Gogyou (ramen)

This has just been a crazy weekend of awesomeness, eh? Oh! look at my new glasses!

Perhaps it takes me some time to tell you about these events (jon pointed out that I hadn’t blogged for two full weeks. eek.) because we have jam-packed weekends and then you have to… well… okay. I’m just lazy. Friday night we yakiniku’d with the gang, and saturday we were a little worse-for-wear but we persevered because there was a lot at stake! There were dinners to enjoy! And sunday… Sunday finds us at the top of another adventure. A fresh inning, if I may.

But first, what kind of addict would I be if I didn’t coerce my friends into seeking out-of-the-way ramen shops with me?

I was skeptical when I first read about Gogyou and their “burnt ramen” – a technique that literally chars the oil on the top, and the ramen that follows is served black. Part of me was worried that it would be too gimicky, but part of me (the louder part, i guess) was totally interested in what it could possibly taste like. And since it was just a few metro stops away from our hotel that morning, we decided to give it a whirl.

Is it telling about us that the only time we’ve been to Roppongi (the all-night clubbing district) was at noon and for noodles? While most of this ‘hood isn’t really our scene, Gogyou did a fantastic job of catering to the upscale clientele of the area without too much douchery. It’s just ramen, right? Why be uppity about it?

Needless to say, the ramen was good. I had the burnt miso, and jon had the burnt shoyu (soy sauce). Julie still remarks on how shockingly different the two bowls were; jon’s being a bit salty-stronger in flavour and my miso being really sweet and mild. They both had a cool ashen-campfire flavour that lent depth and an unexpected way to stain your clothes. Good thing they’ve got that covered.

But lunch is over and it’s time to get out of this town. We have an afternoon date with the Dragons.

Yakiniku in Spring

There’s a yakiniku (think: korean bbq) place that we’ve gone to about three times now. It’s a great place to go with a group, and at $30 for all-you-can-eat and all-you-can-drink, it’s not a bad deal. So when Dana got into to town, we were all really excited to take her there. After all, it’s a really cool Japanese experience in a little spot that we had found ourselves.

Remember the first time we were there, the boys dubbed jon “the grill nazi”, because he was so adamantly regulating the height of the flames? It looks like the restaurant could have used a few more jons in its midst. That night we found nothing but an empty plot of gravel where the building once stood. Did it burn to the ground?

In our shock and disbelief we set off in search of dinner.

Even though it’s slightly more expensive and infinitely more corporate, we were happy to have thought of Gyu-Kaku: It’s large enough to fit our group of 8 and essentially the same as our original plans.

Doesn’t jon look like a dirty hippy with his bonaroo shirt and face-scarf? That thing is so many different colours, it makes me giggle. Someday I’ll take a close up picture of it for you. I can’t imagine that he’ll be interested in that though – I might have to do it stalker-style, while he’s sleeping.

Dana’s so adorable. Look at her new glasses? Aren’t they stylish?

I love this picture of emi. She’s so goofy…

…and I think Brian Reece was trying to intimidate me because I had spent the past five minutes making fun of how super-gay he looked. Which isn’t a big deal, but come on. He was wearing hot pink with teal sparklies.

Yakiniku is so entertaining, even if you’re not traditionally someone that loves to chow on lots of meat (read: that ex-vegetarian here). It’s an experience. You know, like… the experience of burning off all your arm hair as you’re cooking dinner.

It’s a way to interact with your dinner pals and take part in your meal. There’s something to be said for not eating passively; for not scarfing a hamburger on your car ride home from work, for not shoving a candy bar in your face as you’re watching Glee. But I suppose that’s a post for another day.

Can someone remind me that I don’t do well with “all you can drink”? My hair looks like I just had a little tousle in the broom closet! I show you this picture just because the sakura tree behind us is SO pretty. You hear me? Don’t look at my head – look at the pretty tree BEHIND my head.

And two more things. 1. Did someone forget to tell dana that we were being fierce? Or…. dana, is that the fiercest you get?! and 2. why does my “fierce” face look like “car sick”? Sigh. Anyhow. Fantastic evening. Reminds me why I should stay up past BedTime sometimes.

Yakiniku w/ Friends

We loved the All You Can Eat / All You Can Drink format of this yakiniku place so much, that we came back on one of Phil’s last days in town. It was kind of awesome.

I love it that we have a group of friends here. There’s an awesome built in network in Yokohama, because you all are in the same circumstance, and because you’re brought together with people that you might not ordinarily live so close to. Also, I’ve been using the word “awesome” an incredible amount today.

Phil’s an awesome guy, and I’m excited to have gotten the chance to hang out with him for a bit. Since he lives on the other side of the pond (in Washington), it’s a rare day that we all get to hang out stateside. We’ll miss you, Phil!

