If you are reading this blog, you probably already have an idea of what yakitori is. If not, the title gives you a brief explanation.
Chicken on a stick. One of the oldest ways of cooking meat known to man. Most cultures have their own variation of this- satay, souvlaki, kebab, churrasco- and Japan is no exception.
One of the things which sets Japanese yakitori apart from the others, is the sheer variety of things on the menu and the parts of chicken used. From shiitake mushrooms, bacon wrapped asparagus, quail eggs and ginko nuts to skewers with grilled chicken skin, gizzard, heart, liver or cartilage .. the list goes on. The good places grill it front of you and it arrives hot on your plate. Also available are a selection of non-grilled dishes, including appetizers, salads, soups and rice dishes.
Recently, a friend of mine visited me in Tokyo and asked me to take her and her family for some yakitori. Of course, I was happy to do so, and searching on the internet for something near their hotel yielded this restaurant.
Bon-chan
http://bonchan.jp/
Reviews on the net seemed pretty positive and it looked like a nice, small comfortable restaurant. Upon arrival, it was exactly as expected. A very short walk from Jinbocho station, the restaurant is also situated quite conveniently, especially for people working in or visiting the city center.
My friend left the ordering to me and I willingly obliged. Grilled menu items generally started about 200 yen per stick, while salads and other a la carte items ranged from 400 yen to 800 yen.
We started off with 自家製鶏皮のポン酢和え、which can be translated as (original chicken skin in ponzu) , ぼんちゃんサラダ （Bon-chan salad), and 地鶏もも肉のたたき （tataki of free-range, locally bred chicken thigh).
The chicken skin ponzu appetizer was very interesting. The skin had been cooked (perhaps boiled while being stretched out) and then sliced in to thin, noodle like strips, resulting in a texture much like that of chewy noodles. It had none of the gelatinous elasticity I normally associate with steamed or boiled chicken skin, nor any of the gamey(?) animal taste I sometimes associate with those cooking methods. I believe this was in part thanks to the citrus ponzu sauce.
The Bon-chan salad was good, but not outstanding, the kind available at any decent izakaya. It was a fresh green salad with a light dressing, with strips of tender chicken breast and what I will call 'seaweed noodles'. It was more to have some greens to set off the meat that we were going to partake of.
The 'chicken tataki' was one of my favorite dishes of the night. For those who don't know, tataki generally refers to grilling or cooking just the outside of a piece of meat, leaving the insides raw. Wait, did he just say 'raw chicken'? Yes, he did. This was not my first time having chicken prepared this way, but nevertheless but I did have a half-second of long-ingrained-hesitation against eating raw chicken. Soon, however, that moment passed and I dug in with glee. The dish was served chilled and was consisted of thin slices of chicken thigh meat topped with thinly sliced onions and a kind of mustard green (水菜、mizuna). Put in the corner of the dish, was a small mound of thinly sliced raw garlic. After applying some garlic and wrapping the veg in the thin slices of meat, you dip the meat in a sauce (in this case some mixture of soy sauce and vinegar I believe), just as if you were eating sashimi.
As my friend's father said, "If you hadn't told me it was chicken, I wouldn't have thought it was." The meat itself had a firm texture and its color was quite dark, almost like that of red meat. The taste was meaty (umami?) and almost a little bit sweet. There was no strong chicken flavour, however. I might liken the texture to that of very fresh raw 鯛, or sea bass, and its firmness (歯ごたえ、the feeling you get when you bite it) resulted in a quite pleasant chew.
Unfortunately I don't have a picture of this at the moment (I'll try to get some from my friend's camera), but you can see it on the Bon-chan website. (UPDATE: Got some of my friend's pictures!!)
Well, I'm gonna stop here and save the rest of the meal for another post because this is getting too long. I'll talk about the actual yakitori! Stay tuned!
Chicken on a stick. One of the oldest ways of cooking meat known to man. Most cultures have their own variation of this- satay, souvlaki, kebab, churrasco- and Japan is no exception.
One of the things which sets Japanese yakitori apart from the others, is the sheer variety of things on the menu and the parts of chicken used. From shiitake mushrooms, bacon wrapped asparagus, quail eggs and ginko nuts to skewers with grilled chicken skin, gizzard, heart, liver or cartilage .. the list goes on. The good places grill it front of you and it arrives hot on your plate. Also available are a selection of non-grilled dishes, including appetizers, salads, soups and rice dishes.
Recently, a friend of mine visited me in Tokyo and asked me to take her and her family for some yakitori. Of course, I was happy to do so, and searching on the internet for something near their hotel yielded this restaurant.
Bon-chan
http://bonchan.jp/
Reviews on the net seemed pretty positive and it looked like a nice, small comfortable restaurant. Upon arrival, it was exactly as expected. A very short walk from Jinbocho station, the restaurant is also situated quite conveniently, especially for people working in or visiting the city center.
My friend left the ordering to me and I willingly obliged. Grilled menu items generally started about 200 yen per stick, while salads and other a la carte items ranged from 400 yen to 800 yen.
We started off with 自家製鶏皮のポン酢和え、which can be translated as (original chicken skin in ponzu) , ぼんちゃんサラダ （Bon-chan salad), and 地鶏もも肉のたたき （tataki of free-range, locally bred chicken thigh).
The chicken skin ponzu appetizer was very interesting. The skin had been cooked (perhaps boiled while being stretched out) and then sliced in to thin, noodle like strips, resulting in a texture much like that of chewy noodles. It had none of the gelatinous elasticity I normally associate with steamed or boiled chicken skin, nor any of the gamey(?) animal taste I sometimes associate with those cooking methods. I believe this was in part thanks to the citrus ponzu sauce.
The Bon-chan salad was good, but not outstanding, the kind available at any decent izakaya. It was a fresh green salad with a light dressing, with strips of tender chicken breast and what I will call 'seaweed noodles'. It was more to have some greens to set off the meat that we were going to partake of.
The 'chicken tataki' was one of my favorite dishes of the night. For those who don't know, tataki generally refers to grilling or cooking just the outside of a piece of meat, leaving the insides raw. Wait, did he just say 'raw chicken'? Yes, he did. This was not my first time having chicken prepared this way, but nevertheless but I did have a half-second of long-ingrained-hesitation against eating raw chicken. Soon, however, that moment passed and I dug in with glee. The dish was served chilled and was consisted of thin slices of chicken thigh meat topped with thinly sliced onions and a kind of mustard green (水菜、mizuna). Put in the corner of the dish, was a small mound of thinly sliced raw garlic. After applying some garlic and wrapping the veg in the thin slices of meat, you dip the meat in a sauce (in this case some mixture of soy sauce and vinegar I believe), just as if you were eating sashimi.
As my friend's father said, "If you hadn't told me it was chicken, I wouldn't have thought it was." The meat itself had a firm texture and its color was quite dark, almost like that of red meat. The taste was meaty (umami?) and almost a little bit sweet. There was no strong chicken flavour, however. I might liken the texture to that of very fresh raw 鯛, or sea bass, and its firmness (歯ごたえ、the feeling you get when you bite it) resulted in a quite pleasant chew.
Unfortunately I don't have a picture of this at the moment (I'll try to get some from my friend's camera), but you can see it on the Bon-chan website. (UPDATE: Got some of my friend's pictures!!)
Well, I'm gonna stop here and save the rest of the meal for another post because this is getting too long. I'll talk about the actual yakitori! Stay tuned!
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