Food & Drink · 2

What is the name of the Japanese technique of grilling skewered chicken over charcoal, typically served in small portions at izakayas?

Answer

Yakitori

Yakitori refers specifically to bite-sized pieces of chicken threaded onto bamboo skewers and grilled over binchōtan charcoal. The word literally means 'grilled bird' in Japanese, and different cuts — including liver, skin, and cartilage — are served as distinct skewer types.

💡 Did you know?

Tokyo's Yurakucho district has a famous cluster of yakitori stalls that have operated under elevated train tracks since the 1950s, filling the air with charcoal smoke as trains rumble overhead.

Other options people guess

  • Teriyaki
  • Tonkatsu
  • Karaage

Topics

  • japanese-cuisine
  • grilling
  • izakaya
  • chicken
  • street-food

Know your food & drink trivia?

Play a free Food & Drink quiz and see how many you get right — no signup needed to start.

More Food & Drink facts

Food & Drink

According to traditional Japanese miso-making, what happens to the paste's color and flavor as fermentation is extended toward the three-year mark?

Miso paste fermentation can take up to three years, and the longer it ages, the darker and more umami-rich it becomes.

Food & Drink

What is the traditional Japanese technique of preparing puffer fish, requiring a licensed chef due to the fish's potentially lethal toxin?

Fugu chefs in Japan train for up to three years before taking a rigorous exam with a pass rate under 35%, and even then must eat their own preparation to prove its safety.

Food & Drink

Traditional miso paste can undergo a fermentation process lasting up to how long to reach its darkest, most umami-rich state?

Miso paste fermentation can take up to three years, and the longer it ages, the darker and more umami-rich it becomes.

Food & Drink

The original place name behind 'jalapeño,' before Spanish colonizers altered its spelling, came from which indigenous language?

Jalapeño peppers get their name from Xalapa, Mexico, yet they were renamed by Spanish colonizers who altered the Nahuatl original.

Food & Drink

Banana and curry sauce became a standard pizza topping combination in the pizzerias of which European country?

Swedish pizza often features banana and curry sauce as standard toppings, a combination born from 1970s fusion experiments in Stockholm pizzerias.

Food & Drink

Which spice, derived from the seed of Myristica fragrans, was used as medicine by medieval physicians despite its known psychoactive and toxic properties in large doses?

Nutmeg can cause hallucinations and serious toxicity in large doses. Medieval physicians prescribed it as a medicine despite its psychoactive dangers.