Recently my buddy Nicky introduced Huyen and me to a streetside BBQ shop. Basically the shop has a whole bunch of different meats that you can grill over a coal fire. We ended up eating frog, goat and pork ribs with a bunch of lady fingers (vegetables) and buttered bread. The meal was quite good and reminded me of Japanese yakiniku restaurants. The big difference between Vietnamese grilled meat restaurants and Japanese grilled meat restaurants are:
1. In Japan you're actually in a restaurant.
2. In Japan you don't grill on a plastic table...which began to partially melt.
3. In Japan you pay a whole bunch of money. In Vietnam it cost us $3 a person.
4. In Vietnam, you have a wider assortment of meat.
Head to head, I've got to give the edge to Japan. The meats in Japan were absolutely outstanding especially at the yakiniku restaurant that Masumi and Kensuke took me too. That said, this grilled meat shop is now on my restaurant rotation and I'll be sure to bring some carnivorous friends there in the near future!
(PICTURE: Vietnamese grill.)
(PICTURE: My first yakiniku in Japan.)
