Saitama

Pork on the stick with spicy miso sauce

Yakitori (Yakiton)

People in Higashimurayama city call the charcoal grilled pork on the stick Yakitori(It means literaly grilled chicken) instead of chicken, most commonly they are pork head meat. During the 1950’s, head meat was very cheap because it was not a versatile part of pork, that was why they decided to use head meat, marinated in spicy miso sauce and cooked like a chicken Yakitori. Flavor of spicy miso is a specialty of Higashimatuyama and gained wide popularity. Many restaurants serve Yakitori and you can see it written on their restaurant fronts. There is the Yakitori Union which is the first in the nation and aims to raise quality of this dish.