JUST one stop from Tokyo station, KANDA TOWN is already another world. Every cuisine is packed into this small area. Among them is YamadaMongoru, a "Genghis Khan" style lamb BBQ restaurant.
Why is the legendary Mongolian King here? No one really knows. Some claim the tsar served lamb meat grilled on his iron headgear on the battle ground, from which the odd shape of the pan originated. That's a good story but it's almost certainly just a myth.
Anyway, we'd better make use of this pan's shape, with a cube of fat on top, vegetables laid on the bottom. Between those, place lamb meat and grill both sides quickly. Fresh & tender meat from Australia is good to eat medium rare. Dip in two types of tare sauce in turn, and enjoy its rich flavour.
You'll soon be engulfed in smoke, which will trail after you long after you leave the restaurant.
Lamb meat combination and lamb tongue. Remember the dish colour. Green; round, White; shoulder, Black; loin.
Cards Accepted.
<Original in April 2021 ©Larry_Tak>
Thanks to young people's increased awareness of the health benefits of lamb meat, Tokyo has more opportunities to savour the food once considered a speciality in Japan.
I recently found a couple of newly opened lamb restaurants, of which the most casual one is a BBQ style shop named LAMB GORO.
A few steps from JR Kanda station, you find a statue hung on a wall. As you get closer, you notice it is a lamb, and under the lamb's tail there is an entrance.
In a small hall, a BBQ grill is in the centre and a semi-circular counter of ten stalls surrounds it. A staff member stands at the grill, takes an order and cooks lamb skewers. Like at a live kitchen, all guests' eyes are on him while the meat gets brown, giving out tasty smoke, until it is delivered to them.
Starting with a sheep’s milk cheese MONAKA snack as an appetiser, lamb skewers dipped in a sauce or sprinkled with spices & peppers are served directly from the grill. For more hardcore sheep lovers, sweet and tender lamb chops or pungent mutton skewers are available.
From the kitchen, Shu-mai Chinese dumplings offer you a different taste experience, made from minced lamb with a strong accent.
A gin cocktail specially mixed to pair with lamb skewers has an Oriental taste with cardamon, cinnamon, pepper and more mysterious spices. When meat, smoke and spices are mixed up, the hall reaches the climax of the night.
More guests come into the shop and some start to drink at an outside table set on the road. Looking around, other izakaya shops are also extending their territory to the road. Under the railways commuter trains frequently passing by, business people drink and laugh as if they are in a festival street. The hustle continues through the night until they wash away all the troubles of their day.
<Added in June 2024 ©Larry_Tak>
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