It was the afternoon and I had to get up.

I usually take weekends off to take care of my mental health, but for some time now, I haven't been happy with how my life has been going. Ever since my entire family died, I hadn't been the same and motivated to keep running this Yatai.

The only reason I've been running this thing is because of money. I haven't been financially stable since my grandmother passed and it's been very stressful for me.

Once I got up, I showered, dressed, and drove to my storage unit where I had my Yatai and equipment.

I'm the only one who runs this Yatai and it's no one else. I had friends who offered to help me, but I declined since it was a family owned business and no outsiders were allowed.

My grandfather made it very clear when I was a kid, he made my father swear to not sell the Yatai to other vendors who'd want to destroy everything he's built, and I honor it very seriously.

When I got to my storage shed, I got my Yatai and I was good to go. I had my entire collection of ingredients stored away in dozens of coolers in my car and the Yatai is the only thing I have to tow over to my destination.

The thing about the destination is that when you have a Yatai and you're in the business, there are spots up for grabs and you gotta get a spot to run your Yatai or it's gonna be gone sooner than you think.

My spot in Fukuoka is right by the corner of the main road, which is my preferred destination.

The reason I chose the corner is because of my call to action, meaning the menu I have outside the Yatai and I give the customers a preview of what I'm selling and how the atmosphere of my business is.

The usual atmosphere of my business is laidback, chill, and the regulars are very friendly towards new customers, which is what my grandfather wanted in the first place. He wants every new customer they come across to feel relaxed and comfortable while ordering a meal.

And the same goes to foreigners.

Whether they're American, French, British, or any race, the mentality I was instilled by my grandfather was to not see them any differently and be friendly to them however you can, but if there's something they did wrong, I remind them in a polite way, rather than be angry with them.

I had a couple foreigners who took a bowl of ramen with them and I had to remind them to come back and eat it at the table. They didn't know what I was talking about and walked off before being stopped by police.

Of course, I was asked if I wanted to press charges, and I said no. The reason I said no is because they didn't know what they were doing, which is understandable.

They eventually apologized and paid for the ramen I gave them and ate it, but I had the worst foreigner to ever grace my Yatai, who turned out to be a YouTube celebrity by the name of Logan Paul.

He mocked my customers and my family's legacy to the point that I really wanted to fight him, but I thought better and walked away.

Why would I walk away from a potential fight? It's simple, an idiot is someone who gets into fights so much and a man is wise enough to walk away from it. I always told my friends that they should fight when they have to, but if it seems to be not worth it, it's not worth it anyway. I don't see any reason to fight when it sounds stupid and doesn't mean anything.

I also been talking to my friends about how I don't want to fight. I'm not afraid to say that I don't want to get hit in the head. I'm not really adverse to going into a fight with someone who's a complete idiot and is mocking the Japanese culture, especially if they're making a spectacle over a stupid argument where it's completely worthless. Even if they're taller than me, it wouldn't make much sense.

While Logan Paul can beat me in a fight, he most certainly can't beat me in a food competition because, by God, I can blow their asses out of the water!

Look at this vegan Japanese Style Mopu Tofu I'm rocking...

...meanwhile Logan's coming up with an onion, fruit loops, and spaghetti-o's hot dog combo...

...from his home country of America.

From what I heard, Logan Paul started to apologize for his behavior and maybe I inspired him. You know what? That's great. I'm glad to have a positive impact on him because being humbled and more genuine is needed in the state of the world we're living in right now.

Anyway, once I got to the corner, I started unpacking my stuff and the Yatai.

Typically, all of this would take an hour or so and while putting everything together is a bit tedious, it's also quite fun, especially when it comes to owning a Yatai.

With everything in regards to a Yatai, it has to do with water, electricity, decorations, ingredients, equipment, gas, all of these come in to play when I have to get everything ready.

In chef's terms, it's called misanplas, or "put in place", meaning I have my ingredients and equipment at the ready for cooking and I want to have every dish I make as delicious as it could be while focusing on cooking the ingredients.

Also, in regards to cold and warm ingredients, it all comes down to how cold I keep the coolers and how warm my stock and water has to be. There are certain times where a specific ingredient can go bad at any time.

For example, fresh herbs can last a certain amount of time and they have to be at room temperature, but if they're not, that's when the flavor starts to deteriorate and it won't be as delicious to be used as an ingredient for a very specific recipe.

Another example is cold cooked rice for my fried rice recipe. When I cook rice the day before service, I always use a method where I use my index finger to measure the amount of water to use in my rice cooker, where I cook the rice, spread it out onto a sheet and put in the refrigerator covered in plastic wrap.

When I have to crumble the rice and make sure the grains are all separated and ready to use for my fried rice recipe. Now, the thing about cold cooked rice is that because of the fermentation in the rice, it will cause to spoil during the summer. To solve this problem, I just add a little bit of salt and mix it well.

The reason I would add it before cooking is because salt is used as a preservative for food and to me, it's best used when you're prepping any sort of protein or whatever and it'll keep that ingredient from going bad.

And before I forget, when I'm making fried rice, I always add a bit of dry starch to the rice because it'll become more fluffy and it'll improve the texture of each grain of rice. Not many Yatai chefs do this, but it's worth noting that it could be a very nice touch when making this dish.

