Ingredients
Miso Sauce
⅓ cup miso
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp. sake
1 tbsp. mirin
1 tbsp. honey
3 tbsp. water or broth
Seasonings (choose one or more)
Minced ginger
Orange zest
For the tofu:
½ package tofu—7 ounces (packages are usually sold in 14 oz. size)
Olive, vegetable, or sesame oil
Directions
Bring a double boiler (or a large pot of water) to a good simmer. Place a smaller saucepan inside the larger pot of water to form a double boiler if you don’t have one.
Combine miso egg, sake, mirin and honey. Add the water and stir until it is thick and glassy. Take off the heat. Add either the orange zest, or the ginger, or the BBQ blend, according to your taste. Or, get crazy and create two or three sauce options.
Place the tofu block on its long edge, then cut in half, so it is half the thickness. Gently press this block on a wad of paper towels to drain the water so they are fairly dry. Cut the block into 8 pieces.
Brush the pieces with oil and either fry them on cast iron or place them under an oven broiler. Brown both sides.
Remove from heat and garnish with the miso sauce.
The news reports had made it clear: the north side was a war zone. The news reporter was detailing the emergence of a gang leader and his takeover of the entire 8th voting ward. Passage into and out of this ward was now restricted. All roadways had been blocked. The police, facing a lack of funding—and a lack of candidates—had given up on the area. The neighborhood lawlessness had festered for more than a year, but was now reaching a crisis point. “As we all know the mayor had asked the governor to call in the national guard and cut power to the neighborhood. Surprisingly the national guard were immediately ambushed by the citizens of the ward in a surprise assault, many of them teens armed with fully automatic weapons like the Mac-10 you see here, as well as even rocket launchers such as this one, that brought down the Army helicopter we reported about on Tuesday. These bands of young militant teens have shown to be surprisingly reckless and moved about the ward going very fast in these improvised armored cars they call “battle whips.”
“As of now Shaun, I’m on the outskirts of the neighborhood, you can see the fires burning and the destruction, and we cannot get into the neighborhood safely so we’re on the outside looking in. As we talked about on Wednesday, these last few days of heated battle has been utterly inconceivable. It’s just unbelievable that this would happen here in the heart of America, and just as it seemed the national guard was gaining the upper hand, we saw that viral video of young 10 and 12 year old kids shooting down several of the soldiers before they themselves were shot and killed. Another video showed those explosions of cars and the gas station on 12th street that had killed several troops, as well as the improvised explosive devices created by the gang which have given the troops a lot of trouble. It wasn’t long after that the troops were ordered back by the governor after all of the backlash and outrage on social media after seeing videos of the soldiers killing those children. Even the president has gotten involved and after touring the outskirts called for peace and discussion. We heard on Thursday the offer from the mayor to completely dismantle policing in the city if the gang were to stop their siege. As far as we all know at this point in time, the offer still stands but we haven’t heard anything from the two leaders of the gang. And after a week without power the gang had ambushed the Lower Corridor power plant and had taken employees hostage, forcing them to restore power service to the neighborhood so now the ball is in the mayor’s court, as well as the governor on what to do next and how to proceed. It’s obviously a difficult situation here and we just unfortunately don’t see an end to this, in fact it seems that the gang—the whole neighborhood in this ward really—has gotten the upper hand as neighboring wards have joined in on the action and are continuing to provide them with aid.”
Jack shut off the television and finished packing. He didn’t need to hear any more news about what was going on in his city. He was going into the zone with Heidi to assess for themselves. They had finished their residencies at the medical college and had decided they could not stay on the sidelines. They were getting into the game. Whether or not the combatants were right in their siege, there were people who were getting caught in the crossfire, and they needed help.
They packed the car and drove through the back streets of the city, headed east down the industrial corridor which was still open to truck traffic. As they got close to the valley power plant they were in awe of the giant black clouds that were spewing out of the 400 ft. stacks. The upper part of the control building was on fire, and flames were rolling out of the top windows, which had been smashed out. Several blocks down, another large factory was on fire. The clouds of brown and black smoke were so thick they were blotting out the sun, plunging the entire east side into darkness.
