Roar! Roar! Roar! Like a lion ready for its next meal, my stomach grumbled with starvation. Six hours had passed since the last time I ate, and at that point I would have eaten anything in front of me. Jackie and I were touring Oxford Street, when the noise of ours stomachs began to rumble to a degree unheard of. We almost gave up all hope of finding an inviting and unique restaurant, when out of nowhere we found it, The Woodstock Kushiyaki Bar. It possessed a distinctive look, and better yet offered a great deal. We would be able to feast on three different plates, indulge in a delicious soda and top it off with coffee, for the reasonable price of fifteen pounds. We were sold!
When we walked in, we were greeted by friendly staff. They quickly sat us down, and offered us the finest dishes of their place. We told them that we were interested in their set menu, and he quickly pointed out what area of the menu was available. I thought it would be a few items, but the options were endless and you could choose from an array of delightful menu items. For my three dishes, I selected the Yellow Fin Tuna Tataki, Slow Cooked Pork Belly, and the Rare Beef Salad. In all honesty, it was extremely hard to decide on which items I wanted to try, but in the end they were all delicious. The Yellow Fin Tuna Tataki was presented on a small plate. It was cut in small rectangles and topped with a foreign green vegetable. At first, I worried about the taste, but as I pressed my wooden chopsticks against the tuna and placed it onto my tongue. There was an explosion of flavor in my mouth. It seemed like a party going on, with the sweetness of the fish contrasted by the bitterness of the sauce and green leafy vegetables. To say the least, it was incredible.
After swallowing the Yellow Fin Tuna Tataki whole, the next plate arrived, The Slow Cooked Pork Belly. They were perfectly skewered onto two skewers. They had a golden brown color and smelled like a combination of honey and soy sauce. As I removed the pork from the skewer, the juice rendered out and fell onto my plate. How could a two inch cube of meat pack so much juice boggled me? I didn’t have a knife at the time, so I stuffed the whole piece of pork into my mouth and they retained the crispiest coating I have ever had. After seeking my teeth into its hard covering, my tongue jumped for delight with the butter like texture of the pork. It melted in my mouth and sung a minute opera while traveling down my esophagus. How could pork do such a thing? I will never come to understand.
Now if your mouth hasn’t started watering yet, no need to fear. The restaurant and I have saved the best item for last, the Rare Beef Salad. I know what you’re thinking. Gross! Believe me, I was panicking the whole time wondering: “Oh my gosh, am I about to eat a cow that will be moving on my plate.” At my delight, my plate arrived with no mooing. It looked beautiful, by far the most beautiful plate I had ever seen. The beef was cut in way that it was only slivers of beef seared with a caramelized outside and rosy red on the inside. Although it screamed rawness, the beef didn’t ooze warm blood, instead it smelled like a million spices had involved it’s every veins. As I prepared myself to eat this piece of adventurous meat, I didn’t know what to expect. But as my taste buds interacted with the tanginess of the soy and the pureness of the meat, my body exploded with chills. The Rare Beef Salad packed so much flavor, that it spilled out of my body and into the air of the Japanese Pub. I’ve have always heard world renowned chefs claim food to be sexy, but had never experienced it myself. Until that day, I described food as delicious, warm, cold or gross, but now I can say that I have experienced food on a different level. The Rare Beef Salad wasn’t just delicious. It was sexy beef. It truly was the impossible made possible.