Gyu-Kaku

Well this was supposed to be dated 3rd Oct, but I guess it would be lost under that lengthy post below it.

It's my sister's 21^st birthday, which is supposed to be a big deal, but in fact is not, after I went through it myself a few years ago. It just meant that at the stroke of midnight, you are suddenly responsible for your own life, such as bills...

Anyway that's not the focus of this post. Since it's such a big deal, my sister wanted to go to a place she had always wanted to go, so much so that she even offered to treat the rest of the family because we had objected to paying for such a pricey meal in the past. Gyu-Kaku, a Japanese BBQ restaurant. She estimated $60 per head. I doubt she could afford to, but ah, whatever.

My mum tried to share the joy by telling my sister to invite a closer aunt, cousin and her friend. My sister did (without considering the extra to pay???), and the aunt suggested inviting another cousin working in Singapore but never visits. Then my sister not happy lor, because not close to this working-in-Singapore cousin mah. But aunt has said it, how can don't invite? I felt we should have kept it within the family lah... so rich meh? So my mum said she would pay for the whole dinner. Seriously, I can foresee the months and months of grumbling if she did. In the end my sister didn't want to do the inviting - my mum could do it if she wanted. And nobody did.

On the day itself, my aunt said she wouldn't be coming. Back to square one!

Our reservation was at Chijmes. Fortunately, the restaurant was just 10m away from the driveway... because I managed to stop my father before we rolled down to the basement carpark. There were a few steps at the entrance of the restaurant. No problem, father was there. Our table was near the entrance. Very claustrophobic there. My sister said we could have had a more spacious table if she hadn't updated our attendance with the restaurant. O well, cannot be so selfish.

We started looking at the menu. But I wasn't actually looking, because I was busy pirating it. You see, the menu on their website doesn't list the price. Moreover, birthday girl should make the decision!

Gyu-Kaku specializes in beef (explains the 牛角), in particular, Wagyu beef. And different body parts too. They do have other animals too, but they all looked the same to me - red chunks in the pictures lor. Choices of marinade are primarily Shio, Miso, Spicy Miso, with some meats having more options. But... all probably taste salty lah?

After a lonnggg loooooonnnnng time, we finally settled on:

• Botan set, which comes with everything listed as 0.00 in the receipt XD
• US Kurobuta Jowl, because I wanted to eat black pig.
• Kaisen chijimi, a Korean-style seafood pancake for my mum as her menu looked rather empty.
• Lime juice for my mum, who can't tahan caffeine.

Our starters.

The sausages and... Buta Karubi aka pork belly, I think. Walau so much fat can? But I ate it all since I paid big bucks for it. This pork is also very salty. You can chew till it's dry, yet there's still flavor.

The beefs. Wagyu was flagged. I think the white one was my 黑猪. When this plate was served, the waitress introduced all the meats. My brother and I clearly remembered that the waitress called the reddish one "tongue". What a huge, chunky tongue! But my sister insisted it's not. Later when we revisited the menu, we found that she was right. The reddish chunks were the rump cap. The tongue should be a thin slice, probably the only right in front of the camera?

Meat on the grill. Smokeless charcoal with something at the sides of the grill to suck up all the smoke before they even get to you, no need to worry about being your face turning black at the end of the dinner. O and it's air-conditioned of course.

Service was good. The staff was attentive (which probably also meant they had their eyes on us all the time). Our grills were changed twice so as to reduce the chances of us suing them should we get cancer 30 years down the road.

We got too much food! I could only take a few nibbles of the Ishiyaki Bibimba aka Korean 石锅饭. It was cold by the time I ate it. Must have been fragrant and crispy when it was warm.

Time to serve our desserts! Because our set was only for 4, we were only entitled to 4 desserts, but the restaurant was so kind as to throw in a free one for us!

From the top, black sesame ice-cream, orange sorbet, soy milk mango pudding, macha ice-cream and gyu-kaku ice-cream (which is vanilla ice-cream with soy bean powder and brown syrup).

My sister ordered an alcoholic cassis soda, which sadly, tasted like soda.

Meat education
The menu looked the same to me because I don't understand the different cuts of meat.
So the rump cap is the bum, which explains why it's so chunky.

From Gyu-Kaku's menu:
Wagyu Beef is recognized as the world's finest, unmatched for flavour, juiciness, tenderness and overall eating quality. High level of marbling in Wagyu beef has a positive influence in eating quality to avoid moisture during cooking and enchance flavour, tenderness and juiciness during eating. Combined with high ratio of unsaturated to saturated fatty acids, the result is more "good" cholesterol and less "bad" cholesterol.
So healthy! Have more!

For the kurobuta jowl, the jowl is a fat cut of meat along the side of the head.

Total damage per head: $69. My brother and I split the bill. Ouch. The most expensive dinner EVER!

All I could remember about the meat was SALTY! Can't recall anything that actually "melts in the mouth". I don't mean the food wasn't good! The fact that I could eat so much meat in one sitting is the best proof. I think that's how the salt helped. But I only need to visit such a place once, for the experience. I won't be back again, unless someone is treating.

By the way, cars that are low should not attempt to enter Chijmes' basement carpark. The unmarked hump at the carpark entrance is a real bumper killer!