# Chicken and Charcoal



## Noodle Soup (Jul 12, 2018)

Anyone else reading "Chicken and Charcoal" by Matt Abergel. Right off, I wish I had known about his restaurant, Yardbird, in Hong Kong back in March when I was there. It really wasn't that far from my hotel. Seems like a funny place for a Japanese style yakitori grill but there is a lot of money in that city. My complaint so far with the book is the same one I have with most Japanese cook books, I don't have access to many of the ingredients. Yes, I have plenty of miso but not 6 different kinds, etc. I never seem to have as much problem with this on Chinese or Thai recipes.


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## Noodle Soup (Jul 13, 2018)

If anyone needs to know, my copy came from Amazon UK. New cook books are always available in the UK first it seems.


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## Gjackson98 (Jul 13, 2018)

I am not a big book person, but sounds interesting!


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## Noodle Soup (Jul 14, 2018)

Cook books are something I don't think you can have too many of.


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## Bill13 (Jul 14, 2018)

Agreed. I was impressed by the mushroom rice recipe and ordered a copy too.


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## btbyrd (Jul 17, 2018)

Been anticipating this for a while now, and didn't know it was available yet. Thanks for the UK ordering tip. I wonder -- how much of the book deals with proper yakitori butchery and skewering? I frankly don't care much about the recipes... I just want to know how to break a bird down and then portion its parts so they'll sit pretty on the skewers. I have a Japanese language book that covers a lot of it called Yakitori Technique, but there's only so much I can learn from pictures without understanding the text around them.


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## Noodle Soup (Jul 17, 2018)

btbyrd said:


> Been anticipating this for a while now, and didn't know it was available yet. Thanks for the UK ordering tip. I wonder -- how much of the book deals with proper yakitori butchery and skewering? I frankly don't care much about the recipes... I just want to know how to break a bird down and then portion its parts so they'll sit pretty on the skewers. I have a Japanese language book that covers a lot of it called Yakitori Technique, but there's only so much I can learn from pictures without understanding the text around them.



Frankly, most of the book is butchery. You should be happy with that part.


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## Noodle Soup (Jul 17, 2018)

Anyone have a favorite, reasonably priced substitute for Japanese oak charcoal? Using the real thing would add about a $100 per meal to the cost.


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## btbyrd (Jul 18, 2018)

Good news about the butchery aspect. Looking forward to seeing the book itself. Sumi or aramaru binchotan are good substitutes for white bincho, which is extremely expensive.


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## quantumcloud509 (Sep 7, 2018)

Dammit dude. It’s 10:30pm, I’m going through my 20+boxes of books in the garage trying to weed out the stuff I won’t use or care for such as old college textbooks and random dummy cook books. This concept hits close to home though, so of course I need to get this book, and what do you know: Rene Redzepe is putting a book on fermentation out, maybe a more sore subject than chicken over charcoal, well there goes another $60 to book preorders.
I got some pokpok and a lodge cast iron hibachi. Going to be sourcing free craigslist roosters this weekend.


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## btbyrd (Sep 11, 2018)

My copy arrived in late July, and it is everything I'd been looking for in a book on this subject. It is easily my favorite book on Japanese grilling, perhaps because it has a chef-driven restaurant perspective and is highly focused on technique, where other English-language mostly provide a wide range of simple recipes targeted at the home cooks. Bjerrum's "Robata: Japanese Home Grilling" is the best of this latter type of book. But Chicken and Charcoal is exactly the sort of "deep dive" into yakitori that I hoped it would be.


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## Ryndunk (Sep 11, 2018)

I just pre ordered this from amazon. They release it on my birthday, it was meant to be! I will also be ordering that Rene Redzepe fermentation book, seems like 2 must haves.


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## fuzion (Sep 12, 2018)

Looks like an interesting book. I would probably order it after it comes out, too bad US is almost 6 months behind


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## Obsidiank (Nov 2, 2018)

just got this book. Love it. Breaks the the key steps to butchering and skewering which is what I really needed.


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## boomchakabowwow (Nov 2, 2018)

I need to get this book. I think stepping up a cool meal at deer/elk camp would be excellent. 

Last time I tried to grill bits of deer liver and fell short. I need to gather around the basics first, I suppose.


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## Ryndunk (Nov 2, 2018)

Just got mine yesterday.


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## 5698k (Nov 3, 2018)

There are several online spice shops with really great selections, I’d try them for more exotic ingredients.


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## MontezumaBoy (Nov 6, 2018)

To quote btbyrd above - this book is definitely a nice addition if you are looking for a "deep dive" into yakitori/chicken and it takes one through the requisite technique without throwing a bunch of generic recipes at you. The butchering section is excellent, well photographed and reminds me a lot of 'Whole Beast Butchery' by Ryan Farr which also (IMO) does a nice job of, for lack of a better word, dissecting the butchery steps/technique for Cow, Lamb and Piggy.


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## pennman (Nov 6, 2018)

Made my own yakitori grill. Everything from Lowe’s. Maybe $10-$12 total.


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