A Lazy Saturday / Yakiniku Friday

I’ve only been awake for two hours, yet it’s already shaping out to be quite the odd duck of a day.

But first, this is jon and I, taken last night:

This is the first Saturday that Jon’s been called into work. Poor guy – we got in way too late last night and he still had to wake up at 5:30 and get on the train. Somewhere between here and then, I’ve lost my house key. Among other terrible side effects (who knows how much they charge for replacements!), I’m house-bound on a beautiful day. This morning, our company did some heavy handed layoffs, letting go a lot of really fantastic people. For the most part, my team was spared, though I’m sure I’ll find out more on Monday. If any of those people are reading; you will be missed!

I can only hope the rest of the day gets better.

Last night, Jon and I met up with Phil, Will, & Reece for something called tabehodai and nomihodai (All you can eat / all you can drink). For $35, we had a steady stream of Asahi and meat to grill up in front of us.

Pretty standard stuff: marinated chicken, 2 kinds of beef, and fatty pork belly. The fat drippings from the pork made the grilling a bit unmanageable at times. Jon quickly became the grill-master of the evening, and got us into a good rhythm of damage-control.

I love the concept of yakiniku – one that we just don’t do in America. If you’ve ever had Korean bbq, it’s a lot like that (but with less side dishes). There’s a grill in the middle of the table so that you can Yaki (grill) your Niku (meat). I love interactive food! After our initial inability to control the flames on our grill, we decided that the concept would never really make it stateside, because drunken 20-somethings would most likely burn the restaurants down.

Restaurant service in japan is way different than in the states. I wish I had this perspective before I waited tables for 8 years! Here, the waitress doesn’t come by and ask how things are. They don’t stand by and check in to see if you’re ready to order. Instead, in your most nasally voice, you yell “SUMI-MASEN!!!!!!!“. And then from the back, you’ll hear an even more nasal response, “haaiiiiiiii!!!!“. I wish you could hear it.

Then your server comes out from this door, and stands by very patiently while you butcher her language.

This is our friend, Phil. He’s a cowboy. (okay, he’s really an engineer. and a cowboy.) Phil is also a very good sport, but really likes beef more than the other crazy things we make him eat. I think yakiniku might be phil’s second favourite japanese food.

After dinner, we said goodbye to Phil and the four of us headed home. We stopped to watch some teenagers do tricks on their bikes (they were definitely showing off for us), and to terrorize some playground equipment.  Reece taught me a naughty word and I, like the obnoxious foreigner that I am, said it about three hundred times at innocent passersby.  I’m embarrassed for myself this morning.

Yakiniku

Yakinuku is a term that literally means “grilled meat”, but without context you could very easily say “yeah. sounds special. I bbq every day in the summer.”

Enter the yakiniku restaurant, where the grill is built into the middle of your table.  Have you ever been to a fondue restaurant?  It’s a little like that: they bring you plates of raw meat and the occasional vegetable, and the friend you-trust-most-with-your-dinner will grill it up while you speculate on what, exactly, it was that you ordered. Add in copious drinking and the uncertainty of what you’re eating, and it’s a good time.

This is us in front of the place (will is inside,wrangling us a table ((we had been turned away at once place already because they were “full”)), then you have Nathan, Phil, & Jon).

I like that they always give you a little something when you sit down. The mandatory appetizer. I don’t love that they usually charge you for it, but whatever. Roll with the punches. This is pickled seaweed. Surprisingly tasty.

On to the meat.

The 3rd dish we had came with this adorable little tureen for squashing lemons. It looked like a garlic press. Will thinks this one was diaphragm, but whatever it was, it was incredible. Really tender and thinly sliced.

Dining out in Japan is not for the squeamish. Granted, you can just go to a ramen stand every day, but what fun is that? This next dish was not immediately identifiable, and the way it slithered onto the grill made you question what they heck you were doing in this strange place. At first we didn’t cook it enough, and it had the consistency of thickly ribbed raw oysters. Then the ah hah moment:  this is large intestine!

I’m pretty okay with eating everything, but mostly I’m curious about what it is. It’s exciting to figure it out.

I think we ended up with beef tongue, a really nicely marbled piece of beef, beef diaphragm, bbq squid of some sort, large intestine, raw ground beef with egg and ginger, raw liver, and then beef fried rice and lettuce at the end. I thought… “why stop now” and grilled the lettuce too.

It’s possible that my judgment was impaired.

go-chi-sho-samadeska!!! (thanks, that was really good!)

***

After dinner, we parted ways with Nathan & Phil, and the three of us went to a standing bar / yakitori stand…

…where jon ordered their finest sake and got this weird cup…

…and jovial old men grilled up your meat for you.

A quick, after dinner bite: pork tongue:

And that’s where our night ended.