Image Credit: vkeong
What’s more enjoyable than sitting down and watching your food cooked right in front of you? From a young age, I’ve loved to watch my mum and dad cooking in the kitchen. Now, even when I’m eating out, it’s a great experience to watch your food as the chefs are preparing it. However, not many restaurants have an open kitchen or a see-through kitchen. Great news, as it is customary for teppanyaki outlets to make food right in front of diners and that is where I go for my dose of Chicken Teppanyaki.
Chicken Teppanyaki is my usual go-to Teppanyaki dish as it is simple and not too filling for a single meal. Beef Teppanyaki is an excellent variation of the dish as the depth of flavour and seasoning of the dish is just right. Teppanyaki has the right balance of meat and vegetables and is accompanied by rice. A quick teppanyaki meal is perfect for lunch during a busy workday.
The Origins of Chicken Teppanyaki
Teppanyaki is a unique Japanese cooking style that not only allows customers to watch the food preparation, but it is also grilled on a hot iron plate. This unique cooking method has been around for 200 years. During the1900s, the dish was prepared using small grills in Japanese homes.
The first Teppanyaki store opened in Kobe, Japan, in 1945 during World War II. However, as it began to spread across the globe, this dish became more popular among international communities rather than the local Japanese citizens.
Since it has become a tourist favourite, Teppanyaki dishes has gained its fame and popularity by adding cooking stunts during the preparation. This is seen in most restaurants which include stacking onion slices to create a flaming onion volcano.
All these unique cooking stunts have wowed tourists, thus boosting the tourism industry for the country.
Stunts and Performance
Varieties of stunts are usually performed in Teppanyaki restaurants for their customers. It has impressed numerous people, and this practice has been passed on in all over the world.
A few stunts include flipping the shrimp tail back into the shrimp pocket, catching egg in the hat, throwing the egg in the air and split it with a spatula, flipping flat pieces of shrimps right into customers’ mouths and many more!
What is in the Dish?
Chicken Teppanyaki is rather common in Malaysia’s Japanese restaurants. Plenty of Japanese restaurants serve this as a standalone dish, but some speciality restaurants only serve Teppanyaki dishes. Usually, Chicken Teppanyaki is paired with a variety of vegetables such as onions, lettuces, fried garlic pieces, corns, bell peppers and bean sprouts. Of course, it consists of chicken as well since this is a chicken dish.
Typically, chicken breasts or boneless chicken parts are used for this dish. This is because this part of the chicken cooks faster and is easier to consume. Chicken Teppanyaki’s sauce is made with a mixture of sesame oil, mirin, soy sauce, salt and sugar.
Occasionally, in some restaurants, herbs will be added into the Chicken Teppanyaki dish. Vinegar, dashi, miso, cooking sake, wasabi and other Japanese dipping sauces are used to enhance flavour for this dish as well.
The pairing and the sauce used to prepare Chicken Teppanyaki varies according to the chef and customers’ personal choices.
Where To Find Chicken Teppanyaki
Generally, it is a bit hard to prepare Chicken Teppanyaki at home as it requires specific cooking equipment. If you have a stone pot and flat grill at home, then feel free to try cooking it!
Otherwise, customers typically frequent Japanese restaurants to get this dish. Here are some Japanese restaurant recommendations for Chicken Teppanyaki:
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