Good food and good hearts at Baltimore’s Ekiben restaurant, a story for our times

Anyone who hasn’t eaten the tempura broccoli from Baltimore’s Ekiben restaurant is missing out on a real treat. It’s light and crispy with lots of flavor. But the sooner you eat it, the better the experience, lest it get soggy sitting around. You often hear of people devouring it in the car on the drive home from picking it up. It tastes that good. Some might say that the broccoli has its own cult following; at the very least it’s one of the popular fusion restaurant’s most loved dishes. This week, it made news around the world and showed that Ekiben’s owners aren’t just great chefs and businesspeople, but kindhearted and compassionate folks as well — people to look up to and emulate.