We Ate Raw Chicken. There. I Said It.

I think we’ve all been pretty much conditioned that when we cook chicken, it has to be cooked completely through. There are no exceptions to this, unless you’re itching to catch some salmonella poisoning. I’ve gotten so nervous about having to thoroughly cook chicken that it’s practically charred when I’m done. Let’s face it, we love charred chicken here in the Wondernuts household. It’s just so crunchy.

Anyway, raw chicken is basically a no-no. Going through 28 of the 29 years of my life raw-chickenless has been–well, I don’t know what it’s been. Safe? Sanitary? Sautéed? It’s been all of the S-words previously mentioned until we visited Tokyo.

A Japanese friend of ours sent us to Tokyo with a list of her favorite restaurants in the city. With a little excel sheet and the help of Google Translate, we found ourselves in front of Torihan, a yakitori restaurant that only opens for dinner and was tucked away in an alley somewhere two doors over to the left and up to the right (idk, it was confusing).

When we arrived, there were approximately two very well-dressed older guys enjoying some beer and some chicken. The owner saw us and immediately and adamantly mentioned in very broken English: “This is… yakitori set menu.” We responded with a “yes.”

Quaint little interior.

“No substitutions!” he said. Mildly confused, we took our seats. The two businessmen laughed a little.

There were fifteen delicious courses on the fixed menu. From the classic chicken meatballs on a stick to a simple chicken broth, it was always a surprise when a new dish came out. As you already know, anything served on a stick is the most amazing food on the planet. Who doesn’t love portable food.

Quail eggs on a stick… Yum.

Chicken breast with green onion on a stick… Nom nom nom.

Shiitake mushroom, chicken skin, and chicken thighs… I am going to be dreaming about food tonight!

Salad soup food on a stick egg chicken skin on a stick. more chicken on a stick. some chicken with onion. shiitake on a stick. mmmm…. so good. quail egg fan favorite: chicken meatball.

Now, for the moment you’ve been waiting for: the moment we ate raw chicken. There’s always that moment when a traveler is faced with eating something they’re not quite used to. We eat all kinds of different meat, some of them cooked, some of them seared, some of them raw. But, raw chicken? As mentioned before, that’s definitely a no. We tried a small bowl of raw marble-sized chicken with seaweed and a touch of soy sauce and wasabi.

raw chicken: quite tasty.

Piece by piece, we ate the whole thing. And you know what? It wasn’t bad at all. The chicken was soft, tender and a bit like eating toro, except less buttery. In fact, it lacked any discernible flavor, unless you can consider “fresh” to be a flavor.

I stole a quick glance over to the two Japanese businessmen who were now openly smirking as we apprehensively ate the chicken. I’m just glad we could show them a good time. All 15 courses of it.

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