June 17, 2009

Aution Ho!

Last night I convinced my parents to join us for a hibachi dinner. Our chef was hysterical. I think he said "Oh My God" and WasaBAY-BEE about 4000 times during our dinner. He also pelted my Mom in the head with carrots and peas. His aim was a little off. He also told my parents, who ordered well done steaks, that their dinner would be ready sometime tomorrow.

He called all of us "sweety-hearts" as he put our food on our plates and then would say "love you long time" and crack himself up laughing. No one really got it except for me. If you're a regular reader here, then you know about my rap music obsession. I have a strong appreciation for old school stuff. He also said I was a beautiful girl (using the tone from the Pharell/Snoop Dog song) and that Mr. BBM is a lucky man about 200 times. Clearly, I liked him a lot.

Despite how hysterically funny he was, the best moment of the night came before he arrived at our table. Big I was reaching out toward the cooking surface and we told her it was very hot and to keep her hands back.

"How do you know?" she asked.

Without missing a beat, Mr. BBM said, "Because it says 'aution ho!' right there."

Big I looked at him funny and asked what that meant.

Meanwhile, for 5 seconds after he said it and before I realized what had happened, I was thinking to myself, "Ah, 'aution ho' must be Japanese for 'Caution hot." Hmm, interesting. You learn something new every day."

And then I realized that the "c" and the "t" had just worn off. Japanese it was not.

We all spent the rest of the night telling each other "aution HO!" with emphasis on the second part, obviously. It seemed to fit well with our rap-song-singing chef.