Sarah’s Blog Post 30: June 9, 2016
I had yakiniku for the first time when I came to Japan ten years ago. I went to Gyu-kaku with my host family. Everything was very delicious, but I didn’t like the beef tongue. It was too chewy for me and felt like I was chewing my own tongue. In the United States, it is very hard to find yakiniku restaurants. You can only find them in big cities where many Asians live. There are some Gyu-kaku restaurants in the United States and I have gone to two different locations in Los Angeles and one in Torrance. However, Los Angeles also has a large Koreatown and Korean barbecue is very similar to yakiniku. There are a couple of differences between Korean barbecue and yakiniku in the United States.
Different meats are prepared different ways at yakiniku and Korean barbecue restaurants. I prefer beef from yakiniku restaurants and pork belly from Korean barbecue restaurants. Yakiniku restaurants in the United States almost never have an all-you-can-eat option. On the other hand, Korean barbecue restaurants often have all-you-can-eat menus. I really like eating meat, so I enjoy going to both yakiniku and Korean barbecue restaurants.