They parked near 12th street and walked in. Jack had scouted the perimeter and had found an opening in the fence along a side street in the adjacent ward. Quickly peeling back the fence, Jack motioned for Heidi to pass through and then followed suit. From there they walked across a mile of back yards, slinking around fences and maneuvering through the landscape of wild bushes, abandoned cars, yards full of junk, toys, and neglected, broken swimming pools. They passed through a chain link fence at the far end of a school football field and made their way to the entrance, which was heavily guarded. Slinking through the maze of barbed wire, they found an open bay door at the back of the school where the auto shop was located. They moved through the barricade of old cars and junk parts to the entrance. There was nobody in the shop. They looked around and saw piles of steel and iron that were used to armor cars. What looked like bomb making materials were strewn across a workbench. A large station wagon sat in the bay. They heard people headed their way. They froze and looked at each other. Jack headed under the wagon and Heidi followed. A group of kids and young adults entered. They were busy talking about the recent events and recounting things they had witnessed. There was an excited buzz in the air. An instructor came in and started barking orders. Jack and Heidi looked at each other. Heidi was terrified. They only had this brief moment of exchange before the instructor knelt down beside the car, looked squarely at Jack, and said “How are things looking under there? You guys are the new assistants, right? Come out and put your name on the roster here.” The buzz of the class was still echoing against the walls of the shop, with many of the students oblivious to the scene.
Jack and Heidi nervously came out from under the wagon and faced the instructor. He gave them a serious look and held out a small printed shop receipt with a list of names. He ordered them in a brusque undertone. “Hurry up, put your names on the list, they’ll be here in a minute.” Jack and Heidi wrote their names down. The instructor told them to get back under the car. Just then 3 men dressed in battle gear with AR-15s walked into the shop. The instructor loudly announced, “OK, so we have Samuel and Stacy here, they’re originally from Tampa and they live over on Ohio street, and they are here to help us learn the basics of auto repair and armor configurations, they’re busy underneath prepping the anchor points for us.” And with that, the instructor handed the piece of paper containing the class roster to the leader of the armed men. Jack and Heidi kept quiet. The instructor continued as casually as if he were teaching AP Chemistry in the suburbs. “Now, yesterday we talked about anchor points of vehicles and how to attach these reinforced members to the body so that our armor plates can then be anchored with maximum strength and protection…” The soldiers paid Jack and Heidi no attention. They checked the perimeter and then disappeared through the darkened doorway. The instructor continued to lecture while Jack and Heidi did their best to look casually engaged. It probably wasn’t working. They were a sweaty mess. It hadn’t occurred to them that they may get hurt, or even lose their lives over a misunderstanding or stupid mistake.
After the lecture, the instructor came close to Heidi. “I don’t know what you are doing here, but if I were you, I’d find my way back out. These people are serious, and the longer you stay here, the more likely you will be found out. Now here, take this roster copy and use it anyway you can. If I had to guess, it’s probably the only legitimate claim you have to be here. But you need to leave.”
“But we’re here to help!” Heidi pleaded. “We’re medical doctors and these people need help!” The instructor looked at her incredulously. “Are you serious? How naive can you be? You think they don’t have doctors here?” The instructor shook his head. “Man, they have a whole damn staff over at McKinley. And you two have a big ass target on your backs. Two young white kids? You’re going to be lucky if you don’t get tortured. These guys are ruthless and they are paranoid. If they believe anyone is a snitch, or a spy, they will cut you up. Have you seen this neighborhood? The only white people in here are homeless people and anarchist hippies or whatever the hell they call them. Like wookies or crazy granola people. Anyway, if these guys see you two, you’ll be gang raped or something worse.” Jack shot him an incredulous look. “Are you serious? Have you seen that happen?” “Well, no. But I know how those people are!” the instructor hissed. “You two need to come with me.”
