Mr. Duess will love this one, its all about cooking things quickly…again as a way of emphasizing the freshness and quality of the ingredient.

Um...yum.

I have been invited to cook the dinner for my brother, Chris’s, wedding. It’s a casual affair with 30 or so people attending. He requested that the meal be relaxed and easy to eat whilst milling about. I, of course, want to do something special. He is getting married to a charming Japanese woman, Hirko, and I thought that there had to be a BBQ tradition of some sort in Japan. I did some research and, low and behold, I found Yakiniku!

Yakiniku is Korean BBQ modified for Japanese tastes, it was brought to Japan by Koreans after the war. I have read that the meat is cut into smaller pieces and the marinades are a bit lighter and less sweet, or the meat is not marinated at all. Consulting with the good folks at Sanko revealed some fabulous accompaniments along with some advice for traditional Japanese wedding gifts – cash.  Yakiniku is described as being more about the softness and texture of the meat than about strong flavours. From what I’ve seen, people use a lot of apple and pear in the marinates.

Torrance Torihei's photo of Ton Toro - Yum

Mr Duess will also love this, one of the favorite dishes is Ton Toro, which is marinated grilled pork belly! I ran a little test last night with some fresh pork belly.  I have to say that the combo of soya sauce, mirin, garlic and a touch of rice vinegar with grilled bork belly is a real pleasure. It turns out that this is also Hiroko’s favorite so I know I’m on the right track here.

In any event, it is a perfect way to do something casual but a touch fancy for Chris and Hirko’s wedding. Its also very quick to prepare so I will be able to enjoy the party as well as chefing up the meal.

Its going to be an interesting adventure. As a heritage cooking technique, it really involves tracing the lineage of the techniques (I’ve certainly done my fair share of…um…inquiry into Korean BBQ) to arrive at the right set of flavours and compliments to the meal. There is also the further element of our Canadian tastes in this exercise. Yakiniku was developed to make eating the internal organs of the cow more palatable – offal prepared in such a way will still not entice the uninitiated Canadian palette so we are choosing to stick to beef rib – both rib eye and shortrib, pork belly, chicken thigh and shrimp. I certainly know that I won’t be making authentic Yakiniku but I’ll be doing my best to make a tasty and fun interpretation of it.

I will be using what is at hand at the party – a gas BBQ at Chris’s friend’s place. I think that I will supplement this with a small tray of briquettes and some kind of hardwood – alder or oak I think for some wood cooked flavour. Alternately I might build myself a little hibachi or pick up a weber smokey joe – the more I think about this the more I think it makes more sense to do this over coals. I’ve ordered my pork belly and ribs from Windsor Meats who I’ve been told is the best Butcher in Vancouver.

I will certainly be taking my camera with me to the meal and will post some updates of the prep and the meal proper.