Place: 2215 Pan American Road East, Balboa Park, 619-231-0048
Hours: 10.30am-4pm daily
Prices: teriyaki rice bowl, $12.75; rice bowl with grilled chicken or beef, $14.75; grilled salmon, $15.75. miso soup, $4.50, udon or soba noodle soup with kitsune sweet fried tofu curry vegetable soup ($11); chicken, $13.25, curry chicken, $13.75; shrimp tempura ($13.75); kitsune soup, $10.50; ginger and walnut soba noodle salad, $11.50; California Krab sandwich, $14.50 with Japanese potato salad (standard potato salad plus carrots, corn, cucumber, ham)
Buses: 3, 7, 120, 215
Nearest Bus Stop: Zoo Place (#7, 215); Laurel Street West side (#3)
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