THURSDAY.MAY2.2002
JAYPLAY
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN - 5B
BARBECUE
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Jade Mongolian Barbecue, 1511 W. 23rd St., serves this seafood teriyaki dish.
revolving arrangement of chefs chopping and swishing the food with metal tools. Oh, and they'd really prefer if it was "all-you-can-eat."
SARA SHEPHERD/KANSAN
This exact premise has obviously worked well with fad-crazy coastal restaurant-goers, and now Mongolian-style barbecues are slowly creeping into the Midwestern states.
College students may be familiar with the concept from successful examples in Kansas City such as BD's Mongolian Barbecue in Overland Park and Genghis Khan Mongolian Barbecue in Westport.
For those who don't know, the regular barbecue system works like this: People gather around a smorgasbord of raw ingredients, picking and choosing to their specific delight. Starting with meat, there's assorted seafood such as shrimp and scallops, beef, pork and chicken. Vegetables include staples of stir-fry, like peppers, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, celery, spinach, and more.
Then, after finishing the raw assortment with a hearty handful of noodles and topping it all with a sauce, the person takes the ingredients to a counter where chefs expertly speed-grill it in a dramatic display of chaotic cooking.
Voila, a meal. Not exactly barbecue, but sufficiently filling for the buffet-loving population.
And it's cultural, too. Mongolian barbecues stretch back into Asian history, to the time of legendary Yuan dynasty leader Genghis Khan.
Obviously, when Khan's wind-beaten soldiers met with victory, they celebrated by gorging on entire cows, sheep, camels, etc.. Since barbarians didn't think to carry cooking or eating implements on their pillaging missions, the soldiers instead placed their shields over a fire and cooked the dead animals with their own swords.
Although most present-day Mongols place their battle equipment aside at dinnertime, the legend of Khan's impromptu cooking skills — as well as his love for large portions — has lived on in slightly modified form.
Jade offers several variations on the Mongolian Barbecue template. For instance, Jade offers a selection of ready-made Chinese
dishes on the buffet. Also, customers don't pour on their own sauce. Instead, they must choose a small plastic card that lists one of the 12 sauces, after looking at an explanation of the different types. This card is then given to the chef at the grill.
This limitation took some of the fun out of the meal creation for Ron Pei, Chicago, Ill., junior, who recently at jade Mongolian Barbecue. He said that he preferred to pour on his own sauce.
Pei said that although Mongolian barbecues are just now making an appearance in smaller towns across the United States, they've been a mainstay of Chicago-area cuisine for about 10 years now.
Owner Lisa Nguyen, who also oversees Lawrence's Jade Garden, 1410 Kasold Drive, said the
sauce is handled strictly by the chefs as a precautionary measure.
"People who put in too much sauce or too little end up with bad-tasting food," Nguyn said. "The cooks here have a better knowledge of how much sauce will taste good on the other ingredients."
Nguyn is optimistic.
Whether Jade's sauces, chefs and Asian decor will bring out Lawrence's inner Mongolian, only the sands of time will tell.
"Everybody loves Mongolian barbecue," she said. And even those who don't, can "just eat Chinese."
Contact Meisner at
mmeisner@kansan.com. This story was edited by Jeremy Clarkson.
RAWK SNOB
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If beginnings can be classified as abrupt in any conceivable way, the one that kicks off "Transpositional Landscapes" fits the bill.
The song jumps to life with Jason Gibbs' looped four-note flute riff nearly drowning out backward keyboard surges and pulsing, distant-sounding drum beats. The music melts and mutates throughout the song as the flutes seem to metamorphosis into xylophone sprinklings and fleets of bassoons.
But in spite of these nuances, the music tends to blur into opaque shadows of new-age clichés such as synthesized tor-
rental human sighs. Elisa Salisin's Laurie Anderson-on-Xanex delivery of Gilbery Marhoefer's lyrics is soothing, but doesn't help keep it out of new-age territory at all. Her breathy, self-conscious delivery of lyrics describing otherworldly geographic phenomenon is too easy to tune out. The biggest disappointment; however, is the song's ending. After enduring the entire piece, the listener's reward is a hasty fade-out.
623 Vermont 749-5067
This massive one-song album consists of two discs containing two different mixes of the full version of "Transpositional Landscapes." According to the liner notes, the blue disc is
"more expansive" and the red disc is "more intimate, with the orchestral instruments in higher relief."
Yes, some parts of the red disc are louder in the mix and different stages of the song's building textures are paired with different stanzas of the poem, but listening to the two versions back-to-back doesn't yield a drastically different listening experience. The disc also features a seven-minute remix and a condensed five-minute version if you're in need of a Landscapes fix but are out of sick days at work.
While this may not be a historic album, I still must thank God for these Apes. They have gone to great lengths with Landscapes to create a meaningful musical experience that requires the listener's full attention and can be appreciated from slightly different perspectives.
Like a movie, it is meant to be appreciated in its entirety. Unlike a movie, Landscapes never reaches any kind of climax within the song, instead maintaining the same rhythm throughout with minimal alterations in tones and melodies.
They boast the best of intentions, but until The Apes of God decide upon a destination for bold musical journeys such as this, we're in for a very long, uneventful ride.
P. S. We'll miss you, Lane.
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THE LARGEST BUFFET IN TOWN
1601 W. 23RD ST., SUITE 104 (BEHIND PERKINS)
TEL: (785) 749-4888 FAX: (785) 749-1777
Mon-Thurs 11 am-10pm
Fri & Sat 11 am-10:30pm
Sunday 11 am-9:30pm
50¢ off with KUID
Lunch Buffet
$5.10
(Mon-Sat 11am-4pm)
Dinner Buffet
$6.75
(Mon-Thurs 4-9:30)
(Fri & Sat 4-10pm)
Sunday Buffet
$6.75
(11:30am-9pm)
Carry-Out Buffet
÷ At least 3 items per
take-out
÷ Lunch: $3lb
÷ Dinner: $4.25lb
Christ is Risen!
Христось Воскресе!
Хριστοσ Ανεστι!
You are invited to celebrate ORTHODOX PASCHA (Easter) with the St. Laurence Orthodox Fellowship
Beginning at 11pm, Saturday, May 4th Ecumenical Christian Ministries Building (1205 Oread) 2nd floor Chapel
A Paschal Feast will follow
Agape Vespers - 3 pm with outdoor BBQ
Call Fr. John Mack for more information at 550-3744 or email fatherjohnmack@aol.com
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