Japan's Yakitori & Grilled Skewers

About this book

A skewer is the smallest complete dish in Japanese cooking — a cut, a threading, a charcoal fire, and a judgement made in seconds. This guide covers the whole grilled-skewer culture in 200 entries: every cut of the chicken from thigh to lantern, the pork and beef offal case, vegetables and wrapped skewers, charcoal and the grill box, the grilling towns from Muroran to Kagoshima, the brand chickens raised for the fire, the counter's rituals, and the arts of salt and tare. Every entry follows the same four fields — the cut and its home ground, the skewer and the craft, the fire and the table, and where you meet it with the one official check to make before you travel — so any two entries can be compared in seconds. No shops are ranked and no prices or hours are asserted; cuts, towns and traditions are described as locals know them. Written and produced in Japan by a Japanese author and publisher.