The instructor walked them down a long dark corridor to the boiler room. He led them to the back, which had two large overhead doors. “You need to wait here. If you hear anything, head to those tall cabinets over to the far side over there and pray they don’t see you.” Jack and Heidi were nervous. They hadn’t thought of the consequences at all. They hadn’t thought about how they might be perceived. They had assumed that there was no medical presence here. Could the instructor be right? Where did they get medical staff? They heard a screech and crash. They both jumped and headed towards the cabinets. One of the overhead doors was opening. Jack stuffed Heidi into a cabinet where she could crouch down, and he hid behind a tool cart in the corner. He watched as the door fully opened, and heard a vehicle running outside. “Hurry up!” the instructor hissed. Jack and Heidi emerged and followed him to the back of his car, a small station wagon. “Here, you guys get under this tarp and stay put. If we get stopped we’ll all die.” With that, the instructor helped Jack and Heidi into the back of the car and covered them with a tarp and a couple of duffel bags. He then closed the hatch, looked around the compound, and then motored through the perimeter security area. He took a casual right turn and headed down 12th street. “My name is Jesse by the way. I ran a tire shop on the west side. I was given a choice to pick up a gun or help teach auto shop.” Heidi spoke up nervously “I can’t believe this, how can this be so fucked up?” Jesse laughed. “Well, the time for resistance has passed. Just consider yourself lucky if they don’t take over the whole damn city in six months. SHIT!”
Jack and Heidi were slammed into the seat back as Jesse maneuvered over a curb and through a series of front yards. “We’ve got some trouble here. HANG ON! Hang on hang on hang on, SHIT! Hang onnn. We’ve got some guys on us. FUCk! Some gangbangers, not military but they’re gonna rip us off and I don’t want to get fucked up today. Just hold on I’m going through the park here it’s going to be a little rough…” Heidi and Jack bounced around in the back. Heidi tried desperately to hold on to something to keep herself from flying around the back, but there was nothing to hold on to. The back window exploded and Heidi screamed. The terror in her voice rang out against the sound of bullets ripping through sheetmetal. Is this what it was like to be in a war? Heidi and Jack were at the mercy of the car, which was blasting over curbs and holes, the car’s suspension exploding in a series of concussive high speed blows. She yelped as she slammed the side of the wheelhouse with her head. The high speed chase went on for what seemed like forever, and Heidi started crying. Was this going to end? Were they going to be brutalized? It was too much to think about. They leapt in the air and crashed violently down a steep grade. Tree branches and brush menacingly scraped the sides of the car as it careened down a wooded hill.
Jesse finally stopped the car. “Hold on for a minute, just wait. I think we made it.” He waited for a minute or two. “I think they gave up.” “Oh my God I think I have a concussion,” cried Heidi. Jesse helped both of them crawl out of the back. He motioned across the forest and the small creek at the bottom of the embankment. “Just across there. At the bottom you’ll see it’s fenced but there’s enough room to crawl through. Get out now, and hurry it up before someone sees you two. You will have to look out for those whips. If you see any car coming down the road you have GOT to run for cover.”
Heidi and Jack maneuvered their way through the dense underbrush and shimmied under the small opening under the chan link fence. They silently made their way across the creek, and then across the street through a series of backyards and alleys. They came out into a busy main thoroughfare and walked across an industrial corridor towards their car. On their way they passed a makeshift tent set up with a blue tarp and some scrap wood. An old Japanese woman was making dinner for an older man and his daughter. She was carefully turning tofu squares on an iron griddle positioned over the propane burner. The woman saw them and froze. After looking them over she motioned for them to join her in the tent. “Strangers in a strange land, eh?” She smiled. Jack spoke up. “We’re just on our way home, we were looking to help some of the captive people in the 8th Ward but it’s too dangerous.” Heidi looked across the valley at the burning factories and the power plant. The overwhelming destruction. She began sobbing. “This place is in ruins, it’s so bad right now I can’t believe this!” The old woman continued her careful preparation with perfect poise. She carefully spread a dollop of miso sauce on top of the tofu and then offered a plate to Heidi. “It’s o.k. Manure makes excellent fertilizer.”