~1 Hour Later~

After setting everything up, I got to work with heating up the woks I have on hand as I tied my apron around my waist.

A couple customers were coming up to the Yatai already and I was ready to start cooking.

Three orders:

Fried rice
Vegan Mapo Tofu
Ribs

The fried rice was very simple and easy to make as I got the rice and ingredients out, prepped it, cooked, and served it as the ribs were next.

First thing I did before service was boil the ribs to where they are now tender and I put them in a plastic container to cool while maintaining the moisture, which is about an hour.

Then, I prepped the sauce in my wok, which is Sake, brown sugar, honey, freshly minced garlic, freshly grated apple, dark soy sauce (I'd prefer Kikkoman), roasted sesame oil, pre-toasted sesame seeds, white ends of spring onions, and salt.

With sake, it's a very strong alcoholic drink and same with soy sauce, which is about 3% alcoholic. So if I put the soy sauce and sake together, I would get a good mixture and when I put it on the ingredients, I'd get 50% alcoholic and 50% non alcoholic, so if I splash it on the side of the wok with the ingredients, I'd get even distribution.

I mixed those ingredients together and the sauce was ready as I took out the freshly boiled ribs, put them in the sauce, put the heat to low, and flipped them in the wok until they were hot and coated with enough to where I can serve them.

Once they looked coated and cooked, I used my cooking chopsticks to take them out one at a time and when they were assembled, I chop up the greens of the spring onions on top as it now looks like this...

Once I served it to the customer, I worked on the Mapo Tofu, which is a vegan version.

The only reason we had it on here is because there are vegans and vegetarians in Japan that would want something spicy and flavorful while not eating meat.

So what I assemble is some Sichuan peppercorns, toast them for 30 seconds, take them out, crush them by hand in a mortar and pestle, and leave them to the side as I cook the tofu, which I assembled by cutting it into cubes, put them in a boiling hot cast iron Dutch oven, and season it with salt.

I let the tofu boil for about half an hour, which I did before service while setting up my Yatai, as it's a way to remove the beany flavor from the tofu. As that was going on, I diced up some king oyster mushrooms, put them to the side as I take some spring onions, chop the white ends off, and put them to the side.

I smash three garlic cloves, diced them up, and set to the side with the spring onions and mushrooms.

Once my ingredients were done, I put in some base oil, mostly preferred avocado oil because not only does it have a very high smoke point, it's also very neutral in flavor. When you smell many types of oils, they will have a different taste, but avocado oil doesn't have any flavor as it's perfect for making this vegan Mapo Tofu and many other recipes I have.

I added the mushrooms, garlic, and spring onions as I fried them for 3 minutes, then I added some broad bean paste, using the moisture from the mushrooms to my advantage by using the paste to turn the liquid into a dark red color.

I fried it all for 1 minute until I added some homemade vegetable stock, as it was brought to a boil in a couple minutes and I finally added the tofu.

I stirred it all around and simmered it for 3 minutes, making sure that I don't stir fry it because the last thing I need is someone burned and the food goes everywhere.

To give it some sweetness, I use coconut sugar instead of regular sugar because vegans don't eat sugar, so coconut sugar is the best.

I stirred it all around before I made a mixture of cornstarch and water, mix it together, and put it in the wok as I stirred until it was all set to go.

I assembled the dish and put everything on a plate until I added some sliced spring onions for garnish, and I served it with a smile on my face.

Throughout the entire night, I had customers come and go until my all time favorite customer dropped by, Aoi Yamashita. She always had this beautiful smile, no matter what kind of mood I was in and her favorite meal from my Yatai is the fried rice.

Before I could ask her if she wanted the usual, she said...

Aoi: I'll have the ribs, please.

I was actually surprised by what she ordered instead of the usual. So, I gave her what she wanted.

I prepped and cooked the sauce, added the boiled ribs, stir fried them until they were all cooked again, set them on a plate, sprinkled some diced up spring onions, and served them to her as I gave her a napkin and a drink.

As she bit into one, her eyes went HUGE and that told me she absolutely loved it. It was adorable, I won't lie.

Although she was done with her meal in a few minutes, she started to try and have a conversation with me.

Aoi: Haru, how are you tonight, despite all the customers?

I just grunted and ignored her.

Usually, I'm very happy and quiet, but when she comes around, my mood instantly changes.

Aoi: You don't have to be shy, it's okay. You can talk to me.

I still ignored her, not wanting to talk to her.

She still didn't give up as this would happen so many times to where I'm questioning myself.

I really don't know how Aoi keeps going, but I am amazed by how persistent she is.

Eventually, she decided to try another night and saying goodbye to me as I just nodded.

Customer: Why do you have to be rude to her, Haru? She's a nice girl.

Haru: Thing is, I never had time for girls.

Customer: But you're very charming towards the others that come by, why not her?

Haru: It's just, never mind.

Customer: Oh, so you're in love!

Haru: What gives you that idea?

Customer: You don't talk to her, that's a fact.

Female Customer: He's right, Haru. You gotta take action before she's gone.

Haru: We'll see.

After that conversation and serving so many customers, I closed up at 1.

I packed up everything, took down my Yatai, put it in the storage, went home, put the ingredients away, took a shower, and got to bed.

I really was exhausted after cooking and serving my customers, but Aoi? I'm not sure about her after all this time.