Curious what kind of small side dishes people have had with yakitori and like a lot? I always like some sort of tsukemono (pickles) typically asazuke (quick pickles).
Something a little different from usual.
Drumette/leg & negima stacked on the Teruhime 918. The weather was cool and rainy so we decided to put on another event last night. 14 people, two chickens, four thighs, a pack of gizzards, a pack of hearts and a bunch of vegetables. Another great night.
I was using an old mini fridge for a while, but hated having to turn around and open the door and slide food pans in and out. Went a little overboard and bought a 36" wide under counter drawer fridge. It was an absolute game changer. So much easier and quicker to pull skewers for orders and to see what I was out of. I broke down 6 chickens for two nights and had plenty of room.
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I also upgraded to the Teruhime 90cm wide grill (TM-918) which fits great on top of the fridge.
I'm doing yakitori and want to get an under counter fridge with two drawers the fits food pans (gastronorms) nicely. I prep all my skewers into the polycarb food pans and would like to be able to pull open a drawer and grab the skewers I need and fire them. Also it would be nice if I could mount on casters or it's already on casters.
Right now I have the pans stacked with lids in a standard door fridge and it's a pain to constantly get them in and out.
Are there any brands/models I should look for? Or any particular words I should search to find what I'm looking for? Ideally I can find something used...
I'm sure this question is trivial, but I'm not in the industry so I'm not familiar with the terms and brands so thanks for the help.
Took a while to get around to this, but a short recap and photos from my April event.
We had 13 guests again and we made a total of 240 skewers plus one of our guest brought along around 20 skewers of kanpachi. At the end there were around 42 skewers left over. We'll probably drop the amount of thighs we do from 8 to 6 and then drop the extra protein skewer (in this case pork belly). We've been having problems with the onigiri falling apart when there is filling inside so we are probably going to drop the filled onigiri in favor of udon noodles or just onigiri with furikake. I split the tsukune into a batch with green onions (my typical mix-in) and a batch with shiso. I really enjoyed the shiso and I think others did as well so I'll probably switch to using shiso permanently. I'll also probably increase the set size from two skewers to three and maybe do a couple rounds of skewers for which I have enough for everyone before opening up for orders. It keeps the flow a little easier and also makes sure people try a good variety.
You can see the full menu here: https://yoruyaki.com/past-events/20260411/
I also updated my about page with some FAQs I get asked often:
How much time does it take you to prepare for each event?
Between the shopping, setup, food prep and cleanup it takes around 16 hours.
What grill are you using?
I purchased a Teruhime TK-618 on eBay and had it shipped here from Japan. My only complaint is that I should have opted for the larger size as it can get tight when cooking for 12 people. I'll likely upgrade to the TK-918 soon which gives another 30cm (~12 inches) of width.
What kind of chicken are you using?
Currently I source chicken from New Seasons or Fred Meyer. It can change between Mary's, Foster Farms, and other brands. Nothing fancy, I just try to purchase the freshest ones that include giblets.
What charcoal are you using?
I use ogatan compressed charcoal logs. They aren't as nice as true binchotan, but are considerably cheaper. You'll often see yakitoriya in Japan using a mix of ogatan (for the base) and binchotan (on top). I've used a few different brands which all work well:
- Thaan Thai-Style Charcoal
- Touryu Ogatan from MTC
- Korin Sumi Charcoal
I was wondering if anyone has done an ADU or new build in Portland proper and can give me a ballpark of what it cost to get a new water line along with new sewage installed. Just service to the house, no interior plumbing?
I looked over the fee schedule, but it's a bit gibberish to me as I'm not knowledgeable about it. It seems like it might be anywhere from $40k to $100k and the SDCs are the killer.
Edit: To add another layer of complexity I would likely be classified as commercial as I was thinking of doing a restaurant space + residential space in the new building. I'm pretty sure the charges would get jacked up from that alone. Still a residential cost would at least let me know what it would be lower than.