New restaurant...well, to me at least

Russ, Luke, Daigo, Tomo, Emi, Emi's bloke and I met up for lunch today. Tomo was charged with finding a suitable establishment. She doesn't know downtown Joetsu that well, so she chose a place down near us in Arai. It turns out that they don't do lunch on Sundays, so we went over the road to a rather inconspicuous restaurant. Much to my surprise it was a great little yakiniku restaurant - one of my favourite styles of Japanese food. Yakiniku just means grilled meat. The last few weeks might be a little pricey...the food is pretty good.

Yakiniku originated from traditional Korean barbecued beef dishes brought over by immigrants to the Kansai area of Japan. Red meat isn't a staple in Japanese cuisine, so a trip to the yakiniku shop is quite a treat.

Eating meat was actually banned in Japan for many years on religious grounds, which partly explains why they eat so much seafood. Meat was only legalised in 1871 following the Meiji Restoration. The Emperor Meiji himself was publicly observed eating meat in 1873 to promote beef consumption.

At the yakiniku restaurant you order a selection of meats - beef, pork, offal, chicken, seafood, etc - and then slap it on the built-in grill on your table. You cook the meat as you go, dipping each bit in the tare sauce (my mouth is watering just thinking about it). If you drink too many beers it's easy to take your eye off the ball and your dinner will go up in smoke. Nice to discover a new restaurant just down the road, even though I've lived here for three years!