Or better known as @shello versus spicy food. I really can't handle anything more than pepper most days, but over the past year I've been finding myself in the midst of flavors I've come to love like sriracha (Thailand), hot mustard (China), and gochujang (Korea). Everything that'll leave my mouth watering, mostly, gasping for air. Honolulu has some of the strangest and interesting culture for fusion foods, and today we went out for one of my favorite cuisines... Yakiniku, or "the cook your own meat place".
You will learn a bunch about food today :D
The place we went to is called Gyu-Kaku which has restaurants in many countries, all over the world. This is not a restaurant review! Today I will talk about the different kinds of spicy foods we ate, and what I think they taste like.
First up! Spicy Cold Tofu
I don't order cold tofu ever when I am out, my boyfriend knows this, and also knows my fear of pooping fire later. He still ordered this item. On the bed of tofu is a chili oil sauce with something crunchy in it, and it tasted like a hint of spice. That sauce reminds me a lot of the spicy condiment I see in Pho restaurants that you can put in your soup. It tasted savory, with only a little bit of a kick. Just because something is red, doesn't mean it's hot!
The kimchee on top was the spiciest part, but the tofu I felt really absorbed the heat and helped to distribute it properly. Green onions always make a nice garnish!
Pork Toro (not spicy)
So "toro" is like the fatty part of the meat, usually by the cheek or belly depending on the animal. In sushi, there is different grades for things like tuna called; "chu toro" (medium fatty), and "o toro" (big fatty). The fat is regarded as the best part of the meat. When cooked, the pork was more chewy than it was tender.
Double Order Beef Toro (not spicy)
As you can tell, beef is where it's at. After eating this, I am thinking to myself that pork is generally tougher than beef unless shredded. The beef toro cooked easily, and melted as soon as it touched my mouth!
Second Contender: Miso Shabu Beef
Shabu meat is thinly sliced so it cooks faster. The word "shabu shabu" is the sound effect or onomatopoeia for the sound of meat being sloshed side to side in a hot pot, or when dipping it in a sauce. Jake always says it out loud when he makes the hand gestures!
This wasn't as spicy as I thought it would be, as Korean miso is thicker and more sweet than Japanese miso paste. I place the sauce closer to a tangy teriyaki if anything. When the beef was cooked, it was soft and savory. I lucked out, and my taste buds survived!
WHY SO SPICY? Kimchee Jjigae
I've made a grave mistake. This Korean dish is a kimchee stew pronounced; chi-gay, and the cabbage is cooked so long that the vegetables almost become a mush of seizure inducing greatness. It came out still boiling, and there was an egg inside!
I made the error of thinking that it would taste similar to my favorite Korean soup called soondubu, which is a soft tofu soup. They are both red, and have tofu inside. Same? No way, and the burning in my face only sealed the deal.
Soondubu is far more savory as a dish, and uses dashi (fish seasoning) in the broth to bring out a more well-rounded flavor. Closer to a soup than a stew, it is common to have oysters, octopus, and other sea creatures inside. What I ordered instead was jjigae, which was thick, burning with heat, and had beef in it.
Sometimes when a food is red, it can burn holes in your soul.
We Went Shopping!
The flavor on the spicy tofu was really good, but since I was trying not to spontaneously combust, I didn't see my boyfriend ask the waitress where to get the sauce. One thing I realized today, is that some of our grocery stores in Hawaii differ a lot from others in the US. We went to the grocery outlet called; Don Quiote to seek it out. More affectionately known in Japan as Donki, this super-chain is like a Japanese Walmart that sells everything! There is three stores in Honolulu, so almost any type of cooking ingredient from Asia we can pick up without too much trouble!
It took us half an hour to find this obscure ingredient. Chili oil with fried garlic, is my new favorite junk food. I'm gonna put this in my ramen! I really am scared of spicy foods, but what I've come to learn is that there isn't such a thing as a person who doesn't eat hot dishes, they just don't know what kind of spice they like yet.
