Food Spotlight: Yakiniku

Yakiniku, ah!
A-ah, yakiniku, ah!
Yakiniku, ah!

(See this page for origin of this haiku, which I have so masterfully adapted.)

When it comes to delicious food in Japan, I can't think of anything that makes me happier than yakiniku. It's a good social meal, and every time I finish it I come away saying 'ahh, ureshii' (I'm so happy). ^_^

Yakiniku (焼肉, literally 'grilled meat') actually originates from Korea, and is also called Korean barbecue. It's quite popular in Japan. When you go to a yakiniku restaurant, there will be a grill on your table, usually a charcoal barbecue. You can then order a variety of meats or vegetables to barbecue on the grill.

My favourite yakiniku restaurant is 'An An' 安安. This is a chain; I used to go to the one near Kawasaki station - if you exit La Zona and go down the street past Muza, it's near a Lawson, I think). I favour 'An An' because it's the cheapest I've found, and alcohol is pretty cheap too.

This becomes a consideration because yakiniku is not a cheap eat. If you're with another budget-minded person, you can keep the costs down. However, I have never been to yakiniku with a Japanese person who has ever said, 'well, dish _x_ costs _y_, so we probably shouldn't get two of them'. Everyone I've been to yakiniku with has ordered with reckless abandon. ^_^

Your menu will have a variety of different meats and cuts. Some types of meat can be quite fatty (this seems to suit Japanese tastes), and there are also types of offal. Beef and pork are common, and you can usually find some kind of seafood. One dish of meat is usually pretty small - with perhaps 6-8 small, thin slices of meat to fry - so you can sample a few different sorts. Usually you'll put a few different things on at once, wait for them to cook, then dip them in a sauce, the most common being soy sauce-based.

SO GOOD!!

In this picture you can see: a dish of meat waiting to be cooked (almost empty ^_^), a dish of Korean-style vegetables (salad), the grill in action, and a lemon sawa (a cold alcoholic beverage is an important accompaniment ^_^). In front of me are a couple of small dishes; one has sauce and is to dip the cooked meat; the other is for personal helpings of salad etc.

Since you are slowly cooking a few bits at a time, you can savour each item, and it lends itself to a long meal. That's why it's a good social opportunity. ^_^

For those of you who don't like fatty meat or offal, here are my personal recommendations:

• karubi (galbi) - short ribs? but doesn't have bones
• ro-su (roast) - loin, tends to be less fatty than most
• harami - meat around diaphragm - though it could be considered 'offal', it tastes good, not like other offal
• ton (tounge) - usually eaten with lemon juice, this is actually pretty good, if you cook it really dark ^_^
• vegetables. For example, onions, piman (green peppers), cabbage, carrots, corn, mushrooms. Since they usually aren't really marinated, they will get burnt rather black before they cook properly, but they make a nice bit of variety to having only meat.
• salad. Again, a cold salad - I recommend Korean vegetables - can help refresh you when you're eating nothing but grilled meat.

At An An, the restaurant I've been to most, you can get mushrooms or corn in a foil packet with butter. You wrap the foil tightly and put it on the grill. As it cooks, the butter makes the mushrooms or corn soft and juicy and delicious.

It's nice later in the meal to have some bibimbap (a Korean rice dish with kimchi and other Korean vegetables), spicy soups, or plain white rice. This is one reason it's good to go to yakiniku with a larger group, so you can sample more things without breaking the bank.

Another reason I particularly like yakiniku is that Japanese cuisine tends not to have much red meat in it. After weeks of eating noodles, seafood and rice balls, sometimes you just crave a good barbecue. ^_^

If you are a vegetarian, however, there probably won't be much to excite you. You can order vegetables and fry them (although you'll be frying them on the same grill that's covered in juices from the meat), also salads and rice are available.

