Localization here in Singapore usually involves chili peppers of some form or another. Fortunately, I like spicy food, so some of these things have worked out for me in the past, including a spicy Whopper that I rather enjoyed not long ago. When I noticed that Yoshinoya was running a promotion featuring not only a spicy beef bowl but also a kimchi beef bowl, I was a bit curious. Tonight, I ordered one of each just to see what they would be like.
My jaw dropped when the cashier produced the bowls in question. When they originally mentioned a "spicy beef bowl," I was thinking that maybe they elegantly worked the spices into their famous onion-based beef brew. Instead, what I got was a normal beef bowl with a huge scoop of plain dry chili pepper flakes (like the kind that one sprinkles on pizza) simply dumped on top of it. Really? That was all there was to it?? Sheesh!
Well, those dry chili pepper flakes did make it pretty darned spicy, but it was just way too crude and overpowering. I should just stick to the basic gyudon, and use the much more refined ichimi togarashi that they already provide at each table if I want a little more kick. And in case you're wondering, the kimchi version was nothing to boast of either, with supermarket-quality kimchi sitting on top. What a disappointment.
3 comments:
Thanks for the heads up on Yoshinoya!
I'm in awe on ur links to ur previous posts! Absolutely love reading more than one post in a post ^_^
You should try Yoshinoya in Beijing. It is hearty and simply awesome, well at least compared to the ones here and in SF.
The (restaurant quality)kimchi has a subtle ginger taste, kinda funky that the chinese touch can creep in like that.
I was told that the franchise is held by a HK company and yeah, don't eat it if you want to appreciate Yoshinoya here, coz you'll just miss it. Haha.
heyya i just had the matsuya gyudon today (discounted to 300 yen for one week!). i always remember sg's yoshinoya as lousy food. can you remember if tokyos yoshinoya and sgs is any different? yea, shichimi rocks! refined is such a good word to describe it. i used not to appreciate it but can now understand how nori and orange peel in it adds to a bowl of gyudon :)
k
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