Jingisukan Time...

13th Jan, 2005 - Sapporo is reasonably famous in Japan for it's Jingisukan, which is a variation on Mongolian BBQ.  The metal "hat" or "helmet" is the central part of the dish - along with the lashings of marinated lamb. Of course beer makes a  very suitable accompaniment! Sapporo beer of course. We've come down to a small local Jigisukan... from memory there were only a couple of large tables and about a dozen couple-sized tables. A very small place; and very unpretentious.


Generally Jingisukan starts off by lashing of lard on the heating plate... that's just to get it started. Then you tend to have the marinated lamb on the middle with an assortment of vegetables such as onion, entoki mushrooms etc around the edge, cooking in the juices.

It may not look that appealing on the hot-plate, and you do have to like lamb - but if you can get past those two things it's incredibly yumm-o! It's also very much a communal dish, the whole family helping out to cook... as they are eating. I'm a big fan of this sort of table-cooking. Feels very inclusive.

Here's T-chan's recipe for Jingisukan sauce... first off, you need some... what was that T-chan? A family secret?.... Ok. Looks like you need to ask for her favourite sauce recipe.