14
Features
March 29, 2012 THE OBSERVER
www.fordhamobserver.com
N.Y. CHALLENGED
The Desert Grandfather I Met Fifteen Years Ago Mario Weddell Features Co-Editor
My grandfather died of cancer this weekend in Arizona. I didn’t grow up around him; I didn’t even meet him until I was seven. This may seem strange, but my own father was adopted and didn’t learn of his biological father until 1997. Although I didn’t know my grandfather until then, I probably spoke to him more than my other relatives as an adult. I didn’t really grow up around any of my extended family, so I only saw my relatives twice a year at most. When you’re little, those vacations lasting 10 days in a year of 365 often carry the weight of dental checkups as the adults look you over; someone may comment on how large your teeth are coming in, and your mom makes a joke about you eating carrots. You stand there with bony knees and say that you do like eating carrots, and everyone chuckles, and you smile with dopey pride, unaware that your sincerity is amusing. The adults are nice, but you’re shy each time you meet them, since they don’t know the names of your new friends, and you don’t remember where the bathroom is in their home. Often, you wonder why it takes everyone so long to drink coffee after dinner. They tell stories they’ve forgotten individually, so they take turns piecing them back together between each nostalgic sip. You laugh at a detail that was not the punch line, and someone tussles your hair absent-mindedly. You aren’t old enough to have any stories as long as theirs, so you’re mostly quiet. The first time I met my grandfather, my family drove across the desert from west Texas to central Arizona. He lived in a home he had built into the side of a hill. There
MARIO WEDDELL/THE OBSERVER
My grandfather, Ferd Thomas (Mar 7, 1924 - Mar 25, 2012), died of colon cancer. His house was built into a desert hill (right).
was a saguaro cactus on his dirtcovered roof, and green artificial turf carpeting in the living room. He had acres and acres of desert, sprinkled with construction machinery and roads he had carved through the rocks. A day after meeting him, I went exploring the property. I soon found myself standing on a rock over a rattlesnake den, hearing the hisses and warnings of their angry tails. I called for help, and he ran over with a shovel. He grabbed my arm and pulled me off the rock, then flipped it over and cut their heads off. It seemed my newly discovered grandfather was a madman. He was a storyteller. He spoke fast through loose dentures, with the voice of an older man who
has learned that people usually won’t listen to every word you say anyway, so just go for it. I was at the age when I was becoming aware of possessing a sense of humor, something that is often intertwined with fledgling confidence and an ability to respond to questions with full sentences. I met this man at the same time as my parents met him, so for the first time, we could all be a little shy together. They lacked the advantage of years of familiarity that they had with our other relatives, and I followed my new grandfather’s winding tales more closely with my young ears than they could. Through the next 15 years, I saw him more often than my other relatives, who lived further away in California and Mexico, making
cheaper road trips less feasible for everyone. Sometimes my grandfather would call and say he’d be visiting in seven hours. He didn’t know me as a baby, which meant that I didn’t have to feel guilty for getting older around him. I think that’s one of the hardest things about growing up. Your parents remember when you were just getting started, so sometimes they still view your behavior as an extension of the choices their growing five-year-old is making. On the other hand, my grandfather often looked at me and wondered why I wasn’t a man yet. When he was diagnosed with colon cancer, I called him and spoke to him, not about family or the specifics of his cancer or anything we already knew about
each other, but just as men. We just spoke about life. He said he was okay with dying, because he had done enough in his life to feel like he had done enough. He never went to college, but he thought he would have been sharp enough to go if he could sit through it. He said college was probably for dummies, but maybe I was one of those dummies who could sit through it. People were different, so as long as they did what they wanted, that was probably what they should be doing. It was probably the closest he ever came to approving of any kind of school. He said it didn’t really matter what we did in the long run, as long as we felt like we did something. Maybe he wasn’t such a madman after all.
WORD OF MOUTH
Spring Cleaning Starts With the Cleansing of the Body By DARRYL YU Features Co-Editor
With spring in full gear and summer just around the corner, it’s time for us to break out of our lazy winter shells and embrace the warmth of a healthy lifestyle. For the past week, scores of people have suddenly been inspired by the beautiful weather to go jogging and work out. I’ve also been bitten by the physical bug, cycling around Central Park three times just last week. But physical activity alone isn’t enough to start a healthy lifestyle. With March being National Nutrition month, I decided to forgo my usual choices of unhealthy food and go for something a little healthier. Searching far and wide around the city for healthy eateries, I came across this small Japanese restaurant called Kyotofu. Located in the middle of the famous Hell’s Kitchen district of New York City, Kyotofu takes a unique minimalist perspective on food. Decorated by Japanese architect Hiromi Tsuruta, Kyotofu’s interior is supposed to be a modern take on a traditional Kyoto style home. At Kyotofu, patrons are given a variety of tofu based dishes such as silken tofu salad (a dish filled with roasted vegetables, mesclun greens and yumiso dressing) and the cha soba noodles (green tea buckwheat noodles soaked in shiitake-kombu dashi broth with abura-age tofu). If that wasn’t
DARRYL YU/THE OBSERVER
Kyotofu offers a wide variety of healthy dishes for those wanting to embrace.
enough, Kyotofu also has an impressive selection of Japanese desserts and a variety of Japanese teas that are sure to keep you wanting more. Looking to start my new healthy diet, I ordered sweet potato chips and warm Japanese mushroom salad when I first ate at Kyotofu. Arriving in record time, my sweet potato chips were
exactly how I pictured them to be. Presented in a simple ceramic bowl, the chips were delightfully crunchy but sadly lacked the memorable taste that I was looking for. They were at times bland and needed a sauce to kick up the taste. Next up was my warm mushroom salad. It had a mixture of unique ingredients such as mes-
clun greens, red onion, panteleo cheese, honshimeji mushrooms and maitake mushrooms. But although there was a lot of variety in the dish, the salad fell a little bit short of what I was generally expecting. The one thing that bothered me was the strong cheese flavor. Looking forward to a salad filled with greens and different kinds of mushrooms, I was instead
met with a thick layer of cheese on top of my salad. Nevertheless, as soon as I got past the cheese layer I really enjoyed the smooth and balanced flavor of the salad. Toward the end of my meal, I was pleasantly surprised when I learned that my entrée came with a free cocktail. Choosing between a number of drinks such as bloody Mary and mimosa, this was the icing on top of a relaxing, simple andhealthy lunch. Located only a few clicks away from Fordham College at Lincoln Center, this modern simple Japanese restaurant is a good place to take a small group of friends. Its small interior design is perfect for those wanting a more intimate dining experience. In terms of food, Kyotofu, in my opinion, was a value for money deal. For under $20, I was able to try a lot of pretty decent medium-sized dishes. With still so many more healthy dishes in the menu to try Kyotofu is definitely a place you want to check out if you’re looking to embark on your healthy lifestyle quest for spring. IF YOU GO
Kyotofu $ out of $$$$$$ Where: 705 Ninth Avenue (between 48 th and 49 th) New York , NY 10019 Darryl’s Recommendation: Warm Mushroom S alad