Eating meat

Yesterday Mr. Insomniac and I traveled to the far off location of Tustin for some all you can eat Korean barbeque with some of his college buddies - Grillmaster and CEO.

I had been craving some marinated short ribs for a while and a couple of weeks ago, we went to this place in Korean town that was dark, dank, and smoky.  I didn't take many pictures but here's one of our meal cooking with the assorted side dishes.  It was good, but rather pricy.  And the ventillation system was pretty much non-existent.  We spent most of the evening being bathed in smoky meat air.  On the plus side, doggy Insomniac was especially attentive when we got home as we probably smelled delicious.

So after that place, arriving at Seoul Garden BBQ Buffet was a breath of fresh air - literally.

Lots of tile, but well lit.  

So the way this place works is that you grab your assorted side dishes (rice, kim chi, pickled cucumbers and garlic cloves, bean sprouts, seaweed salad, scallions, jalapenos, etc.) from one buffet table.  Then you use a SEPARATE dish and load up on raw meat from another buffet table.  This was the part that was a little ick.  I like meat as much as the next bloke, but to see mounds of raw flesh swimming in a bloody marinade and sitting out in the open gave me pause.  But I shook it off and starting loading up my plate.

They have a wide assortment of proteins available - beef, poulty, pork, tofu, and seafood.  

And more adventurous fare for folks interested in crossing some items off the Omnivore's Hundred checklist.  

I figured, why not? and heaped a slice of beef tongue and beef heart on my plate for grilling.  I felt very Brave Heart.  (And it wasn't until digging up that Omnivore Hundred link that I realized that tongue and heart weren't on the list.  But I like the idea of trying new things... so it's all good.  Neither was bone marrow guts which would have been definitely an example of Trying New Things but I was too much of a chicken.)

Grillmaster did what he does best and deftly placed the short ribs on the grill and bordered the meat with some scallions, onions, and mussels.  After a few quick tosses of the tongs, they were done - perfectly charred and deliciously tender.  

Grillmaster and CEO looked at me in disgust and said that I was trying to "out Asian" them when I threw my tongue and heart on the grill.  But the joke was on them as I can say that the tongue was pretty tasty - it tasted like meat with a delicate flavor - and the heart tasted pretty good too.  Rich, gamey, flavorful - kind of like gizzards.  Chewy, but not annoyingly so.

I would have placed a picture of the grilling action and the completed meal here, but my iphone is currently at home somewhere.  Sad face.  Enjoy the picture of the Beef Marrow Guts.