Are You Paying for the Food or for the Show?

Where I am from, we have a fairly large selection of Japanese Steakhouses and Sushi Bars. Me being with my family of six with young children, we have to go to places that will accommodate everyone.

We all find these Japanese Steak Houses to have a fair quality of food, but what I have come to find out is that you are actually paying for the personal chef that cooks the food in front of your table of 10-14 people. If you have no clue of the type of place that I am talking about, visit http://www.nakato.com/ , which is one of the chain Japanese Steakhouses in Missouri. We like the food and the show, but it is not rare for our family to pay around $100.00 for dinner. So the other night, I reviewed everything from memory that was served with the meal. Mushroom Soup, Grilled Vegetables, Grilled Noodles, Salad with a Ginger based dressing, Steak and Shrimp.

After going to these places once a month for the past many years, I began to watch and learn every little detail that goes into preparing the dishes. So I made a list, went to the store and bought EVERY little ingredient that these places used in the food. I bought everything down to the small pack of sesame seeds for the noodles. The one thing I did not prepare was the chicken broth based soup with mushrooms in it. That would have cost about four dollars more to prepare. I walked out of the store with steak, chicken, shrimp and every little ingredient (check out the ingredient list below) and prepared it just the way they did. The only thing I did not have was a griddle, which I really wished I had when it came to clean-up. Everyone ate then I asked my family to evaluate. Even my little brother and sister loved it. And I did it all for $40.00, not to mention I had a ton of leftovers. So I did the consumer test, you pay for the show, but sometimes, it is worth the $100.00 to not have to clean up the cooking mess.

Here are the ingredients I used:
o Spaghetti noodles
o Steak (1 ½ lb.)
o Chicken (2 lb.)
o Shrimp (1 ½ lb.)
o Squash (2lg.)
o Onions (2)
o Carrots (small bag unpeeled)
o Mushrooms
o Sesame seeds
o Rice
o Soy sauce
o Butter
o Olive oil
o Eggs
o Pre-made ginger based dressing
o Pre-mix salad

And that was it according to my memory. So you see, it is simple and fairly cheap items used to prepare a fun meal, and don’t forget the chopsticks.

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