"Authentic" Japanese Teppanyaki

 

On my last night in Okinawa, we decided to have an early anniversary celebration dinner. After walking along the main drag in Naha for quite a while, we finally chose a teppanyaki restaurant, Sam's Anchor Inn.

Having grown up with Nakato's, I thought I knew what to expect. However, it seems that teppanyaki restaurants in Japan cater more to tourists, rather than Japanese people (though we were seated next to some). Thus, the food is a fusion of both cuisines.

Instead of miso soup, we were served curry soup with croutons. The salad was also Western-style, with a hard hush puppy-esque garnish and our choice of a few different dressings. We were excited for blue cheese!

For the main event, the choice of meats to be grilled was very similar to what I'm used to. I opted for shrimp and scallops, but David got steak. The dipping sauces were sweet soy sauce, spicy soy sauce and a mixture of the two.

Our stir-fried veggies were peppers, onions, bok choi as well as fried potatoes. We could also choose either rice or bread. If I'd realized the meal wasn't really Japanese style, I probably would've gotten bread. But of course the rice was nice, as was everything else.

After we left the restaurant, I was curious to learn more about teppanyaki. Sam's has been around since the 1960s, but Wikipedia says the style of cooking was invented ~20 years earlier in Kobe. Funny how it's almost more Japanese at American restaurants.