Japanese Binchotan" Lump Charcoal

[ChadRex]

Well since I am having the hardest time finding a decent lump in my area, I decided to go for the highest quality one can get in Lump Charcoal.  Japanese Binchotan charcoal


(I had gotten in contact with KomodoKamado on their Sustainable KK Coco Lump and they will drop ship minimum 5 boxes at their Carson Warehouse..  = Promising but expensive)

I know the best lump is the Japanese Binchotan...  and I have looked all over the local Japanese and asian markets in my area, I live near a highly Japanese populated area of Los Angeles, County...  even the Japanese markets ( Marukai, Nijiya, Mistuwa) do not have impressive options.

In my search for Japanese grill shichirin..Anzen Hardware came up and I recalled how nice a place it was.
I bought some knives and japanese pull saws from him years ago.. never even knew about binchotan then..

After talking to my wife, we decided to venture to Anzen Hardware ..Privatly owned  by Nori Takatani "Nori-San"  - located in historic Little Tokyo of Los Angeles
I was able to get Japanese Binchotan charcoal .. :cool:



It is quite expensive, however well worth it, can be used multiple cooks if done correctly. Nori's service alone made it worth the cost. he generously hand picked the best pieces even gave 1/4# extra , the quality is top notch and shipped from Japan.
Nori is the most humble generous business owner,  I called him while fighting my way through LA Traffic  and although he was closing at 5:30p he not only waited for me before closing, he had all the things sitting out ready for me when I arrived. He even blocked off a space right in front of his shop for me to park!!! He knew exactly what I wanted and explained the details of how properly to light binchotan and the best way to preserve it after cooking with it.

The Binchotan I bought is very different than lump, it is harder (actually makes a clinging glass like sound when knocking the pieces together.) I cant wait to see how it burns...

I also picked up a takoyaki griddle,
it was priced higher than what i could get through Amazon, but the service made it well worth supporting small business owners like Nori.

I also looked at Shichirin and Konro  I decided at this time I could use my Weber Smokey Joe and get great results and have a larger capacity/cooking area.

I will fire the grill up tomorrow night and post picks later.. Cant wait!!!!

[mwmac]

Looking forward to seeing some takoyaki pics.  Is the takoyaki pan cast iron or aluminum/teflon coated?

[ChadRex]

Looking forward to seeing some takoyaki pics.  Is the takoyaki pan cast iron or aluminum/teflon coated?

Cast Iron of course, I am seasoning it tonight.  2 hours at 300 degrees

[Ken]

Can't wait to see your pictures of the Japanese Binchotan .....and especially your takoyaki technique and recipe.  I may have to try this someday.

[ChadRex]

Can't wait to see your pictures of the Japanese Binchotan .....and especially your takoyaki technique and recipe.  I may have to try this someday.

The picture above is of the Binchotan I bought I will ake pictures of it fired up when I get the opportunity..

[kendoll]

Brilliant. I have heard nothing but good things about this charcoal. And yes, service like that makes it easier to spend the extra dollars doesnt it!

As for the Takoyaki.....ahhhh. Makes me think of baseball.

Really looking forward to seeing how you go with this.

Ken

[Johnpv]

Japanese Binchotan is really amazing stuff.  We're not that far from the Mitsuwa here in New Jersey, which we found out is actually the largest Japanese market in the US.  They have some Binchotan and the little ceramic table top grills there.  I was surprised how cheap the grills themselves were, but the Binchotan was very expensive, as was to be expected.  It basically came in a small cardboard box, I wish I could remember how many #s it was.  I want to say it was like 1 maybe 2 #s.  If I remember right it ended up being about 10 - 15 bucks for that. 

It is REALLY hard to get going, it takes a lot more than regular lump before it's ready to be cooked on.  Once it gets going though it burns REALLY, REALLY hot.  It made hardly any ash at all too.

One really cool thing about it, after you snuff it out to use it again, it's like all it's done is shrunk back.  It lets you see the rings of the wood, kind of the woods growth pattern if that makes sense.  I thought it was really awesome, I kind of wanted a piece that had been burnt a bit and snuffed to put on my desk at work. 

We used it in the little table top ceramic grills they had to do some yakatori right at the table.  Was a lot of fun to do and everything came out great.   

[ChadRex]

John , Great to hear you have a Mitsuwa near you, yes as you see it is expensive stuff and the stuff Mitsuwa and marukai sell are very close to Japanese Binchotan not quite the same, I believe it is from Myanmar it is produce much the same way and does perform very much like Japanese Binchotan.

It is also nice to know people are doing Japanese style grilling.. The Izakaya ( Yakitori-"sake houses) are what I miss the most from my time living in Japan. 

I love cooking yakitori with my family, what brought me to binchotan was my search for the Shichirin/konroe ceramic table top grills. However, after my   Smokey Joe Mini WSM  project, I decided the Smokey Joe would work quite well as a Yakitori grill. Just stack a couple of  small landscaping bricks on the charcoal grate place the Binchotan or lump in between  and place skewers across works beautifully and gets Hot... One thing about the Japanese Shichirin is they are smaler and more insulated than the Weber Smokey Joe much like the Green Egg grills so the heat really lasts.

I have read Here Summer-time-binchotan-cooking about a  Japanese lady using sand in the bottom of a Weber grill, placed the charcoal grate on top and stacked bricks, this provided  more insulation and slowed the burn preserving the coals & heat longer, combine that with some deliberate fanning and observant diligent skewer handling skills and you have got a great yakitori set-up.

I have bought the one you are referring to. I believe on sale I paid around 12.00 for the box. I was able to light it using a combination of a terracotta Pot on top of the Chimney Starter. I put a Weber paraffin cube in the base of the terracotta pot place some 3 regular Kingsford Briquettes 2,small binchotan inside then loosely laid some larger pieces in, only took about 4 pieces for my cook. I lit the paraffin wax from under the teracota pot hole then placed in the chimney starter. It took longer than briquettes but di ligh tup and boy did it burn.. Hot long with No smoke, some sparking of the smaller peices as they were lit in the chimney but in my Smokey Joe Silver they did well.
I was able to get about 3 hours on those pieces, I cooked basic chicken yakitori, vegetables some shrimp and threw in some foil wrapped Satsuma imo ( Japanese Sweet Potato) the Binchotan was still hot when we were finished cooking so I removed the pieces from the grill and buried in a sand filled metal ash bucket. The lumps were not used much and I can use those pieces to quickly light newer pieces. ( Like charcoal briquettes, previously used ones light quicker)

The  Binchotan i bought last week is Japanese imported White Binchotan, it was higher priced but the quality much better than the boxed stuff I bought at Marukai market.  I will light it up this week for a real test run..