The Scenerio:
You are meeting him at 730pm for dinner. Sounds like the usual after-work-dinner-date.
The Venue:
Your date is a hottie (even if it’s only you that think so)
and you want to win his heart. You can have a date at the beach or a lovely park near your house! I guarantee if you follow this plan, his heart will melt and his mouth will drool at the same time
Your Surprise:
A elegant Japanese style table-top B-B-Q. This is great for those that want to go the extra mile, cannot cook and hate washing up.
We are not talking about the usual B-B-Q you had last month celebrating 4th of July with all you can eat chicken wings and satay. What you want to create is a Yakiniku experience- Yaki Niku refers to grilled meat dishes and other bite size delights. You can gather all the ingredients for the first experience. In future you can both select the ingredients together and integrate the shopping experience as a part of your date
What you need:
1) A Instant BBQ grill.
You can buy one at any supermarket or you can make a simple one by buying two packets of $1.99 instant charcoal, an aluminum tray and a wire rack. All available from Daiso. I like the Daiso’s instant charcoal because they are smokeless and only require a matchstick to start. No extra fire starters necessary. They stay red hot for 2 hours and won’t burn through the aluminium tray. They look like a packet of oversize OREO biscuits and I keep a stash of these at home for any impromptu dates
2) Bite Size Portions of Love:
Jo Karubi
Japanese small peppers
Baby corn
Variety of mushrooms
Shisamo
Unagi
Scallops
Cherry tomatoes
Individual servings of butter (optional)
Individual servings of marinade
You cannot win a man’s heart without good quality MEAT in loving portions. I find the easiest, fuss free way to creating an elegant table top B-B-Q experience is to buy from a Japanese supermarket and ask him to pick me up from there. That way I can just buy fresh ingredients and go straight to my date in a jiffy. Even right after work.
I usually buy Jo Karubi. You can certainly find this at the meat section of the supermarket. This is prime beef ribs full of fat marbling, already cut into small pieces. Perfect for grilling. Estimate 150-200 grams per person. This is the highlight of your dinner. For a little conversation starter, you can buy different cuts from different countries and do a taste session. You will also need a GYU seasoning. Any soy based sauce spiked with black pepper and mirin will do. The good thing about Japanese supermarkets are they sell these in portable packets. For a cheaper alternative, you can always buy a few packets of soy sauce from the sushi counter and marinade the beef gently right before grilling. If you don’t take beef, buy buta (pork) I prefer fatty cuts like belly pork because of the aroma of chargrilled fats.
The rest is really up to your imagination. I like to buy anything ’small’ that I can grill without cutting. Japanese peppers, eggplant, baby corn and wild mushrooms fits nicely on the table-top grill.
I also like seafood like Shisamo, Scallops and Unagi because they don’t require any additional flavouring
If you are a vegetarian, pick a meaty version of mushroom like Portabellos to fill the stomach, cherry tomatoes, tempeh or firm tofu.
Don’t forget to pick up two pairs of chopsticks from the sushi counter before checkout! FOC
3) Love Potions:
We all need a little magic potion. They double up as marinade as well
Try
Japanese sake, plum wine or a refreshing Superdry Asahi. The sake and plum wine comes in individual portions so no fancy glasswares necessary.
A bottle of water is always good to have on hand, for drinking, minor clean up and putting out the sizzling hot coals before you move on to second base – or HOME GROUNDS
Itadakimas!
Wishing you a sizzling night,
ThePinkP Gift Guru
