I’M TURNING 12 and I’m out for
my birthday dinner. Across the counter
from me is a wisecracking daredevil
with a hip holster full of knives. He’s
juggling squeeze bottles and conjur-
ing fireballs on a ripping-hot flat-top
grill—and then he makes a flaming
volcano out of a sliced onion. At some
point, he hits my mom in the arm
with a shrimp. I laugh until I cry, and
then he serves me a plate of savory,
buttery steak; caramelized stir-fried
vegetables; zippy white sauce; and
fried rice. Decades later, the taste of a
“hibachi” dinner (“teppanyaki” would
be a more accurate term) can still
return me to that revelatory moment
from my childhood.Could I re-create the components
of this dazzling meal at home? I made
and tasted all the copycat recipes I could
find, without much satisfaction. Un-
daunted, I talked my editor into joining
me for lunch at the local Japanese steak-
house, where we tried to sleuth out just
how the experts did it. The chef used a
squeeze bottle filled with sake to con-
jure the famous fireballs, and then he
picked up a bottle of seasoned soy sauce
to squirt on pretty much everything.
A mound of garlic butter also made its
way into most dishes on the flattop. The
flavors of garlic, soy sauce, butter, and
sake permeated the meal.
With their knives and spatulas whirl-
ing, the pros use the broad cooking
surface of the flattop to cook every-
thing at once—steak, vegetables, and
fried rice. But I knew I’d need to make
some adjustments for my homemade
version. To mimic the powerful heat of
the flattop, I’d cook in a large cast-iron
skillet. I’d also need to split the cook-
ing into stages: steaks first and then
the vegetables. As a bonus, this plan
would allow the meat to rest while the
vegetables cooked. At the restaurant we
visited, they chop the steak right on theJapanese
Steakhouse
Dinner
JAPANESE STEAKHOUSE STEAK
AND VEGETABLES Serves 4
Strip steaks can be substituted for
the rib eyes, if desired. Mirin can be
found in your supermarket’s Asian
foods section. We like to serve the
steak and vegetables with Simple
Hibachi-Style Fried Rice, Spicy
Mayonnaise (Yum-Yum Sauce), White
Mustard Sauce, and Sweet Ginger
Sauce (recipes follow). If using a non-
stick skillet, heat the oil in the skillet
over medium-high heat until just smok-
ing before adding the steaks in step 2.3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 (1-pound) boneless rib-eye steaks,
1½ to 1¾ inches thick, trimmed
1¼ teaspoons white pepper, divided
1 teaspoon table salt, divided
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 zucchini (8 ounces each), halved
lengthwise and sliced ¾ inch thick
2 onions, cut into ¾-inch pieces
6 ounces shiitake mushrooms,
stemmed and halved if small
or quartered if large
2 tablespoons mirinOur recipe delivers all
the savory-sweet appeal
of this restaurant favorite—
no knife juggling or flaming
onion volcano required.
by Matthew Fairman
flattop and then add a good squirt of
seasoned soy sauce and a knob of garlic
butter on top, but I decided to make an
all-in-one condiment by mixing togeth-
er soy sauce, garlic, and melted butter.
I cooked my steaks whole (tasters pre-
ferred rich, beefy rib eye to sirloin and
filet), sliced them, and then drizzled on
this magic condiment. Delicious.
For the vegetables, I chose the usual
suspects: shiitake caps, onions, and
zucchini, cut so that they would all be
cooked through at the same time. For
a superflavorful start, I added them to
the drippings my rib eyes had left in the
still-hot cast-iron skillet, and to ensure
nice browning, I patted them into a
single layer and resisted the urge to stir
for a few minutes. After a stir and an-
other pause for more browning, I added
more soy-garlic butter and a splash of
mirin—a sweetened rice wine —for the
familiar finishing touch.
The results? Juicy slices of perfectly
seared rib eye and beautifully browned
and glazed veggies that were just as
good as those I’d had so many years
ago. When served with the accompa-
nying sauces and my recipe for simple
fried rice, the meal was spot-on!