Thursday, July 1, 2010. Yu Jin. Acme. And Good-Bye. I stayed at the Cool Water Ranch for the radio show today, which allowed me to have a meal with each of my children separately. Not my idea. But Jude and I have this tradition of a sushi lunch whenever he's in town, and the Marys don't touch the stuff.
We indulged at Yu Jin, the minimal but good Japanese restaurant in Covington. It's owned by Rigoberto Hernandez (he is as Hispanic as that sounds). Jude and I first met him when he was a chef at the Little Tokyo in Mandeville, where we first acquired this habit. Rigoberto was proud to see that Jude has graduated from his formerly unswerving choice of chicken teriyaki to eating actual raw-fish sushi. But how could he live in Los Angeles without that on his menu?
The big non-work item on Jude's agenda right now is moving. After two years in an edgy apartment in downtown L.A., he has decided he needs a house closer to Beverly Hills. This, he says, is because most of his film work is in that neighborhood, and he's sick of driving across town through the rightly notorious L.A. traffic. He thinks he can find a house for between three and four grand a month, and share the rent with a couple of other guys--one of which is ready to make that deal right away. I told him it's all fine with me if he pays for it. He's making enough money working on films that he doesn't view it as a big challenge. I'm proud of that boy. When I was his age, I paid my own rent, too. But it was $75 a month.
We discussed all this over some edamame beans (above), a Burning Man roll (our default whenever we come here, full of spicy stuff), a chef's special roll (salmon, tuna, yellowtail, no crab), and some nigiri uni (below). Jude has not made it to uni--sea urchin gonads--yet. I love it.
After dispatching the radio show from my room, it was Mary Leigh's turn for dinner with Dad. The Acme, of course. The usual everything. Then back home, and everybody but me packed the car for the journey, staying up later than I did, even though they would be leaving in just four hours.
Yu Jin. Covington: 323 N New Hampshire. 985-809-3840. Japanese.
