Monday, October 05, 2009

Yakiniku

Normally, when I take a photo of my cooking process and food in my house, the background is either our wolf stove or a black marble background. If the background is other wise, it means I am cooking in my sister's house which usually happens.

A few weeks ago, I was cleaning my chest freezer and found some left over short ribs inside the freezer. I wanted those to be devoured immediately so that my freezer will have more space in it. With that in mind, I called my sister and told her if we can have some yakiniku in her place; and she gladly said yes.

Yakiniku is a japanese dish meaning grilled meat. 'Yaki' - grilled, 'Niku' - meat. If you were to go to a yakiniku restaurant, they will offer a wide range variety of meat for you to grill and just dip it in their sauce and eat it with their rice. So often than not, the beef cut that many like is 'Karubi' or beef short ribs.

Beef short ribs is all about flavor. It is one of the most, if not the most, marbled part of the beef. You usually braise it but in our case, we cut it thinly then grill it. Grilling beef short ribs as is gives you this strong beef flavor even if the beef is very thin.

Anyhow, let's proceed. First, cook some rice. It better be japanese since we are making a japanese dish.



As the rice cooks, start making the sauce. First, you need to crush some garlic.



Then add mirin and japanese soy sauce *two parts mirin, 1 part japanese soy sauce* Lastly, add some gochujang. Gochujang is a spicy korean miso. You can easily buy this from korean stores. The packaging of this is usually made from a red plastic container.

When the rice is already donecooks, prepare the beef.



See the marbling of that meat? Yum! Oh, also, it is better if you buy at least a USDA choice grade meat for that so you can be assured of good marbling of the meat. USDA choice great meat are always available at Santis. In my case, since I am in the food industry, I bought a whole slab of short ribs from my supplier and trimmed it on my own. :D

When everything is prepared, time to grill some meat!



Eating yakiniku is all about eating it with other people. It is a ceremony where people get together and have a nice meal together. It is about catching up and tightening the bonds of people; camaraderie.



Lastly, eat yakiniku with some alcohol.



Weird thing about the alcohol we had is that it's korean. Well, to be honest, yakiniku has its roots from the korean. 'karubi' is the japanese translation of 'galbi', the korean counter part, and they usually it the 'galbi' with lettuce. :d

3 comments:

no name yet said...

gojujang is red bean paste.. i love it! especially if i mix it with bibimbap! yummy. hey why am i not invited here?? i love yakiniku! teach me how to marinate hehe..

no name yet said...

hey if hans & i are living together next year, you are more than welcome to cook in my kitchen! heheh

Hershey said...

oh, is it? i thought it was korean spicy miso! anyhow, I don't marinate my karubi. Karubi is not meant to be marinated, it already has full of flavors. Other parts of the beef when done in yakiniku though needs some sort of marination :D