Kingyo Izakaya

Kingo Izakaya is one of a few izakayas in Vancouver and a fantastic place to get a drink have a few really good snacks.....although it seems that many people go there with the intention of having their entire meal there and hardly drink at all. What's an izakaya? Wiki defines it as a type of Japanese drinking establishment which also serves food to accompany drinks. My definition? A place to have a good time and get really railed.

Kingyo has a really rustic Japanese feel to it, and no wonder because it looks like much of the furnishings were discards from an old castle or temple. I'm not sure about the name of the design company, but I do know that they are the same company that brings you http://www.budo-aoi.com/

Some sort of bullying? I've heard of people tossing runners up on power lines, this is the first time I've seen someone's zori hanging like that.
Some would say that Kingyo's designers are almost a little eccentric. Haha, Kingyoman instead of Kikoman.
The pictures today are from Kingyo's new lunch menu and below is an assortment of pickles, which are great on their own, with a bowl of rice and a cup of tea.

However, I cannot survive on pickles alone so I got the tonkatsu set. It comes with refillable rice and cabbage salad.
The tonkatsu, or deep-fried pork cutlet was huge, and you really can't tell by the picture alone. It was soft and moist on the inside, and crispy on the outside.
Japanese mustard, not to be confused with wasabi came with the meal, and blended well with the tonkatsu.

Black sesame and white sesame came with a little grinder, which was then added to the sauce before dipping your tonkatsu in.
They've already got a great dinner menu, and now they're open for lunch. If you find yourself downtown, and have around $12 or so in your pocket, I'd recommend you drop in:

http://www.kingyo-izakaya.com/

Cookalong Live | How To Prepare Steak | Gordon Ramsay on Channel 4

Recipe challenge against Gordon Ramsay's mum

It's not often you see a soft side to Gordon Ramsay, but when it shows, it's worth watching.

Burger King Windows 7 Whopper

Can someone tell me why on God's green earth is this not being sold here in North America? Why, oh why? Burger King and Microsoft execs are seriously messed up to only market this in Japan. Is it because we're too health conscious here in North America? That can't be it. If this burger went for $7.77, I'd defintely try it.....and probably more than once.

McDonald's is already on my $hitlist for bad decisions (regarding their "Orange Drink"), I hope Burger King gets their act together and put out the Whopper 7!

Parksville Seminar May, 2009

Ok, back to steak. Earlier this year, Peter Gunstone sensei from our Canadian Iaido Association hosted the annual national seminar in Parksville, BC. After the seminar, I accompanied my own sensei, Hironori Inoue to Peter Gunstone sensei's home for a general meeting (in effect, I was the sandal bearer/sword bearer/personal assistant). We were treated to some really fine dining and one of the best barbequed steaks I have ever had. Whenever I see a BBQ grill, I always have this urge to do all the cooking, and this time was no exception. While the sensei had their meeting, I entertained myself by making sure I didn't burn their steaks.





I'd love to take all of the credit for cooking some wicked steaks, but in truth, I didn't do very much at all. The steaks were marinated by Peter Gunstone sensei, and I think some of the ingredients were soy sauce, sugar, and some other stuff. The quality of the meat was top notch and all I know is they were purchased from Costco.

Dang Man Coul - order their kalbi

While digging through some old photos, I stumbled upon this little treasure that I had at a restaraunt called Ma Dang Coul located on Denman Street in Vancouver, BC. The dish is called Kalbi and it's basically beef short rib marinated in this magical sauce that tastes like.......happy. This little mom and pop style Korean restaraunt has some of the best kalbi I've ever had.

Of course, you get the usual assortment of side dishes like these sweet potatoes, kimchee, pickled radishes, pickled bean sprouts, seaweed etc.

Although I said September would be steak month, I'll throw in a little pork for variation. This is pork belly and essentially, you take it, throw it on a hot pan like so:

Then you take lettuce, throw in some kind of salty bean past, a clove of garlic (raw) and wrap that sucker up and eat it. It's simple, but tasty.

The Keg Size Omega

This has got to be the biggest hunk of dead cow I have ever tried to eat - the Keg Size Omega. My friends and I first heard of this oversize order of beef from a server we did not at first take very seriously. We thought he was joking when he told us we could acquire an order of prime rib that was double the size of a normal Keg Size prime rib. Some time had passed and the story of its existence developed myth-like qualities because some servers and certain Keg locations had never heard of this elusive monster. It almost seemed like some servers were trying to cover up or deny it's existence.

Anyway, sometime in November last year, my friends and I went on a mission to find proof of it's existence and so went to one particular Keg a few times and asked several servers if there was such thing as a super-size prime rib that was not listed on the menu. Our server had to go off to her manager to verify our claims and came back a few minutes later with a grin on her face. When our meals came a short time later, we were blown away. This thing was massive and the word massive doesn't really do it justice...and neither do the pictures. I could see our server straining under the sheer weight of our prime ribs. It literally dwarfed the plates they were served on. It was like the IJN Yamato sitting on top of a wood pallet. Isn't it glorious?

You can get an idea of how big this beast was by looking at a regular size prime rib in the background. The regular size looks like it wants to cry and run away.

Here's another shot from the side. More than triple a regular size.....I'd say it was easily double the size of a Keg-Size prime rib.

Beautiful cut of meat, and it tasted phenomenal, but I was not able to finish my meal.

Here's the aftermath of my attempt. A cross section with a fork standing on end will provide a bit more perspective on how big this thing really is. I don't think I could ever find a day in my lifetime where I would be able to finish a meal this big and enjoy it. I considered maybe next time I would skip the bread, but the bread at the Keg is really quite good. Maybe skip the sides and not eat any of the garlic mash potatos? Nope, I doubt I could resist eating any of that either. Skipping lunch would just shrink my stomach capacity. I guess this is a mission that isn't for everyone, but at least now, we know that it truly does exist.