Kushiyaki facts for kids
Ayu being grilled with salt
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| Type | Skewered meat |
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| Place of origin | Japan |
| Main ingredients | Beef, pork, seafood, and seasonal vegetables |
| Similar dishes | Sate, Shish Kebab |
Kushiyaki (串焼き) is a Japanese dish where food is put on skewers and then grilled. It's a general term that includes both chicken and other types of food. Sometimes, restaurants might call these dishes kushimono (串物) or yakimono.
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What is Kushiyaki?
Kushiyaki means "grilled skewers." Imagine your favorite foods cut into small pieces and cooked on a stick over a hot grill. That's kushiyaki! It's a very popular way to enjoy many different ingredients in Japan.
Kushiyaki vs. Yakitori: What's the Difference?
You might hear the words yakitori and kushiyaki used to mean the same thing. But there's a small difference! Yakitori specifically means grilled chicken on skewers. Kushiyaki is a broader term that includes any food grilled on skewers, not just chicken.
So, all yakitori is kushiyaki, but not all kushiyaki is yakitori. For example, in some places like Muroran, grilled pork on skewers is called "yakitori." This is because it's cooked with the same tasty sauces used for chicken yakitori. However, its proper name is yakiton (やきとん), which means skewered and grilled pork.
Some grilled dishes, like kabayaki (often eel), are cooked over charcoal but aren't usually called kushiyaki. This is because they are not served on the skewers. Also, whole fish grilled with salt, like sea bream or sweetfish (ayu), are called shioyaki ("grilled with salt"). Even if they are cooked on a skewer, they are often removed before serving in fancy restaurants. But at food stalls, you might still find ayu sold on a skewer!
Delicious Ingredients for Kushiyaki
To make sure everything cooks evenly, the ingredients for kushiyaki are cut into small, similar-sized pieces. The skewers, called kushi, are usually made from bamboo or Japanese cypress wood. They come in different shapes and lengths depending on the food. For example, flat skewers are used for minced meat.
You can find all sorts of tasty things on a kushiyaki skewer:
- Meats: Beef (gyūniku), pork (butaniku), and even cartilage (nankotsu).
- Seafood: Sweetfish (ayu), minced Atlantic horse mackerel (aji), sardines (iwashi), prawns and shrimp (ebi), Japanese scallops (hotate), and squid (ika).
- Vegetables: Onion (tamanegi), eggplant (nasu), cherry tomatoes, potatoes, pumpkin (kabocha), scallions (negi), ginkgo nuts (ginnan), green bell peppers (pīman), garlic (ninniku), and Japanese pepper (shishitō).
- Other items: Tōfu, nattō (fermented soybeans), and even steamed rice.
How Kushiyaki Gets Its Flavor
Kushiyaki usually comes with one of two main flavors: salty or salty-sweet.
- Salty: This type is simply seasoned with plain salt. It lets the natural taste of the ingredients shine through.
- Salty-sweet: This flavor uses a special sauce called tare. This sauce is made from a mix of mirin (a type of rice wine), sake (another rice wine), soy sauce, and sugar. It gives the kushiyaki a rich, savory, and slightly sweet taste.
You can also add other spices to your kushiyaki to make it even more exciting! Some common ones include powdered cayenne pepper, shichimi (a mix of seven spices), Japanese pepper, black pepper, karashi (Japanese mustard), and wasabi. You can choose what you like best!
Popular Kushiyaki Examples
Many different foods are prepared as kushiyaki. Here are some popular examples:
- pīman no nikuzume (ピーマンの肉詰め): Green bell peppers stuffed with minced pork.
- tomato no bēkon maki (トマトのベーコン巻き): Juicy cherry tomatoes wrapped in crispy bacon strips.
- fukuro (袋): A fried thin tofu pouch filled with nattō (fermented soybeans).
- gyūtan (牛タン): Thinly sliced beef tongue.
- butabara (豚ばら): Delicious pork belly.
- atsuage dōfu (厚揚げ豆腐): A thicker type of deep-fried tōfu.
- enoki maki (エノキ巻き): Enoki mushrooms wrapped in thin slices of pork.
- asuparabēkon (アスパラベーコン): Fresh asparagus spears wrapped in bacon.
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