Epicure, the gourmet club I’m part of, put together a big spring meetup. As always, it was a gathering of top-notch barbecue ingredients and wonderful fellow food lovers. The spring and autumn barbecues, the summer croaker meetup and the winter cod meetup are all huge, and they give you a dining experience you could never have on your own or with just a few people. There’s no way I could miss it.
Ingredients for som tam
Homemade som tam is on its way.
Beautifully marbled pork jowl
Only the best meat was brought in.
Scallops
We start with seafood, of course.
Myeongju clams (surf clams) go on the grill too.
The juice that comes out of these clams is rich and deep. I heard you normally have to go to the east coast to eat them, but someone happened to find them and brought some along.
The lamb chops are being prepped as well.
The great thing about the Epicure barbecue is that there are loads of people who can cook, when most gatherings have only one or two. Thanks for all the hard work.
Skewers
I’ve had these skewers before. They take a lot of work, but they’re killer with drinks.
The asparagus goes on too, and now the eating and grilling begins in earnest.
Look closely and there’s yam too; the table is packed with food. But the meat hasn’t even come out yet, so I can’t burn out here..
Homemade som tam
This som tam was made by our Thailand correspondent herself. Apparently it’s no different from the real thing in Thailand, but I’ve never been to Thailand, so I can’t really say.
First, prepping the pork..
Grilling away.
Looking great ^_^
Finally, the main event: the beef.
The beef is the Australian wagyu I’ve introduced in an earlier post. For the price it’s unbeatable. It may not be true Japanese wagyu, but you need to try at least this much to get a sense of what wagyu is all about.
Sausages on the grill too.
We were full, and yet they all disappeared ^_^
Thai fermented sausage
It’s a sausage that’s fermented like kimchi, and the aroma is intense. A little sour, but tasty.
Sweet potatoes to finish
Even after eating all that, nobody passed up the last treat. When it comes to eating, I think this crowd is about the best in the country. The next big meetup is the croaker one, but I had something on and couldn’t make it. I’ll just have to look forward to the one after that.