Of course I was in Kansai, and I ought to write about their specialty food…food like Kushiage!
However, when my friends brought me to an izakaya, what caught my interest more was Yakitori.
There is Yakitori sold in my country (Singapore) too.
However, you would only find popular parts like chicken thighs, chicken wings, minced chicken balls, chicken karaage, chicken skin and some pork meat with fat in the yakitori stalls in Singapore.
So my idea of yakitori was Japan’s version of chicken kebabs or satays.
In my first trip to Japan some years ago, I was in the basement supermarket and there was this lovely sweet smoky aroma which led me to the Yakitori stall. I was about to buy it when I realised the range of choices was huge there!
I had no idea what they were at all, but with my limited Japanese vocabulary knowledge then, I recognised the words ‘heart’, ‘neck’, ‘gizzards’ in some of the descriptions of each stick, and I stopped, and I walked away.
Fast forward to now, I was sitting in an izakaya with my Japanese friends, and they ordered Yakitori for us!
If you’re wondering why Yakitori offers you strange chicken parts, it’s because in the past, chicken meat was very popular and expensive. So, clever business-minded stall owners decided to use the bits and pieces of chicken discarded by high-class restaurants and sell them in skewered sticks!
So, basically, you can eat Seseri (neck), Hatsu (Heart), Muneniku (Breast), Tebasaki (wing), Teiru (tail), Sunazuri (gizzards), Momo (thigh), Kawa (Skin)… There are also livers, the bottoms, soft bones, Tsukune (Chicken meatballs), and most of the times there are pork parts too.
I still do not dare to give strange chicken parts a try, but that night, my friends highly recommended trying seseri (neck) and soft bones. It was delicious. Seseri tastes just like chicken meat, except it has more muscles. You should try it! And soft bones are chewy and crunchy and goes well with beer.
Yakitori is more of a Kanto (Eastern part of Japan) food. While Yakitori was popular in Kanto, because of the abolishment of the regulation of flour in the Kansai (Western part of Japan) area in 1951, the use of flour flourished in Kansai, and popular foods like Okonomiyaki, Takoyaki, and Kushiage were born.
Kushiage was also skewered meat and vegetables on a stick, somewhat the same idea as Yakitori, but Kushiage is covered in batter, deep-fried in oil, and usually eaten with different kinds of sauces or salt.
Here is Kushiage.
It really is very popular in Kansai. You can see many Kushiage stalls and restaurants everywhere.
I prefer Yakitori to Kushiage though. I’m not a fan of deep-fried food.
How about you? Have you tried either of these skewered food before? Which do you prefer?
If you haven’t tried them before, do they appeal to you? Would you be adventurous enough to try all the strange parts that are not commonly eaten in your country? 
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Kirin’s opinion
I also had Kushikatsu or Kushiage in Osaka before, but if I compare it with Yakitori…I think I like Yakitori more. But I like Karaage (Japanese styled fried chicken) more. I didn’t know the reason why the use of flour is so popular in Kansai. Thank you for sharing the knowledge, I’m learning from you! 
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Posted by: Apple on 
Apr 20th, 2012 | 
Filed under: Japanese foods
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I guess I’ve never been away from her so long and I’m too much attached to her in everyday’s life. I’ve told her over and over again that I will come back about a month later and I am always thinking about her even if we are apart. I believe she understands that.
