Yakiniku at its best

AAAAaaoooooooo Wuuuuuuuuu~~~~~
nope, it isn't the name of this place. I can't read Japanese nor Chinese. Being a 1/4 Serani I can't even read Portuguese either. Hopeless~~~ but I am Malaysian and proud to be one :)))

This restaurant specialises only in yakiniku - grilled meat over charcoal fire. The fun bout dining at such establishment would be its casual environment and u get to cook ur own food. Oh well maybe not so fun for some people but I'm all for it!!!!

The simple fuss free menu. Seriously tourists won't be able to find all these rare gems bcoz they are not located in fancy buildings nor on the ground floor. Guess u need to have some certain degree of local knowledge to come here.

The charcoal fire has already been prepared for us in the kitchen, brought onto the table on a Shichirin - a type of Japanese charcoal grill.

A small appetizer of crunchy cold cucumber, pickled daikon and bamboo pith in a light clear vinaigrette dressing. It was really refreshing.

Okie....self-confession.....I.Am.Not.A.Fan.of Any.INNARDS
the sights of innards can just turn my own innards upside down.

but this was so good!!!!! It's one of the compartment from the cow's stomach. U see cow has got 4 stomachs or in technical term, 4 compartments *not really 4x stomachs* so I don't know this one is from which compartment kekekekeke. Served with some light ponzu sauce with finely sliced scallions.

I was pleasantly surprised with its crunchy texture. The dressing only lent taste to this appetizer as the stomach does not have any taste at all.

yeahhhhh...gruesome~~~~~
COLONS~~~~~~

Why are we eating all these things??? We do have money right? We can buy better cuts of meat right???
All the gentlemen on my table threw me that look. Okie Monkey...just shuddup and eat.

Sizzles~~~~~
the colon contains so much of fats, the oily jus just dripped down and created more smoke and fire. We had to doze it with a bowl of ice. Every table has got a small bowl of ice for this purpose.

Chef Takashi was at another table serving wines and when he returned, to his horror....there was a lot of smoke and fire at our charcoal grill.

JS, Mark and Monkey just gave him a big grin.
It spelt We.Need. Help.

Chef Takashi let out a big sigh, took a sip of wines from his glasses. Told us to Hands Off the grill for the rest of the nite *to my huge relief* that he's taking OVER!!!!

first time I'm watching Chef cooking :P
he looked so serious that I had to throw in the comment that this isn't Cilantro....u don't have to be so stressed up!!!!

Soon the gruesome Colons turned into edible yummy fatty melt-in-ur-mouth with crispy edges meat.

Chef Takashi: "Ini macam la!!!"
ok ok noted....we totally have got no expertise, knowledge nor skills to cook. Only to EAT. We are truly blessed.

Next on the plate was Suffolk Lamb with some sesame. Suffolk lamb/sheeps are originally from England, raised for wool and meat. It didn't have any lamb-mie smell nor taste at all. Just sweet succulent soft meat.......so yums!!!

Brown Bear???
BEAR??? B.E.A.R?????
Monkey was in horror and cried: "We are eating Kumamon!!!!" :~~~~~~(

Chef Takashi luffed out lout. BAHAHAHAH look at her face, now she looked like Kumamon.
>.<

*file pic taken in Kumamoto*
the above was Kumamon, the cute adorable fluffy fat mascot for the city of Kumamoto.
No!! not the one with boots, though both were fat and fluffy....Kumamon is the one with red round cheeks!!!!

Kumamon is so cute!!! and we are eating Kumamon!!!!!
*cry cry cry cry cry cry cry cry*

Then Kumamon and Suffolk Baa-baa-Baaa its way to the grill to the delight of Chef Takashi. He's very happy that he's working with such outstanding ingredients.

Surprisingly the bear meat was really delicious. Yes...seriously!!! soft, delicate and sweet. There's many wild bears here in Hokkaido and one bear yields a lot of meat.

Lily and Lorraine cooked most of the meat for their table like experts!!

Rouxin and Sharon. They were quite skeptical about bear meat in the beginning but was sporty enuff to try everything. This is wat I called adventurous :))))

Beautiful shots of beautiful people :)))))))))

My table was the experts table and the one to be at :D
We have the best Chef cooking for us....Mr. JS best photog working out bz clicking his shutters...while Mark was the expert in food while Monkey being the drunkards :P

okie this pic says it all~~~~ the true expert on Wines. MW Maho would not be too happy to see this pic of her beloved Papa Bear :P

Here we have Dr. Epicurean our unofficial sommelier, Ellen who's a freelance writer on wines *what else!!!*, our dearie Captain Chris who's an expert of everything in Japan and finally Papa Bear cooking for this friends bcoz Japanese said we tourists won't know how to cook a proper and decent Yakiniku.

Quack quack quack duck was superb and much better than french duck. Its meat has got not fiber and was so tender.

look at the marbling of this pork tontoro
and the end result???

Happiness
:)))))))))))

Deer was rather succulent too. Basically everything was so yummy. Don't know if it's the ingredients or the person cooking it :P I think it's both!!!!

ladies and gentlemen, this is how you grill the shiitake mushrooms...standing up like this.

Beef tongue/ tan
One of the most prized and delicate part of a cow

A chef will alwiz be a chef....how he grilled the meat to be crispy and charred on the outside but PINK on the inside!!!! we would have destroyed the texture of the meat by cooking it thoroughly!!! Horror~~~~ it's all about knowing the heat level on this charcoal grill. I saw Chef Takashi perpetually turning his meat and placing them at different part of the grill.

we ate and ate and ate so much.....the final servings were homemade pork sausages with herbs. Yumssss. My tummy was so round and this time I really do looked like a Bear Kumamon!!!

Captain Chris said he needed his carbo!!!! not enuff to eat :P

Yummy fragrant fried rice and udon
the EGGS!!! EGGS!!!! yummmmsssss

Yea all of us brought our own Riedel glasses.

the great AMAZING Chef Takashi Kimura :)))))))

Ellen said she had 3 helpings of Bear Meat!!!!!

Mark had 2 helpings of Bear meat. One with marinade and another without :)))))))))

Monkey said she's ROUND and ROUND like Kumamon
:)))))))))

What a feast!!! such a wonderful findings. This establishment was run by the same owner whom owns the Italian restaurant that we went to earlier. :)))