Just a quick post for Sunday here. We had to make a trip to Marukai in Gardena yesterday to restock on a few things, and ended up spending more time in the area than anticipated. After restocking on Binchotan and other stuff.
If you've never used Binchotan, which is a very hot burning, long lasting, "white" charcoal, it's pretty amazing stuff:
Binchotan has some pretty unique characteristics, first off, when tapped it makes almost a chime like ringing sound, it is also quite hard, and doesn't break up like regular black lump charcoal, though you can break it by tapping it against the ground. There much more information on Binchotan on Wikipedia. There's one more thing about Binchotan, at over $5/lb, it may cost more than the food being grilled. That said, for us at least a little Binchotan goes a long way, since we only us it on our little Hida Konro(small clay grill). Because it is really hard to "start", we'll break a stick into several pieces and place directly on the flame of our gas stove until "white", than place in the Hida Konro.
It's amazing how something so simple as Chicken Wings flavored with salt(and some Togarashi), aka Tebashio will taste so very good.
Because only a few wings can fit on the grill at any one time, it's really not "fast" food, but a nice and slow process…that goes great with a few beers.
Don't forget the Yaki Onigiri!
One Other Item:
We were a bit delayed on our return from Marukai. While waiting at the traffic light to exit Marukai, the Missus, turned to me and said, "oh my God, look". There was a dog weaving in and out of traffic along Artesia Boulevard, and finally into the parking lot of Gardena Plaza. Seeing this poor little Dog just wandering along a busy street and parking lot we knew we had to do something. Unfortunately, the poor Dog was very skittish and pretty much terrified, and I wasn't able to approach Her with any success. So while I kept tabs on Her, the Missus ran into the Burger King in the mall and bought a Whopper Jr. She figured that the poor animal must be pretty hungry. We were finally able to get within a few yards of the Dog in the parking lot of Albertson's, and I started breaking the burger into pieces and slowly getting closer and closer to Her. I could tell by Her demeanor that the chance She would bite was pretty low. After what seems like forever, I got ahold of Her, and managed to get the dog on it's back and calm Her. I then carried Her to the car while the Missus ran into the Mailbox/Postal store to find the number of the nearest animal shelter.
As you can see, She was in pretty good shape, but no collar, no tags:
She was in good shape, in spite of being covered with loose hairs and dust, Her nails were trimmed and Her ears had been plucked recently. And even though She was quite hungry and thirsty, She was well fed.
The Gentleman in the Mailbox/Postal Shop was very helpful in pointing out the nearest animal shelter. We hoped that Her Owners were searching for Her, or at least maybe She was "micro chipped". After standing in line forever, we managed to speak to the desk officer and had Her checked out….unfortunately, she was not "chipped"…..
So we reluctantly left, hoping Her Owners were out searching for Her and She would be found. We did leave instructions that we should be called if the owners could not be found, and no one was willing to adopt Her. If that is the case, Sammy and Frankie will have a sister. She is so mellow and sweet that I have no doubt that we can either keep her, or find her a nice family ourselves. So in case you're looking forward to a sweet Corgi-Shepard(?) mix, and live in the LA area……She can be found at:
Carson/Gardena Animal Shelter
216 W. Victoria Street
Gardena, CA 90248
(310) 523-9566
Her ID is – A3620754.
Even though it may seem a bit far-fetched, we thought that maybe someone might recognize her and help find her owners….or maybe someone does want a new family member.
Thanks for reading, I'll be back with another restaurant tomorrow!