Then they take out these stoves or hibachi's or something...

Last night, I made my second trip to The House Of Kobe, a hibachi steakhouse. I had been to one about 8 years ago and didn't like it. At that time I didn't like Chinese food, so i didn't like the rice, the veggies, I wasn't impressed with the chicken and steak I got, and the sushi was disgusting.

But this week, my friend Michelle (and I think it's time I got her her own icon, so since she's a nurse, we'll just go with this baby on the left there) called me and asked me if I wanted to go to the House Of Kobe Saturday. I like Chinese food now, and I even if I didn't like the food, I knew I'd have a great time because of the company. So i said I'd go.

So we ended up going with (see if you can keep up) Michelle's friend Celeste, Celeste's daughter, her girlfriend, he girlfriend's sister, Todd, a gay and kinda cute friend of theirs, another lesbian couple and some other friend and her young daughter. I don't know if that's everyone or not, but the total was 11 people, so we had one of the hibachi table things all to ourselves.

Firstly, I gotta say, the eye candy was outstanding. My penchant for Asians was MORE than satisfied this night, I tell you. But our waiter, not the cook, but the waiter was a very cute white kid with nice biceps and who smiled a lot at us. Very sweet. And even a good portion of the customers were cute young guys...very nice.

The food was pretty good. Started with a less than thrilling salad and mushroom soup, which, since I don't like mushrooms, I only drank the broth of. Then the cook came out and he was funny and personalble. And naturally cute. But he cooked things up with a flourish and spectacle that was entertaining, and yet the food itself was good as well. I got the steak and shrimp, but we all had the fried rice, vegetables and lo mein (which I wasn't very impressed with, but that probably had more to do with the fact it was lo mein rather than the way it was cooked).

And of course, not only was the cook entertaining, but so was the company. I had Celeste to my left and Michelle to my right, and we talked all the time. Oh, and I tried my first sake, which I did NOT like (although Michelle seemed to enjoy just fine thank you very much, all three bottles she had), and it was the first time I used chopsticks, and I used them perfectly right from the start, like an old champ. Surprised myself, I did.

I first picked up a piece of the chopsticks wrapper, and when Michelle said that didn't count cause it wasn't food, I took the lemon from my water (because our food hadn't gotten there yet, obviously) and picked that right up with them. I used them a few times during the meal, on the shrimp and steak, and even a piece of broccoli, but I left the rice alone. Didn't care to be that adventurous, I just used my fork.

And of COURSE I got photos:

This is of me holding the lemon in the chopsticks.



This is of the hibachi table top before it was being used.



This is the cook making stuff on the hibachi.



This is my plate of food, over half eaten, but all yummy.



And this would be me using the chopsticks to get a piece of the steak! I reek with talent.


POLT Listening to "The Power Of Goodbye" by Madonna

"The problem is we don't know anything." "Never been a problem for us before." - President Bartlet, The West Wing