Thursday, August 26, 2010

Mongolian BBQ - Dessert Course

Mongolian barbeque restaurants are becoming more and more popular for their endless possibilities of flavor and texture profiles.

Patrons select ingredients from a raw bar and hand them to employees to stir fry on a large griddle.  Many establishments offer several meat selections usually including chicken, pork, beef, tofu, and a token seafood item.  Noodles are also popular and range from lo mein to yakisoba.  There are lots of vegetables that include go-to stir fry veggies -  bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, baby corn - but also offer some more adventurous items - bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, and cabbage.

Sauce bars are where the really creative stuff happens.   Most places recommend using 5-6 ladles of any combination of sauces for a single bowl of ingredients.  Venues have in-house versions of classic sauces - teriyaki, Thai peanut, and sweet and sour, to name a few - but also have unique offerings all their own.  Add some basic broths and oils, and you have a million different options for your sauce!  (Actually, HuHot has closer to 24 factorial, or 6.20448402 × 1023, if I remember my formulas correctly.)


The options are unlimited!  You will wish your stomach was unlimited when faced when going through the buffet!   Mongolian barbeque restaurants in the San Antonio area are limited to  HuHot and a few recent openings of Genghis Grill.  Hands down the best Mongolian barbeque place I've been to was Fire+Ice in Boston. 


With so many choices, it's easy to let your eyes get bigger than your stomach.  Most of the time you won't have room for dessert.  The offered dessert menu doesn't impress with items like an Attila the Hun themed cheesecake.  You're going to want to save room for this stir fry dessert!  It's simple, fresh, and a very light way to end a normally heavy meal. 


Grilled Pineapple and Coconut
- 1/2 cup shredded coconut  (Look for it at the toppings end of the bar!)
- 1 cup pineapple chunks 


Sauces, one ladle of each: 
- teriyaki sauce
- sweet and sour sauce
- lime juice
- sesame oil

Extra toppings
- more shredded coconut
- minced raw peanuts


Combine all ingredients and sauces in a bowl.  Let the guys grill it up for you.  Top the grilled pineapples and coconut with some peanuts for crunch and more coconut for an extra kick.  You're going to want to pass this around the table, if your dining partners have any room left!

1 comments:

Faith said...

I LOVE Coconut! Yummy (minus the peanuts!)