We are all makers
One of the most memorable and delicious aspects of travel is sampling the local foods. A trip to Japan gave me a chance to enjoy favorites like takoyaki (octopus fritters), okonomiyaki (cabbage frittatas), and other Asian eats in their native setting. A new (to me) treat was yakitori, a simple bar food snack of grilled chicken.
In the Tokyo neighborhood of Shinjuku, I saw (and smelled) enticing restaurants featuring sizzling street-side grills. Unlike big American grills that cook anything from burgers to ribs to steaks, these specially sized grills were designed to do one thing and one thing only: skewers. Short skewers loaded with chicken, asparagus, meatballs, and other simple ingredients spanned the narrow troughs of red-hot coals. The suspended foods cooked quickly and without burning or sticking to a grate or grill surface. And the offerings included nearly all the parts of the chicken, from succulent breast (torinku) to crunchy cartilage (nankotsu) and delicate, crispy chicken skin (torikawa). Yum!
Back home, I wanted a way to cook yakitori myself, so I came up with this easy-to-make grill design and some specially designed roll-proof, double-crook skewers. Use them to try delicious yakitori recipes.
Good question, Kitt.
My first prototypes used very thin aluminum (repurposed clothes dryer vent) and that did not hold up. I revised to use heavier material that could still be rolled into shape by hand. I haven’t had a melt thru …yet. YMMV.
Bob K
tvswitcher, please be VERY careful! I had the same idea when I first started this project, but there is a serious and potentially dangerous situation. As noted in the article DO NOT USE GALVANIZED steel. The zinc coating, if heated too much, will create zinc oxide fumes . If you inhale it you can become very sick. It has been fatal as well. Google “Zinc oxide poisoning welding” –this can happen when welding galvanized material and using galvanized containers for cookers or bbq’s. Galvanized containers are not safe for food or cooking. Don’t do it.
Wouldn’t it be easier to make this out of pipe? Seems you could find some aluminum or even steel pipe and cut out the opening, then drill the holes. If you took a steel pipe to a muffler shop they should be able to cut the opening for you.
For the L-Straps, would galvanized steel work or is that too close to the food to be safe? If galvanized steel doesn’t work, where can I get a different steel?