BLOGGER MEET-UP AT GYU-KAKU

To celebrate her birthday, the very sweet natured Rebecca of Chow and Chatter came up to New York City with family and friends for a fun filled weekend of sightseeing. Of course, since she was coming to town she called the very sociable Cindy of Chubby Chinese Girl, who called me to meet up for lunch. See how blogging has turned me into a lady who lunches?

We all met up at Gyu-Kaku, a Japanese grill house in mid-town Manhattan that offers a grill set built directly into the table for foodies looking to cook their own meat. We don't have too many opportunities to grill out here in Manhattan, so I was totally jazzed with the idea.

Cindy got a plate of various cuts of beef which included beef tongue, short rib and hanger steak. The pile of large thin slices sprinkled with black pepper is beef tongue, the pile marinated in dark soy sauce is short rib and the other pile is hanger steak.

Since this was my first time visiting this place I told the waiter that I'll have the same thing, not knowing what I had just ordered. Watch Cindy demonstrate for me how to grill meat, lay flat, and sear for 30 seconds on each side.

Smoke puffs from under, sizzling and crackling and brandishing beautiful grill marks onto the meat.

 

How was the beef tongue? Well, if I hadn't been told that it was beef tongue, I wouldn't have assumed it was different from any other cut. Juicy, tender and flavorful, it was as good if not better than the other options on the platter.

Rebecca, who had her very cute daughter in tow, ordered the garlic chicken noodles. Look at Jasmine, those eyes say, I want food! Rebecca enjoyed the noodles, although noted that there was a lot of garlic in it.

Before I headed off to the airport for my own travel plans, we quickly took a picture. Unfortunately, Rebecca is a bit blurry; it's my only picture of us and I wanted to share anyway.

I'm blogging in-flight from 38,000 feet. Isn't it cool how far technology has come? Guess where I'm headed. Stay tuned to find out.