I've just been to yakiniku tonight, so I'm feeling very contented with life. ^_^

Food Spotlight: Alcohol

This is not a comprehensive description of all types of alcohol available in Japan. Rather, I just wanted to mention shochu. Shochu is a liquor; it can be distilled from starchy things like sweet potatoes or barley. There are many varieties of shochu and some like to drink shochu straight, on the rocks, etc.

Shochu is also used as a base for flavoured, fruity soda drinks called 'sawas'; much as we have Vodka Cruisers (vodka) and Bacardi Breezers (bacardi) in Australia. You can get many different flavours of sawa, depending on where you are. As I don't like to drink too much wine or beer, the lemon, grapefruit and ume sawas are my standard orders when I go out.

Sometimes when you order a lemon or grapefruit sawa, they will come *with* the lemon or grapefruit and a juice squeezer so you can squeeze your own drink. Ume (sour plum) sawas often come with an actual umeboshi (pickled plum) floating in them.

A DIY grapefruit sawa (with shabu-shabu in the background ^_^)

If you want a stronger variant, I recommend umeshu. This is liqueur made from sour plums. The taste is both sour and sweet, but doesn't taste too strongly of alcohol (compared with the taste of, say, wine). Umeshu is often made with shochu. I recommend it on the rocks. Right now I am lucky to have a big bottle of well-matured umeshu that one of my friends made herself. ^_^

(Incidentally, there is currently an 'ume soda' flavoured Kit Kat on sale. I love ume, so I bought one but alas, it was inedible, and into the bin it went.)

Food Spotlight: Sushi and sashimi

As you probably know, sushi and sashimi are raw fish and seafood. Sushi is with rice, sashimi without. Sushi often comes on little pieces of rice, with a dab of wasabi between the fish and the rice. Sometimes the sushi will have a bit of nori (seaweed) wrapping it, or 'tying' it to the rice. 

You usually eat sashimi by dipping it into soy sauce, which many people add wasabi to. (I am not one of those people. To me, eating wasabi is about as enjoyable as snorting tabasco sauce.)

Some common types of sushi/sashimi are raw tuna, salmon, snapper, sea bream, etc, as well as raw shrimp, squid, fish eggs, sea urchin, octopus. Also tamagoyaki (pieces of omelette). 

You can also get makizushi - sushi rolls - which is the kind of sushi we most often see in delis etc in Australia. There are other variants too, like inarizushi (sushi wrapped in fried tofu), chirashizushi (sushi rice topped with a mix of various things - often has several different types of sushi, in small pieces, mixed in), sushi salads, etc. 

 

You can get sushi and sashimi in many places and forms. The fish section of any supermarket will usually have a decent selection of both; you can go to a sushi restaurant, you can order sushi from most izakayas and many Japanese restaurants, or you can go to a kaiten-zushi (sushi train) restaurant. Sushi often comes on a tray with a selection of several different kinds.

Me, failing to pick up some sushi. 

That picture was taken is in a restaurant in Tsukiji, the famous Tokyo fish market. It's the best place in Tokyo for fresh sushi.

I often talk about food with Japanese people. About 90% of them say their favourite food is sushi. It seems to be the most popular food in Japan. People always seem in the mood for it. If there's a gathering somewhere, there's a good chance sushi will be ordered at some point. I've had it at numerous parties and picnics, despite having never voluntarily ordered it myself. 

Personally, I do my best to avoid sushi where possible. That's why after all this time, I still can't recognise all the different fish. I'm happy to eat fish sashimi without wasabi, but some of the others...! Raw octopus is very difficult to chew, and as for sea urchin, I think it takes a special kind of person to appreciate it (read: a person without a gag reflex).

(...Actually, I wrote that as a joke, but according to Wikipedia, up to 1/3 of people don't have a gag reflex. And my impression is that about a third of foreigners who try sea urchin, like it. I could be onto something here.)

Fish and seafood in general are very popular in Japan, and being an island nation, there are a lot of places, near coasts, which are famous for various types of seafood, especially raw seafood. I think it's fair to say that sushi is really the most Japanese of dishes.