Teppanyaki

I think it's interesting how many cultures, over the centuries of civilization, have developed some sort of heat-a-metal-surface-and-cook-food-on-it style of cuisine. The Mongolians have it, so do the Koreans. And of course, the entire state of Florida is about cooking food on a metal grill over a fire, pretty much.

Allison and I had teppanyaki with my old college friends who are now based in Hong Kong (of which there are surprisingly many), and other former colleagues from back when I used to write ads there.

Teppanyaki is the Japanese version of cooking on a hot metal surface. "Teppanyaki" literally translates to "metal plate cuisine". I think they should have called it "kasainitsuiteyaki", which, according to Google Translator, should mean "on fire cuisine" because, really, setting the food on fire is the best part!



Now my nomination of best party trick of all time (avert your eyes if you're squeamish about freaks of nature):

When we scratch ourselves, the spot we scratched often goes pale (because the body detects trauma and closes off capillaries near the skin surface to reduce bleeding), and then pink or red again (because the body realizes it hasn't suffered an injury and re-opens capillaries and gets blood flowing again).

My friend, Kent, takes this to the next level. Now, I don't know why this happens, but I suspect it has something to do with histamine hypersensitivity. In any case, when you scratch him, not only does his skin go pale and then back to pink again, it... well, it puffs up like this:



This was the first time Allison saw this and she was both horrified AND fascinated.

And that's why Kent used to get all the girls in school. Weirdo. :P