One of the side benefits about doing this blog for so long is that I get to document things, how our eating has changed over time, ditto with my cooking, our travels, and so forth. One of the really fun and interesting items I've been to post about over the years are the Missus's food feet-ishes umm, obsessions, some of which are narrowly focus on a single item, sometimes from a single place, or perhaps a dish with a common "mechanical" function, many of have been documented here in detail.
And just as many times, the Missus has "sworn off" things after finding out what the ingredients are, or perhaps how something is made. The longest running "item that shall not pass my lips" was chicken and turkey. Folks have asked for the cause of this. All I have for you is a video of this commercial:
Which somehow traumatized the Missus so much that She refused to eat chicken or turkey (except on vacation). The Missus was very good at keeping Her word as I've noted several times. This, other than the Asian Pear overload (a story for a different day) has been the longest running "I shall not eat"……starting in November of 2009, as I mention here. It only ended a bit over a week ago, though with strict conditions….I do believe turkey is still not welcomed, though.
So, what ended the historic and epic chicken prohibition? It was victory by Binchotan as duly noted in this recent post. It seems that those bincho-tainted wings won Her over….so in essence we've grilled in that manner 5 times over the last two weeks. Always with something interesting; in this case "Kamo", duck breast.
And with chicken wings of course. During one of our sessions, the Missus mentioned how good the wings were, probably among the best She could recall. Instead of showing restraint, I made the mistake of saying that our grilled wings were not as good as Yakyudori's. Thus began the interrogation. All that was missing was the bright light blasting into my face, the water dripping into my eye, and maybe a dentist drill. "Just what makes Yakyudori's wings better!", "Well, it's decent quality wings, second joint only, heavily seasoned with good quality salt, but the main thing is how the wings were skewered." "Well……." Showing no will-power I instantly spilled the beans: "The wings are skewered in such a way to stretch the skin, maximizing surface area. The bones are separated making it easy to pull out without burning your fingers." Yes, such is life in the mmm-yoso household, an entire conversation about stretching chicken wing skin…….what happened to us?
Suddenly, Yakyudori went from a shop the Missus wasn't interested in, to one we just had to go to…..as in the next evening. And of course we had those wings…….
And of course I was right………..it was better than what we made at home.
My gloating was short lived however, as the Missus directed me to Marukai on the way home. You guessed it. To pick up chicken wings.
The next evening, as the Missus prepped Herself for wing surgery, I got the other stuff ready. Lit the binchotan and prepared the shishito peppers, shiitake mushrooms, okra, and some pork "toro"…..
25 minutes had passed and the charcoal was white and hot when the Missus finally finished Her 6 wings. I gotta say, She did a great job.
She basked in the glory of Her wings…..
With a side order of gloating thrown in, "Ha, after 15 years, I finally got a cooking point over you! Fifteen years!"
I gotta admit, these were pretty darn good, and I told Her so. Immediately, the Chinese daughter came out, "hmmm, the bones don't break away as easy as Yakyudori…maybe the skin can be stretched a bit more…."
Remember our drooling "friend" from our previous post? He was back again.
The Missus said he reminds Her of this character from the old series Home Improvement.
As dinner was finishing up, I told the Missus what a good, albeit rather long job She had done. She absently told me, "I don't really remember how I did that……."
She had already moved on, mentioning how much She enjoyed the Tsukune at Yakyudori.
Oh-oh, another obsession coming up?
Stay tuned…….
Yakyudori Ramen and Yakitori
4898 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111