Communal Dining

A group of us gathered at Gyu-Kaku, a Japanese BBQ joint in the East Village, to celebrate a friend's birthday. A California-based chain, you wouldn't guess it based on the decor of the space - sophisticated and modern.

Like a BBQ in your own backyard, the only difference with Japanese BBQ is that you get to grill indoors and without leaving the table. Now, you may be thinking, what's really the point of Japanese BBQ? If I wanted to pay for raw food ingredients that you have to cook yourself, why not do it at home after purchasing my items from the local market.

The truth is, Japanese BBQ, like it's Korean counterpart, is at its very essence an experience - which all dining should be. What better way to get the table chatting (not that this group needed help there), than having to share cooking duties on your meal.

So, what did we eat?

We started the meal with thick chunks of ahi tuna marinated with soy sauce and sitting on a bed of seaweed. It was a refreshing start to the meal.

Feeling the fall weather, I ordered a Kalbi soup - a spicy soup that warmed me from the inside out.

We ordered an array of uncooked trays - mixed vegetables,mushrooms, scallops, ahi tuna, and beef. We grilled each to our preference and ate until we couldn't eat more. We accompanied our entree with unagi (eel) bibimiba.

This was a birthday dinner, so we couldn't leave without some cake! This banana chocolate crepe cake had multiple layers of crepe, banana and chocolate. The bananas were ripened to sweet perfection. It was paired with vanilla ice cream, but the cake was more than enough.

When you have a BBQ at hand, what's better than s'mores. I'll tell you this was my first taste of s'mores (yes, I was deprived) and they were so very goooood! We were given skewers and roasted our marshmellows over the open flame - the closest I'll get to a camping cook-out!