Office Welcome Party at Satsuma

Last night we had an office welcome dinner party at Satsuma.

http://www.satsuma-jp.com/

8003 Norfolk Avenue, Betheda, MD

They have very fresh sushi and a special room with Japanese-style 焼肉 (yakiniku) tables where you take your shoes off when you sit down. The tables have grills recessed in the middle, and the floor is lower so you can sit comfortably. They're serving ramen now, but that's not the main reason to go there. Grilling your own meat and vegetables, Japanese-style. Very 懐かしい.

Unfortunately, my iphone isn't as good as my digi-so not very pretty photos :(

Tonkotsu Ramen with egg, fish cake slice, menma, negi, spinach and chashu. American chashu is never the right mixture of fat and tastes like turkey. The broth and noodles were ok, but Ren's Ramen has much better and authentic tasting ramen.

Grilling Gyūtan (牛タン) and にんにく - sliced tongue and garlic in dashi. Gyutan is quite tender and delicious with lemon squeezed on top and dipped in the sesame-salt dipping sauce.

In the center we grilled garlic.  We also ordered Horumon (放る物) or Motsu ( もつ). Horumon is a Kansai-dialect word for offal. Hachinosu (tripe), tetchan (large intestine) and harami (meat around the diaphragm - not shown). The Hachinosue and tetchan are chewy, kind of fatty, and definitely an acquired taste.

Another speciality I love is Hamachi-kama (grilled yellowtail jaw). This is the neck/jaw of the yellowtail tuna. The most fatty part of the fish, it is flavorful and moist when grilled and one of my favorite foods.

Agedashidofu (fried tofu with ginger and seaweed on a dashi-based broth). This was ok, the outside was nice and crisp, but I prefer the dashi to be warmer with katsuobushi flakes on top.