Yakiniku

[torakris]

Last night we joined another family for dinner at a local yakiniku place, this was a tiny place with only 5 tables and room for about 8 at the counter. Their speciality is horumon-yaki or various grilled offal.

the plate in front has beef slices and the plate in the back is their special horumon plate which included intestines, stomach, heart and liver all for only 1050yen (about $9)

the small plate is liver in a miso sauce and the plate in the back is a mixture of chicken thighs and pork cartilege

one of my favorites, nankotsu or chicken cartilege

the grill

sorry for the blurred picture, this was gatsu sashimi (raw cow stomach). Gatsu, I have learned is from the English word guts...

[jeniac42]

Kris, did you always enjoy offal, or is it a taste you've acquired? I try to be open-minded with food but the texture of some of the offal meats really puts me off... I can't imagine I would have enjoyed the yakiniku you did last night!

[torakris]

Kris, did you always enjoy offal, or is it a taste you've acquired?  I try to be open-minded with food but the texture of some of the offal meats really puts me off... I can't imagine I would have enjoyed the yakiniku you did last night!

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I didn't grow up with it as my mother couldn't stand things like tripe and liver, my first experiences were probably in Japan. I remember not liking liver at first but my MIL insisted on me eating it during my first pregnancy because "the baby needs it", I eventually grew to love it. Most of the other offal don't really have any taste, like you said it is all about texture. I prefer the crunchy/chewier textures of tsunagimo (gizzard), tongue, heart, nankotsu (cartilege) than the soft textures of things like shirako (cod sperm sacs) and ankimo (monkfish liver). I like it all now but the softer textures took much longer, heck I even hated maguro and uni the first couple times because of the soft texture...

Even my kids enjoyed it, my oldest won't touch liver but the two younger ones love it, heart and tongue are probably the all around favorites. Intestines can be really chewy.

[_john]

I saw this yakiniku place today that had a tabehoudai (all you can eat) menu for ~2000yen. As far as I can tell it is a 90 minute limit and you would have to get about 5 dishes to make it worth the cost. They looked pretty busy, and they used real charcoal, which I always prefer. What do you guys think? Is it a good deal considering the time limit and the items you are limited to?

Do they usually have different prices for men and women like this? That seems sort of shocking to me.

[torakris]

The price difference is typical, though not all places have it.

I had an all you can eat yakiniku yesterday for lunch at 3,500 per person. This was the most expensive one I have had as we tend to go to places in the price range you showed. The difference is in the meat used. The one we went to yesterday had much better meat than the places that are cheaper.

If you can eat a lot they can be a good deal and can also be a lot cheaper than the order by the plate style. Some of the cheaper places also have the meat set out buffet style, so you go and pick out exactly what you want and how much.