Make a happy face out of cooking oil, and then light ‘er up!
November 13, 2010, 9:02 PM
Tonight’s dinner experience was certainly a bit more exciting than most when eating out. I went with my parents to Massaki, a Japanese steakhouse and sushi bar in Staunton. That was a cool experience.
See, Massaki is one of those places where they cook the food right in front of you, and put extra emphasis on showmanship. And the food was good, for that matter. But yeah, they put the whole cooking thing on display. First the server takes your drink order, and then after they bring you the drinks, they take your order. The soup comes out, the salad comes out, and then while you’re eating the salad, the chef comes out.
The chef came out with a little cart containing all the raw ingredients for the table. I had the swordfish and mahi mahi, others had a chicken dish, and someone else had steak. First thing the chef did was get started. After doing a little thing with his spatula, he made a happy face on the grill out of cooking oil, and then lit that sucker on fire. Big flame-up right there (and you can feel the heat from the individual flame-ups several tables away). Then he put the rice down, and got to work chopping up the vegetables. Then he did the side dishes. Dad and I had chicken livers, and Mom had sauteed mushrooms. The chef made a big to-do of the cooking, that’s for sure. It was quite fun to watch, as he placed this sauce on this, and this on that, and moved stuff around and flipped stuff.
The coolest part was the onion volcano. When the chef was originally chopping up the vegetables, one onion slice was left out. This was later separated into rings and stacked one on top of the other. Then the chef placed two liquids in the volcano, and then lit that up. Flame, as well as a lot of steam before and after the flames. Really cool.
Here’s what one of these things looks like:
Ours was a little less flame-y, but you get the idea. Unlike in the video, however, when the show was finished, our chef chopped the onion volcano up and incorporated it into the meal.
And then before you knew it, the meal was prepared, and as mentioned, the food was quite good. I would definitely go here again when visiting my parents.
Web site: Massaki
Song: Watching The Family Man with the parents. I'm only half paying attention to the movie, though...
Quote: Also - first netbook Journal entry! I can really fly over this keyboard - way better than I could on the old Lappy's.
Categories: Family, Food and drink, Staunton