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WHAT WE USE AT HOME
The yakitori gear, Japanese pantry staples and kitchen things we buy for ourselves, and why we like them.
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Yakitori at home
What you need to grill yakitori over charcoal in your own backyard.
The long, narrow charcoal grill yakitori is cooked on. The clay walls hold heat, so a small load of charcoal goes a long way.
Hard white oak charcoal from Wakayama, and what we grill over at every market. It burns hot and steady for hours with almost no smoke.
Pressed charcoal that burns almost as hot and long as binchotan for much less money. A good way to learn the grill before buying the good stuff.
Binchotan is slow to catch. A chimney gets it lit without lighter fluid, which you'd taste on the food.
The flat end stops the skewer from spinning when you turn it, so every side gets the same time over the coals.
Fanning is how you turn up the heat on a konro: more air, hotter coals. It also moves the smoke away from you.
Binchotan can be relit, and it isn't cheap. Drop the hot coals in, lock the lid, and they're ready for next time.
Japanese pantry
Staples for tare, dashi and rice, plus the seasonings you'll find on our skewers.
Brewed twice and aged four years in cedar barrels on Shodoshima. Rich and a little sweet, so save it for dipping and finishing.
Aged a year in cedar barrels on Shodoshima, with no preservatives. Good enough for dipping and easy enough on the wallet to cook with, so it's the one for tare.
Yuzu peel, green chili and salt, ground into a paste. A dab brightens grilled chicken, fish, steak or a bowl of noodles.
From a Nagano spice shop that has been blending it since 1736. More fragrant than the supermarket kind, with ginger, sesame and citrus peel.
Made with egg yolks only, so it's richer and more savory than American mayo. The Japan-made bottle is the original recipe.
Ground seed pods of the Japanese prickly ash: lemony and a little numbing. The classic finish for eel, chicken skin and liver.
Fresh yuzu is hard to find here, so pure bottled juice is the next best thing. Use it in ponzu, dressings and cocktails.
Shelf-stable blocks of pounded rice. Kiri mochi is what's inside our bacon-wrapped mochi. At home, toast it until it puffs.
Traditionally brewed from rice, with no added sugar. Tare starts with soy sauce and mirin, so this is where good tare begins.
Sake made for cooking, with a little salt added. It rounds out tare, marinades and simmered dishes.
Sea salt from the Seto Inland Sea, made with seaweed. Softer and more savory than plain salt, which you notice on a salt-only skewer.
Koshihikari, Japan's favorite rice, grown in California. Glossy, a little sweet, and sticky enough for onigiri.
Dried kelp from Hokkaido, half of the broth behind miso soup and noodle soups. Rishiri kombu makes a clear, clean-tasting stock.
Shaved smoked and dried bonito, the other half of dashi. Also good straight on cold tofu, rice or okonomiyaki.
Soy sauce brightened with yuzu. Our salmon tataki gets ponzu, and it's just as good on dumplings, grilled fish and salads.
More crunchy fried garlic than oil, and mild enough to eat by the spoonful. Great on rice, eggs and noodles.
Toasted sesame and seaweed to shake over rice. The quickest way to make a plain bowl of rice taste finished.
Kitchen tools
The tools that do the most work in our kitchen.
Zojirushi's top pressure induction model, made in Japan. Every grain comes out evenly cooked, and it keeps rice warm for hours without drying it out.
A splash of water turns to steam, so toast comes out crisp outside and soft inside. It also brings day-old pastries and pizza back to life.
A Japanese chef's knife with a hard steel core that stays sharp, at a fair price. Thin and light enough for fine work.
The Japanese mandoline you'll find in a lot of restaurant kitchens. Paper-thin cucumber, cabbage and onion in seconds. Use the guard.
Handmade from copper in Sakai. The fine side turns ginger and wasabi into paste, and the coarse side is for daikon.
The rectangular pan for tamagoyaki, the rolled, layered omelet. Made of iron in Tsubame, it gets more nonstick the more you use it.
An Iga clay pot with a double lid for cooking rice on the stove. About 30 minutes start to finish, with a crisp layer at the bottom if you want one.
Long bamboo chopsticks made in Fukui, for frying, flipping and plating. They keep your fingers away from hot oil.
Hinoki is soft enough to be gentle on Japanese knives and smells faintly of cypress. Wet it before you cut so it doesn't soak up smells.
A small gooseneck kettle for pour-over coffee and tea. Quick to boil, easy to pour slowly, and nice enough to leave out.
Table and home
For setting the table, and a few things we use every day.
A flask and four cups from Gifu. For warm sake, stand the filled flask in a pot of hot water.
Small porcelain rests that keep chopstick tips off the table. A little thing that makes dinner at home feel special.
Five rice bowls in different patterns, each sized for one serving. Mismatched on purpose.
Thin Japanese cotton cloths that dry fast and get softer with every wash. Use them as dish towels, napkins or gift wrap.