Street Food in Japan

 

Fish (Cod) on the grill

    In class we grilled many proteins in different ways. We had a selection of two seafoods, miso marinated cod and Spanish mackerel and for meats we had chicken and pork. On the side we also had chicken but pan cooked instead of grilled, which was called Yakitori. Yakitori chicken has always been one of my favorite items to eat at a Japanese restaurant. On this day we learned how to prepare and grill different items and with this we can get the gain knowledge on how things are grilled in Japan.  In Japan grilled items are a specialty as a street food and it is small, but flavorful, as well as easy to eat. With this grill, I had to learn how to control the heat by closing the vents of the grill and using a fan to distribute the heat. It was hard at first to understand how to evenly distribute the heat, but just like a stovetop grill, there are different temperatures for each section of the grill. For something that takes more time to cook, like chicken its best to keep it in the medium range and for something like fish its best to keep it in the higher range. The action of turning the skewers was really fun and it felt like I opened up my own stand. The food overall had a good smoky/charcoal flavor, but still juicy. 

    Street food is very common in Japan, with stalls and markets selling these specialty grilled foods. They arrived during the Edo Period and are located in most places, often outside of shrines. This was Japans version of fast food and some popular items are grilled eel, yakitori, squid, and more. These stalls are called Yatai and can be seen all over Japan. In Japan everyone is busy and working, so something like a to-go / easy to eat food like street food is very popular. These stalls have other items besides grilled foods, they also provide Takoyaki( batter balls with octopus and vegetables) , choco banana, yaki imo( wood fire cooked sweet potatoes) , yakisoba( noodles with vegetables and sweet/savory sauce), imagawayaki (spongy batter filled with red bean or custard) , ikayaki( grilled whole squid), yaki tomorokoshi( grilled corn with soy sauce marinade), crepes, wataame ( cotton candy), and many more. The most popular area in Japan for street food is Fukuoka city. With over 150 street stalls all over Japan, street foods has made a rise in the community. Overtime this style of serving food has declined, but recently started making a comeback. 

    Globally, street foods have been prominent especially in surrounding asian countries. Urban popularization has contributed to the growth in street stalls. Street foods help economically, and created jobs for people and woman have been largely involved in the running of these famous street stalls. Surveys have found women to be involved in 90 percent of enterprises in the Philippines, 53 in Sengal and 40 percent in Indonesia.   

    Japan has a deep history with charcoal grilling and they have many other ways of grilling. They have hibachi with is a small charcoal grill that is in porcelain and though it was often used just for heating room purposes it was adapted overseas to barbecue grills. Shichirin is another charcoal grill, in this case it is portable and this product is small and has a use life, lasting only a few hours at a time. Konro is what we know as Propane grills her but in Japan they have these that can use charcoal as fuel. Irori is a cooking surface that is dugged into households and has a kettle attached to the ceiling,  over a sandpit set up. Teppan, is what we know as a flattop, this grill is used to cook many of the traditional street foods. As we can see Japan has many ways of grilling foods, and they have deeply involved this within their culture. 

Variety of Grilled foods

 

Work cited 

“12 Japanese Street Foods You Need to Try.” Let's Experience Japan, https://gurunavi.com/en/japanfoodie/2016/07/yatai.html.

“The Essential Guide to Japanese Grills & Grilled Food.” Let's Experience Japan, https://gurunavi.com/en/japanfoodie/2017/03/japanese-grills-and-grilled-food.html.