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| - As soon as my date and I walked in, I instantly felt as if I was about to face the late Mitsuharu Misawa with a valet at my side. I swore I could have seen streamers flying about. Down the ramp I walked into what my imagination allowed me to pretend was The Egg Dome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ANvKlcT6F4
Ok, ok, that was obligatory.
Anyway it was her idea, and it was a good one.
I found Budokan at the Waterworks strip mall of all places, and Loudness and X-Japan were the dual headliners.
For the first time in my life I threw the horns at a chef.
And he threw 'em back!!!
So yeah, I never did the hibachi thing before.
Well, it began unassumingly. I got a Emperor's Combo. She got Hibachi Steak. You start out with soup and a small salad. The soup, called Clear Soup, looked like water with some wood chips in it, but upon first sip I realized what a perfect example of the sublime economy of Asian cuisine this was. It was utter ambrosia. Broth, mushrooms, and scallions -- that's it. Nothing else was necessary. I could wake up to it each day.
The salad was crisp, fresh, and some kind of tasty orange dressing on it Thousand Island?
Then came the samurai, his blade kept in a sheath at his side, his silent company making itself known with swift actions.
The family that dined with us (I had forgotten how much fun eating with complete strangers can be) were jolted into attention when the chef created a blaze in the middle of the grill with sake.
He squirted some in my mouth! Hell yeah! He got some egg on me too, but if Ozzy Osbourne sweats on you in your front row seat, do you complain?
Yes, we got the onion volcano. That's like waiting for Iron Maiden to play "The Trooper." It's a staple of the set, man.
Theatrics aside, everything was amazingly good. There's nothing like eating dinner cooked this quickly, this ready to eat, because it's ingeniously cut into bite-sized pieces. And get this, you can dip your morsels in a "Japanese mayonnaise" and some other gingery/peanut sauce, both of which defeat any and all American condiments.
At first we were served the fried rice complete with the egg-cracking tricks, then noodles, veggies. We each got two pieces of shrimp.
Y'know, I hadn't had lobster in ages. The last time I got it (at a certain South Hills seafood dive I haven't been to in a few years) it was overcooked, tough. This lobster on the other hand was flawlessly plump, tender.
I mean, everything I had from the grill was caramelized goodness. I loved how the chef pressed the noodles and rice onto the hibachi as if they were burgers. My chicken, pieces of which I couldn't catch in my mouth when the chef catapulted them, was awesomely appetizing also.
What a way to cook! Having only seen this sort of thing on television before, I never realized what a rockin' experience this is for all the senses.
You should have seen the little triplet girls at our table, their mouths and eyese agape, transfixed on this culinary warrior from the Far East.
If I had one regret, it's that I didn't order the steak, but I did taste my date's. I would have learned to love steak much, much earlier in life if I had it the Ichiban way: small, tender, juicy meat cubes. The side sauces just made them that much better.
My date didn't know what "Ichiban" meant. Man, what you can learn from pro wrestling.
#1 indeed.
And to think I was just gonna order sushi.
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