Mongolian Barbecue Isn’t Mongolian
It’s also not barbecue — My bubble is burst
Stir Fresh is my happy place; it’s not my wife's favorite, so I must pull strings to have lunch here.
I love this place.
It was closed for most of Covid and hasn’t been open that long. You select your foods raw from a buffet set up, which, for the public — all buffets are COVID nightmares where I live.
But at least the foods are cooked above 165 degrees, killing anything if someone sneezes.
At least, that is what I keep telling myself.
But my visions that Mongolian Barbecue originated in Mongolia with brave warriors turning their shields upside down to become woks and turning the food with their swords — it’s all a marketing lie.
We have all been misled to believe that Mongolian barbecue is Mongolian cuisine.
It was actually invented in Taiwan in the 1970s when food from Japan, most notably teppanyaki, was popular. Link
You know what, I don’t care; I love watching my food cooked by a modern-day Mongol walking around the big grill in circles. Then he bangs the big gong when I leave a tip.
But don’t you think they should use swords instead of spatulas?
