There is always something fun happening on holidays in NYC. For Memorial Day, it is easy for find some kind of BBQ event somewhere. I have been to a few BBQ events in the past, but this year, I was lucky enough to join an awesome BBQ party at Bohemian. This restaurant is one of my favorite Japanese restaurants in the city, their food and drinks are just amazing. (you can read my review of Bohemian here: http://www.foodlovergirl.com/bohemian/)

 

They decided to have an event in collaboration with Japan Premium Beef, Inc., who sells extremely high end beef. The price is high to match the super high quality, therefore I have never actually bought any meat from them, but I hear they are worth every penny. I was really excited for this BBQ event, because I will get to taste ribs and brisket from the Japan Premium Beef. Bohemian does nothing but high quality in everything they do, so I had no doubt this will be a great event! Once we got there, we could see they had removed almost all the furniture to allow people to move around and mingle, except for 2 sofas by the wall. They had the big black cow from Japan Premium Beef as well, with American Flags on its horns.

 

First thing they put out were some chips and guacamole, and for someone who is not a big fan of guacamole, it was pretty good!  Still, my favorite guacamole so far is the one I found at The Black Ant, but Bohemian seems like they have also mastered the skills of creating delicious guacamole as well.

And the cow did a good job guarding the chips and guacamole.

 

They had special drinks for the day, Sangria, Orion Beer from Japan, and The Original ESB from Rockaway. They were all so good. Their homemade Sangria had great wine flavor with nice fresh fruits, strong and high quality. The orange slices were super tasty after it had soaked up all the wine goodness.

The Orion Beer is from Okinawa, Japan, and had nice, mild flavor that was light and refreshing. They use the hops from Germany, and malts from Europe, so it is a quite international beer. The Original ESB from Rockaway, NY is an English-style ale with American twist, and was smooth, light, and had a little sweetness to it. Both beers were very easy on the tongue, smooth, and had nice aroma.

 

The first food item they brought out was beautiful sashimi on a block of ice. They were soooo fresh, plump, and delicious. They had Amberjack, Red Snapper, and few other kinds of sashimi. From the presentation to the quality, cut, and taste were all excellent.

Then, they brought out some Mac & Cheese. I had their Mac & Cheese before, and was amazed at their quality. The same quality was present on this day. It was soooo cheesy and creamy, and the macaroni was cooked perfectly. I enjoyed the little burned cheese on the top, where I think has more deep flavor. It was a great little side dish.

And they didn’t stop there. They brought out Japanese-style fried chicken, or Karaage, and it was so juicy, flavorful, tender and delicious. I could’ve had dozen of these… It was certainly one of the best karaage I’ve had, and the size of each chicken was rather large, generous size.

They also had sausages which were so plump and juicy. They are made with Wagyu beef, and you can really taste the quality. The outside skin was very crispy so that they pop when you bite into them. The inside was very juicy and packed with flavor. Just add their awesome mustard and it takes the sausage to the next level.

They had some yellow rice and beans as well. The rice was ok, I liked it with their gravy on it, as their gravy was really flavorful. The beans were really good, I assume they were slow cooked to have such depth in flavor.

If you are wondering “where is the veggie?” they had coleslaw. I am not a fan of coleslaw, but their coleslaw was pretty good. It was not heavy or oily, but rather light and refreshing. As I mentioned, everything they do here at Bohemian is all high quality, best of the best. So I should not be surprised that they make coleslaw with such care and love.

Finally, it was time for some real meat. They brought out lots of ribs! They were Mugi fuji Double Smoke Burbon Sauce BBQ Spare Ribs. They looked like an iron skillet full of gold (beautifully plated gold, that is). And my goodness they were tender and juicy! They fell off the bones easily, and just melt in my mouth good. The tangy sauce had great zest of flavor and aroma, and the meat had its own tasty flavor.

 

And Ms. Sake USA (who is a sake sommelier) was there to help out with the event, she is not only sweet and loving, but a super hard-worker as well!

 

The last item was brisket. They were Washu Beef Cherry Wood Smoked Brisket. And they were this huge blocks of brisket, golden and glistening, calling everyone’s taste buds.

When they started to slice them, we were all in awe; we could not wait to taste them. And yes, they tasted fantastic. Tender and sensational, packed with flavor.  Now I see the reason why Japan Premium Beef costs so much. With this high quality ribs and brisket, I can see people say it is totally worth it.

All they added after they were all sliced up and cut up, were simple salt and pepper. When the meat itself is this good, you don’t need anything else. Just let the true flavor of its ingredient shine!

And when I thought it was all over, they brought out small desserts. It was S’More style dessert with pieces of graham cracker or wafer on the bottom, chocolate ice cream, roasted marshmallow, and piece of thin chocolate. It was tasty, the marshmallow was the best part. It was large, perfectly toasted that they melt in your mouth, high quality too.

As for entertaining, they had a musician with African-style drums and some percussion items. It was really cool, he was playing along the background music most of the time, which had nice, relaxing Jamaican-feel, laid back music. At one point, the background music was turned off, and he went all out with his music skill, it was really something to see and hear. The music had great energy.

Needless to say, we had an amazing time. High quality drinks and food as expected, or more than expected. We had high expectation to begin with, so surpassing our expectation was not easy. But, they managed to do so with great poise. We ate until we were completely stuffed, and we still wanted more, since they all tasted so amazingly delicious… The service was excellent as well, all the staffs there were super friendly, helpful and fun. What a great way to spend the Memorial Day (or any day) at Bohemian! Thank you everyone at Bohemian and Japan Premium Beef for working hard to make this an incredible event!