Ebisu Tenkaichi in Shinbashi, Tokyo. Very cheap, lots of options of dishes that go greatly with beer - jumbo gyoza, horumon, chashu... and that niku tsukemen was delicious too!
We've talked a little bit about horumon once a while ago, when presenting the dish motsunabe - do you remember it? While it is definitely not an ingredient that pleases everybody, good quality fresh and well-prepared horumon is just delightful.
Horumonyaki, grilled offal, is a dish that was coined and trademark registered by chef Kitazato Shigeo, from the yoshoku restaurant Hokkyokusei「北極星」in Osaka.
Takemoto Chie is a famous Kansai girl character from the series Jarinko Chie (also known as Downtown Story in the West). She takes care of her family's horumon shop in Osaka, as you can see below. It's considered a must-see classic, check it out if you enjoy classic anime!
Several organs portions have individual names too (e.g. レバー liver ) but they are often called simply horumon ホルモン as a generic group. As usual, there are different versions regarding the origins of the dish's name. Some may claim that Horumon is a transliteration of the word "hormone", while others say that the term comes from Kansai dialect's "horu mono 放る物" - which means... "discarded things".
For this recipe, we are using large intestine parts, called シマチョウ shimachou in Japanese. Their juiciness go really well together with a generous rice bowl!
Recipe
150g of beef large intestine, cut in small pieces
2tbsp of shoyu
2tbsp of mirin
2tbsp of gochujang
1tbsp of sugar
1 clove of garlic, grated
1 thumb of ginger, grated
Chili pepper (optional)
Steps
Boil the offal in boiling water for 30 seconds. This kills any remaining bacteria from it. Rinse in cold water and drain.
Mix all the remaining components for the sauce.
Add the sauce to meat, mix and leave to marinate for 10 minutes.
Drain the meat from the sauce.
Stir fry the offal on medium heat with some cooking oil.
Serve the dish over rice with some sprinkled sesame seeds.
Tips
Do not forget to parboil the offal before cooking to avoid any health risks.
Buy the ingredients at a trustworthy place, which knows how to clean and handle it properly.
The quintessential ingredient for the sauce is gochujang, which can be found at markets that sells Korean food and condiments.
