broadening horizons...

i love having new experiences...and trying new foods...and thankfully over the weekend i had the amazing opportunity to do just that while visiting relatives in New Jersey. there is much more variety to life south of Maine. i love it here for so many reasons, but it definitely lacks diversity in culture, people and food! (we have amazing fare here...just not all that culturally diverse!)

for the first time ever, i went to a Korean BBQ. it was a loud, large smoky room that was packed full of diners. when we sat down, my father in law ordered a bunch of food for the whole table, so i honestly don't know exactly what it was that we ate.

food began parading to the table right away...in a matter of moments the table was covered with 3 sets of about a dozen little appetizers...kim chi, cured black beans, marinated bean sprouts, a waldorf-esque salad of apple and potato (that was thankfully much tastier than a waldorf salad), an egg souffle, several salads with different types of spicy dressing, marinated straw-like mushrooms, among other things. each was fabulous and different from the next.

we also were presented with a big plate full of chilled, finely diced raw meat. the server tossed it all in raw egg and a dressing that was a tad sweet right at the table. it was meant to be eaten raw and it was amazing. i have had raw meat before, carpaccio is one of my favorite delicacies, but this was sooo much different than that and very delicious. it looked much like a pile of shredded roasted red peppers and was called yuki, i think.

as we began to nibble on all of these goodies, a man brought out a small cage full of flaming charcoals and nestled it into the center of our table. next, a big plate of raw meat was brought over and we cooked it ourselves right there in the center of our tables! there were large crunchy piece of lettuce on the table and we put this amazing tangy peanut sauce on the leaf, with the meat and some bean sprouts and/or mushrooms and rolled it up eating it altogether like a sushi handroll!

it was fun...the children had a blast and there was plenty for them to love. we left smelling a bit like the BBQ itself, but it was so well worth it.

IT WAS ALL SOOOOOO FLIPPING GOOD!